Poetry Terms

• Prose


  everyday; "normal" language
• Verse


  poetic language
• Stanza


  a grouped set of lines within a poem, usually separated from other stanzas with a blank line or indentation
• Couplet


  2 lines per stanza
• Quatrain


  4 lines per stanza
• Perfect Rhyme


  rhyme in which different consonants are followed by identical vowel and consonant sounds (ex. spring and fling)
• Internal Rhyme


  rhyme of one or more words within a line
• Slant Rhyme


  imperfect rhyme
• End Rhyme


  rhyme of one or more words at the end of a line
• Rhyme Scheme


  the pattern of end rhymes in a poem; labeled with letters indicating which line rhymes
• Prosody


  the study and the actual use of meters and forms of versification
• Allusion


  a direct or indirect reference to a piece of literature of history
• Anaphora


  the repetition of a word or group of words in the beginning of successive clauses or lines of poetry
• Apostrophe


  a figure of speech in which a writer/speaker detaches himself from reality and addresses an imaginary/absent person or an object in his speech
• Caesura


  a pause within a line of poetry, as created by a piece of punctuation
• Diction


  word choice
• Connotation


  what a word suggests beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones of meaning
• Denotation


  basic or dictionary definition of a word
• Enjambment


  in verse, the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza
• Extended Metaphor 


  a metaphor or simile that sustains comparisons for several lines or for the entire poem
• Figurative Language


  a way of expression that does not use a word's strict or realistic meaning; words and phrases are used in a non-literal way for particular effect
• Hyperbole


  an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally; evokes strong feelings
• Metaphor


  a direct comparison (ex. my hands were icicles because of the cold)
• Personification


  the attribution of human characteristics to an inanimate object (ex. the flowers danced in the field)
• Simile


  a comparison using "like" or "as" (ex. my hands were like icicles because of the cold)
• Zoomorphism


  the process of imposing animal attributes upon non-animal objects, humans, concepts, and events
• Formal Verse


  poetry that follows "rules" regarding stanza length and meter or rhyme patterns (also known as metrical verse)
• Imagery


  vivid language that appeals to the senses
• Inverted Syntax


  lines or sentences that do not follow traditional sentence patterns (ex. powerful you have become)
• Mood


  how the reader should feel upon reading a text
• Pun


  a play on words that sound alike but have different meanings (ex. the men in the ambulance are a pair of medics... "paramedics")
• Refrain


  a repeated word, phrase, line or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem especially at the end of a stanza
• Repetition


  the use of an element of language more than once, generally used to draw attention to the repeated words
• Tone


  the speaker's or narrator's attitude towards the subject
• Epic 


  a long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic or historical significance (ex. The Odyssey)
• Narrative


  a poem that tells a story about anything