English

• alliteration


  the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words such as ''rough and ready''
• antithesis 


  an opposition, or contrast, of ideas
• assonance


  the repetition of vowel sounds without the repetition of consonants
• Ballad


  a poem in verse that tells a story
• blank verse


  an unrhymed form of poetry that normally consists of ten syllables in which every other syllable, beginnig with the second, is stressed. since blank verse is often used in very long poems, it may depart from the strict pattern from time to time
• Caesura


  a pause or sudden break in a line of poetry
• consonance


  the repetition of constant sounds. although it is similar to alliteration, consonance is not limited to the first letters of words
• end rhyme


  the rhyming of words that appear at the end of two or more lines of poetry
• enjambment


  the running over a sentence or thought from one line of poetry to another
• foot


  the smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line
• free verse


  poetry that does not have a regular meter rhyme scheme
• haiku


  a form of Japanese poetry that has three lines; the first line has five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and third has five syllables. the subject of the Haiku has traditionally been nature
• Heroic couplet (closed couplet): 


  two successful rhyming lines that contain a complete thought
• hyperbole


  an exaggeration or overstatement
• lamb

  an unstressed followed by stressed syllable
• imagery


  the words or phrases a writer selects to create a certain picture in the reader's mind
• internal rhyme

  when the rhyming words occur in the same line of poetry
• Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet:

  has two parts; an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines) usually rhyming abbaabba, cdecde. often a question is raised in the octave that is answered in the sestet.
• lyric


  a short verse that is intended to express the emotions of the author; quite often these lyrics are set to music
• metaphor


  a comparison of two unlike things in which no words of comparison (like or as) is used
• meter


  the pattern of repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
• octave


  an eight-line stanza
• onomatopoeia


  the use of word whose sound suggests its meaning. Example clang, buzz, twang
• pentameter


  five feet
• personification 


  a literary device in which the author speaks of or describes an animal, object, or idea, as if it were a person
• quatrain


  a four line stanza
• refrain


  the repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, especially at the end of each stanza. A song's refrain may be called the chorus
• repetition


  the repeating of a word or phrase within a poem or a prose piece to create a sense of rhyme
• rhyme


  the similiarity or likeness of sound existing between two sounds
• rhyme


  the ordered, or free occurrences of sound in poetry
• sestet

  a six line stanza
• Shakespearean (english or elisabeth)sonnet


  consists of three quatrains (four lines) and a final rhyming couplet (two lines). the rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. usually the question or theme is set forth in the quatrains while the answer or resolution appears in the final couplet.
• simile


  a comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (like or as) is used
• sonnet


  A poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter
• stanza


  a division of a poetry named for the number of lines it contains
• symbol

  a person, a place, a thing, or an event used to represent something else
• verse


  a metric line of poetry. It is named according to the kind and numbr of feet composing it