Poetry terms

• Alliteration: A series of words or sentences that begin with the same letter/combinations
• Assonance: the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds of words/phrases
• cacophony: the use of harsh, unpleasant, or a mixture of discordant sounds
• consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds, typically within or at the end of words.
• dissonance: the use of harsh, jarring sounds, more intentional than cacophony and relates to the feel of individual words.
• euphony: the use of pleasant and agreeable sounds with soft sounds
• Internal rhyme: when a word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line
• Imperfect rhyme: when the words at the end of the poetic line do not phonetically accord. Only has a partial matching of sounds
• Onomatopoeia: the process of forming a word that mimics the sound of the actual thing. (Ex. Vroom, meow, ring)
• Repetition: when a certain word, sentence, or phase is written more than once. (Ex. refrains)
• Allusion: an implied or direct reference to a famous person, place, event, or literary work.
• apostrophe: when the speaker addresses a person, thing, or concept not physically present or able to respond
• situational irony: where the opposite of what is expected happens.
• verbal (rhetorical) irony: when what is said is different than what is meant.
• dramatic irony: where the reader/audience knows something that the characters do not.
• hyperbole: exaggerated comparisions/overstatements for greater effect.
• litotes: a form of irony where an understatement is used to emphasize a point by using negation to affirm a positive. (ex. she is not ugly = she is pretty)
• metaphor and extended metaphor: compares two things by stating that one thing is the other. Extended metaphors go on for multiple sentences/paragraphs
• metonymy: when the name of a person/place/thing/idea is referred to something closely related to it (ex. the pen is mightier than the sword)
• Oxymoron: placing two opposite words together
• paradox: a self-contradictory statement
• personification: human qualities are given to non-human entities or objects.
• pun: a joke about words that sound alike but they have different meanings
• rhetorical question: a question that does not require an answer
• similie: comparison of two things using “like” or “as”.
• symbol: when a person, place, things, or event represents something else
• synecdoche: when a part of something is used to represent the whole thing.
• anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases
• antithesis: a literary device that positions opposite ideas parallel to each other (ex. hope for the best, prepare for the worst)
• blank verse: poetry that does not rhyme, but follows a regular meter.
• chiasmus: where words, grammatical structures, or concepts are repeated in reverse order (ex. fair is foul, and foul is fair)
• caesura: a brief pause of break within a line of poetry or prose. (ex. to be, or not to be - that is the question)
• Contrast: used to emphaize the differences between two people, places, or things.
• Couplet: a unit of poetry containing two lines of verse that form a singular thought/idea
• Cyclical or circular structure: when the story begins in one place and circles back at the end.
• End-stopped line: a complete thought or phrase appears on a single line followed by punctuation.
• enjambment: the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line to the next.
• Epistrophe: the reptition of the word or phrase at the end of multiple successive clauses/sentences
• Free verse: poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme
• Juxtaposition: when contrasting elements are put next to each other.