| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Stanza | A division of a poem consisting of a series of lines often times with a reoccurring pattern or rhyme. |
| Figurative Language | Non-literal speech used to achieve a special effect. |
| Symbol | Something that is itself and something else. |
| Metonymy | When an object/person is referred to by another object that is closely associated with it. |
| Analogy | Any resemblance (similarity) between otherwise unlike objects. |
| Metaphor | When a word or phrase is compared to something it does not literally resemble in order to emphasize particular qualities. |
| Simile | A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds often using like or as. |
| Personification | A figure of speech where animals, ideas, or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. |
| Pun | A play on words. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration not meant to be taken literally. |
| Alliteration | A type of rhyme where first sounds are repeated in successive words. |
| Assonance | A type of rhyme where vowel sounds are repeated. |
| Consonance | A repetition of consonant sounds within words. |
| Onomatopoeia | A word meaning how it sounds. |
| Enjambment | When a line of poetry continues to the next line without punctuation. |
| Elision | The leaving out of an unstressed syllable or vowel, usually in order to keep a regular meter in a line of poetry. |
| Caesura | A pause within a line of poetry. |
| Couplet | A stanza of two lines which usually rhyme. |
| Tercet | Three lines of poetry forming a stanza or a complete poem. |
| Quatrain | A four-line stanza or a complete poem. |
| Epic | A long, narrative poem on a great and serious subject. |
| Dramatic | A poem written in the voice of a character assumed by the poet. |
| Lyric | Originally a song performed in ancient Greece to the accompaniment of a lyre. A term now used for any fairly short poem in the voice of a single speaker. |
| Elegy | A lament for the dead or a meditation on the thoughts that death arouses. |
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