Poetry Terms

alliteration
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Terms in this set (22)
alliteration
repetition of initial consonant sounds in words:
"How many loved your moments of glad grace." -W.B. Yeats
allusion
a literary reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event
assonance
repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants:
"Blind eyes could blaze like meteors" -Dylan Thomas
blank verse
an unrhymed form of poetry. Each line normally consists of 10 syllables in which every other syllable is stressed.
end rhyme
the rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry
free verse
poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme
hyperbole
an exaggeration or overstatement:
"I have seen this river so wide it had only one bank." -Mark Twain
imagery
the use of words to create a certain picture in the reader's mind. Imagery is usually based on sensory details: "The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy." -Charles Dickens
internal rhyme
occurs when the rhyming words appear in the same line of poetry: "You break my eyes with a look that buys sweet cake."
metaphor
a comparison of two unlike things in which no word of comparison is used: "A green plant is a machine that runs on solar energy."
meterregular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables giving a line of poetry its patternmoodis the feeling a text arouses in the reader: happiness, peacefulness, sadness, and so ononomatopoeiathe use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning, as in clang, buzz, and twangpersonificationa literary device in which the author speaks of or describes an animal, object, or idea as if it were a person: "The rock stubbornly refused to move."refrainthe repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, especially at the end of each stanzarepetitionthe repetition of a word, a phrase, or an idea for emphasis or for rhythmic effect: "someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door..." -Edgar Allan Poerhymeis the similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words. Sat and cat are perfect examples of rhymes because the vowel and final consonant sounds are exactly the samerhyme schemethe pattern of end rhymes designated by letterssimileis a comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as: "She stood in front of the altar, shaking like a freshly caught trout." -Maya Angelousonneta poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameterstanzaa group of lines forming a unit Couplet: two-line stanza stanza Quatrain: four-line stanza Quintet: five-line stanza Sestet: six-line stanza Triplet: three-line Septet: seven-line stanza Octave: eight-line stanza Quintet: five-line stanzatoneis the overall feeling, or effect, created by a writer's use of words. This feeling may be serious, humorous, or satiric.