Poetic Expressions: Unveiling the Art of Language in Poetry

1. Poetry Terms

2. Alliteration • The repetition of two or more consonant sounds in successive words in a sentence • Example: Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.

3. Allusion • A brief (and sometimes indirect) reference in a text to a person, place, or thing – fictitious or actual

4. Assonance • The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rhyme • May be internal (white lilacs) or initial (awful auguries)

5. Ballad • A song that tells a story

6. Blank Verse • Different from free verse!! • Unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter spoken by upper class

7. Concrete Poem • Written in the shape that suggests its subject or title • Example: a Tree

8. Couplet • A pair of rhyming lines with the same meter • A two-line stanza

9. End Rhyme • Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines, rather than within them

10. Enjambment • The running over of one sentence or thought from one line to the next

11. Free Verse • Poetry that is free from fixed meter and rhyme, but that uses rhythm and other devices

12. Haiku • A Japanese verse form that has three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables

13. Hyperbole • An extreme exaggeration • Example: I am so hungry I could eat a house!

14. Imagery • A collective set of images in a poem or other literary work- deals with pictures and the sense of sight

15. Internal Rhyme • Rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry • Example: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

16. Limerick • A humorous, rhyming, 5-line poem with a specific meter and rhyme scheme.

17. Lyric • A short verse that is intended to express the emotions of the author • quite often these lyrics are set to music

18. Metaphor • A figure of speech that involves an implied comparison between two different things • A comparison that does NOT use like or as! • Example: She is a rose blooming in spring.

19. Meter • The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem

20. Mood • The feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader

21. Onomatopoeia • A word or words used in such a way that the sound imitates the sound of the thing described • Examples: Crash, Boom, Bang, Pitter-Patter, Drip

22. Oxymoron • A combination of contradicting words • Example: Jumbo Shrimp or Plastic Silverware

23. Personification • Giving an inanimate object human characteristics • Example: The book speaks volumes to me.

24. Quatrain • A stanza consisting of four lines

25. Refrain • A word, phrase, line or stanza repeated at intervals in a song or poem

26. Repetition • A poetic device in which a sound, word, or phrase is repeated for emphasis or effect

27. Rhyme • The exact repetition of sounds

28. Rhyme Scheme • The pattern of end rhyme • Indicated by letters ABBA/CDDC

29. Rhythm • The arrangement of stressed and unstressed sounds

30. Simile • A comparison that uses like or as • Example: She is as pretty as a rose.

31. Sonnet • A fourteen line poem of three stanzas (four lines each) and one couplet

32. Stanza • A group of lines considered to be a unit • Separated by a space

33. Symbol • A person, place, thing or event used to represent something else • Example: a dove is a sign of peace

34. Theme • A recurring subject or idea in a literary work

35. Tone • The author’s attitude toward the subject of the literary work