Literary Terms Poetry
Lyric Poem A short poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Can be put to music.
Dramatic Poem A poem which brings about strong emotion. Characters are revealed through dialogue and monologue.
Narrative Poem Any writing that tells a story.
Stanza A group of lines that forms a unit in a poem.
Blank Verse An unrhymed poetry written with an alternating pattern of five unstressed and stressed syllables per line.
Free Verse Poetry without regular patterns of rhyme or meter. It often sounds like everyday conversation when read.
Archaic Language Language that is old-fashioned and out-of-date.
Rhythm The pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry. Brings about the musical quality. EX. “Hopscotch”
Rhyme The repetition of accented vowel sounds in words that are close together. End rhyme comes at the end of a line.
Internal Rhyme The use of rhyming words within the same line of poetry, or lines that are close together.
Refrain (Chorus) A word, line, or group of lines that is repeated regularly in a poem or song. EX. And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.
Alliteration The repetition of beginning consonant sounds. It is used to emphasize words, to reinforce meaning, and add sound effects.
Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds within two or more words that are close together.
Consonance The repetition of final consonant sounds; helps to unify poetry and prose while also providing interesting sound patterns.
Onomatopoeia The use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning. (hiss, buzz) Ex. Whoosh, zip, zing, pop
Parallelism A technique by which a writer expresses ideas of equal importance in phrases or sentences that are worded in similar ways.
Connotations Emotional overtones attached to words. Meanings associated with a word other than dictionary meaning. Can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Contrast A technique used to show how two or more things are different.
Figurative Language Language that conveys ideas beyond the literal, or ordinary, meaning. Figure of speech.
Metaphor A figure of speech that compares two unlike things that have something in common. It makes a description more interesting.
Simile a comparison between two unlike objects using key words; such as: like, as, resemble, than. Ex. Quick as a cat. Hot as a firecracker.
Personification Giving qualities of a human being to an object, animal, or idea. Ex. He gives his harness bells a shake to ask if there is some mistake.
Hyperbole A figure of speech in which an exaggeration is made for emphasis or humorous effect.
Oxymoron Combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phase. Ex. Wolfish lamb, idiot savant, wise fool, love hate relationship
Imagery Details that appeal to a reader’s senses, often in a startling way. Usually these details are visual ones.
Mood The feeling created by the writer in a literary work. Events, descriptive details, and setting all contribute to mood.
Sonnet A poem consisting of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter.
Caesura A strong grammatical pause within a line of poetry.
Couplet Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.
Ode An elaborate lyric poem using elevated, dignified language and an imaginative, intellectual tone.
End- Stopped Lines Lines of poetry that conclude with strong marks of punctuation.
Dramatic Monologue A lyric poem featuring one-sided conversation in a dramatic setting, providing insight into the speaker’s character.
Carpe Diem Latin for “seize the day”, a common poetic theme stressing the fleeting nature of youth and beauty.
Symbolism In literature, an object, person, situation, or action that, in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well.
Irony A situation, or use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy: a difference between what is said and what is meant, what a character thinks and what the reader know to be true, appearance and reality, expectation and fulfillment.
Run-on Lines Lines of poetry in which the grammatical sense flows on past the end of one line into the next line.
Off-Rhyme or Slant Rhyme An inexact or imperfect rhyme, usually used for intentional emphasis.