- Alliteration: A way of connecting words by repeating the same sound or sounds at the beginning of two or more words.
- Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds.
- Diction: Choice of words used by an author to make his/her ideas clear, concise.
- Extended Metaphor: A metaphor which runs for several lines or through an entire poem.
- Iamb: A foot of poetry which has one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable.
- Internal Rhyme: When a rhyme or words is found within a poem.
- Metaphor: A statement of comparison which connects objects or ideas by saying that one thing is another.
- Onomatopoeia: When a word echoes or mirrors the sound it makes. Ex: “buzz”, “roar”
- Personification: Giving human qualities to non-human things.
- Refrain: A line or part of a line that comes back in the same or very similar form several times in a poem
- Rhyme: Poets use this to make the endings of two or more lines of poetry sound alike.
- Rhyme Scheme: An established pattern of rhyme in a poem. Ex: a b b a c c
- Rhythm: The choice of words that the poet uses.
- Simile: A statement of comparison, using the words “like” or “as” to connect objects or ideas to the thing being compared.
- Sonnet: A traditional poem of fourteen lines that follow an intricate rhyme scheme.
- Structure: The arrangement of words and lines to create a sequential pattern of images and/or symbols that achieve a particular effect.
- Symbol: When an object, animal, person, or idea represents something other than itself.
- Theme: The main idea of a poem, short story, or novel.
- Tone: The feeling or mood that the poem gives.
- Trochee: One accented syllable followed by one unaccented.