- alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words
- ballad: a poem in verse that tells a story
- blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
- connotation: the attitudes and feelings associated with a word
- couplet: two lines of verse that rhyme a-a
- denotation: the literal or dictionary definition of a word
- diction: the author's choice of words
- elegy: a poem that states a poet's sadness about the death of an important person
- figurative language: language that communicates beyond the literal meaning of the words
- found poem: a poem that has not been deliberately composed but discovered, by chance, in some other context
- free verse: poetry free of any restrictions; poetry not tied to a particular pattern
- haiku: a Japanese form of poetry using natural imagery to convey a sense of mystery
- heroic couplet: two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within two lines and usually consists of iambic pentameter
- hyperbole: using extreme exaggeration to make a point
- imagery: concrete details which appeal to the senses so that we can see or sense what is being written about
- limerick: a humorous verse of five lines
- lyric poem: a short poem that expresses emotional feelings
- metaphor: comparing two things without using "like" or "as"
- meter: the recurrence of a rhythmic pattern in poetry
- narrative poem: a poem that tells a story
- ode: a poem of high seriousness written on a variety of topics
- onomatopoeia: the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning
- personification: giving an animal or inanimate object human qualities or emotions
- quatrain: four rhymed lines that can take various forms
- refrain: the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in a poem
- rhyme scheme: the pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza
- rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
- simile: comparing two things using "like" or "as"
- sonnet: a 14 line poem stating the poet's personal feelings
- stanza: a division of a poem based on thought or form
- verse: a unit of poetry such as a stanza or a line
- visual poetry: poetry that depends for its effects largely upon the layout of the words on the page