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alliteration

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the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words

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allusion

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a reference in a work of literature to a historical or literary event, person, place or passage outside of the work

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antithesis

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a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in "Man proposes; God disposes." Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.

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apostrophe

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a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present

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assonance

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the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

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ballad meter

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a four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four

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blank verse

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unrhymed iambic pentameter

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cacophony

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a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones.

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caesura

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a pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause

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conceit

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an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things.

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consonance

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the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words

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couplet

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a two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same

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devices of sound

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the techniques of deploying the sound of words

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diction

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choice of words especially with regard to correctness, formality, clearness, or effectiveness

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didactic poem

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a poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson

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dramatic poem

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a poem which employs a dramatic form or some element or elements of dramatic techniques as a means of achieveing poetic ends

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elegy

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a sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or another solemn theme

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end-stopped

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a line with a pause at the end

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enjambment

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the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next

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extended metaphor

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an implied analogy, or comparison, which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem.

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euphony

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a style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate.

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eye rhyme

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rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation

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feminine rhyme

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a rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed, as "waken" and "forsaken" and "audition" and "rendition"

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figurative language

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writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language) such as metaphor, irony, and simile. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

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free verse

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

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heroic couplet

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two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit

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hyperbole

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a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration

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imagery

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the images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work.

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irony

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the contrast between actual meaning and the suggestion of another meaning, or between what might be expected and what actually occurs

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internal rhyme

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rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end

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lyric poem

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any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings

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masculine rhyme

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rhyme that falls on the stressed and concluding syllables of the rhyme-words

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metaphor

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a figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term

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meter

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the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. each unit is known as a foot

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metonymy

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a figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself

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mixed metaphors

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the mingling of another metaphor with another immediately following with which the first is incongruous

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narrative poem

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a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short

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octave

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an eight-line stanza

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onomatopoeia

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the use of words whose sound suggests their meaning (such as "hiss," "buzz," or "zip")

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oxymoron

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a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression

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paradox

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a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense.

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parallelism

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any structure which brings together parallel elements, be these nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, or larger structures to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance.

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paraphrase

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a restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form

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personification

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a kind of metaphor that give inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics

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poetic foot

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

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pun

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a play on words that are identical or similar in sounds but have sharply diverse meanings

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quatrain

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a four-line stanza with any combination of rhymes

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refrain

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a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza

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rhyme

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close similarity or identity between accented syllables occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse

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rhyme royal

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a seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymes ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets

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rhythm

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the recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables

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sarcasm

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a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it. Its purpose is to injure or to hurt.

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satire

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writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule

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scansion

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a system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and the type(s) of feet per line

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sestet

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a six-line stanza

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simile

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a directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than."

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sonnet

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normally a fourtenn-line iambic pentameter poem

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stanza

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usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme

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rhetorical strategy

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the management of language for a specific effect

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structure

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the arrangement of materials within a work; the relationships of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work

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style

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the mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expressions of an author

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symbol

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something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else

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synecdoche

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a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole

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syntax

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the order of and arrangement of words in a sentence; a sentence's grammatical structure, length, and type.

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tercet

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a stanza of three lines in which each line ends with the same rhyme

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terza rhyme

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a three-line stanza rhymes aba, bcb, cdc, etc.

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theme

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the main though expressed by a work

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tone

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the manner in which an author expressed his or her attitude

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understatement

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the opposite of hyperbole; represents something less than it really is

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villanelle

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a nineteen-line poem divided into five tercets and a final quatrain

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