Poetry Terms

Mrs. Denise Stanley

alliteration

Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words

Example: ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers …’

assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of words

rhyme

Repetition of sounds at the ends of words

Example: cat, mat, fat, hat, etc.

denotation

Dictionary meaning of a word

Example: ‘house’ and ‘home’ could both be defined as a place to live

‘Thin’ and ‘skinny’ both mean not overweight

connotation

Feelings associated with a word

Example: ‘House’ and ‘home’ are defined as a place to live, but ‘home’ seems more comforting than ‘house.’

‘Skinny’ is not as positive sounding as ‘thin.’ ‘Thin’ seems more attractive.

metaphor

Makes a direct comparison between unlike objects

Example: “He is a monster.” You are not saying he is like a monster or that he looks like a monster, you are saying he and the monster are one in the same.

simile

Comparison of unlike objects using ‘like’ or ‘as.’

Example: “She is as pretty as a picture.” You are not saying she and the picture are one in the same.

“Clouds like cotton candy floated across the sky.” -- You are not saying the clouds are cotton candy; you are saying they are like cotton candy.

onomatopoeia

Use of words to imitate sounds

Example: animal sounds like ‘moo,’ ‘hiss,’ ‘meow,’ etc.

personification

Giving something not human, human characteristics

Examples: Arms of a chair; legs of a chair; face of a clock

Further example: “The sun raced across the sky.” (The sun is not human, so it cannot literally race.)

stanzas

Groups of lines in a poem, considered as a unit – lines separated by white spaces

meter

Regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

Iambic pentameter

Line of poetry that contains five iambs. (An iamb is a metrical foot – or unit of measure – that has one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.)

Lines of poetry

2 lines = couplet 3 lines = tercet 4 lines = quatrain 5 lines = cinquain 6 lines = sestet 7 lines = septet 8 lines = octave

free verse

Poetry that does not have a pattern or a rhyme scheme

blank verse

Unrhymed poetry in a regular pattern

sonnets

Poems with 14 lines with a definite rhyme scheme

narrative poetry

Poem that tells a story

ballad

Narrative poem that was originally meant to be sung

ode

Poem with a single purpose, dealing with a single theme

elegy

Poem about death or other solemn theme

epic poem

Long, narrative poem

concrete poem

Poem written in the shape of its subject

lyric poetry

Highly musical verse that expresses observations and/or feelings of a single speaker

refrain

The “chorus” of a poem (Like the “chorus” in a song … song lyrics)

tanka

Five-line poem thirty-one syllables long

1st line: 5 syllables 2nd line: 7 syllables 3rd line: 5 syllables 4th line: 7 syllables 5th line: 7 syllables