Poetry Terms

A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words

A figure of speech in which someone/something is directly addressed as though present

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

Unrhymed iambic pentameter (meter of most Shakespeare plays)

a harsh, unpleasant combination of tones

A pause, usually near the middle of a line or verse, often indicated by the sense of the line

An ingenious notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy and pointing to a parallel between two virtually dissimilar things

The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words

A two-line stanza, usually rhymes

The techniques of deploying the sound of words

The choice of words

A poem which is primarily intended to teach a lesson (subjective)

A poem which uses dramatic techniques as a means to achieve poetic ends

A formal poem expressing a solemn theme such as death

A line with punctuation at the end

The continuation of the sense and grammatical structure from one line to the next

An implied analogy or comparison which is carried throughout an entire stanza or poem

A style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate

A rhyme that appears correct from the spelling but is only slant rhyme from the pronunciation

A rhyme of two syllables: one stressed and one unstressed, double rhyme

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical

A rhyme that occurs within the line rather than at the end

A short poem in which a single speaker expresses thoughts and feelings

The repetition of a rhythmic unit in a line, emphasizes musical quality of the language and often relates to the poem’s subject matter

A non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative

An eight-line stanza

A situation, action, or feeling which seems contradictory but turns out to be true

A similar grammatical structure within a line or lines

A group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables associated with it

A four-line stanza

A phrase of one or more lines repeated at intervals throughout the poem

The recurrence of unstressed syllables

A six-line stanza, second division of an Italian sonnet

A fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem

The ordering of words into patterns or sentences

A three-line stanza where each line rhymes