Poetry Terms - K Say

Meter

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a line of poetry a predictable rhythm

Assonance

Also called vowel rhyme. Prosody. rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words, as in penitent and reticence.

Rhythm

The pattern of beats created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, especially in poetry. Rhythm gives poetry a musical quality that helps convey its meaning. Rhythm can be regular, with a predictable pattern or meter, or irregular.

Line break

The point at which two lines of text are split; the end of a line.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of nonrhyming words or syllables in neighboring words, as in "towering,trembling pine trees." Alliteration gives emphasis to words and is commonly used in poetry. Alliteration may occur with vowel sounds as well.

Rhyme

The repetition of similar or identical sounds at the ends of words that appear close to each other, usually in a poem. End rhyme occurs within a single line. Slant rhyme occurs when words include sounds that are similar but not identical (jackal and buckle). Slant rhyme usually involves some variation of consonance (the repetition of consonant sounds) or assonance (the repetition of vowels sounds).

Onomatopoeian

The use of a word or a phrase that imitates or suggest the sound of what it describes. Some examples are mew,hiss,crack,swish,murmur,and buzz

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in "A mighty fortress is our God." Compare mixed metaphor, simile.

Simile

a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in "she is like a rose.". Compare metaphor.

Extended metaphor

a metaphor introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work, especially a poem: Robert Frost uses two roads as an extended metaphor in "The Road Not Taken."

Refrain

a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; chorus.

Stanza

an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem.

Hyperbole

an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as "to wait an eternity.".

Repetition

the act of repeating, or doing, saying, or writing something again; repeated action, performance, production, or presentation.

Personification

the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.

Imagery

the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively.

Rhyme scheme

the pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually marked by letters to symbolize correspondences, as rhyme royal, ababbcc.

Consonance

the use of the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns as a rhyming device.