1. POETRY TERMS
Cornell Notes

2. STANZA Poem’s “paragraph”
A group of consecutive lines that form a single unit

3. RHYME End rhyme: similar sounds at the end of lines
Internal rhyme: similar sounds within a line
Ex: The cat in the hat went to the lake And then it decided to bake a cake
Rhyme Scheme: the pattern of rhymes at the end of lines in a poem
Half Rhyme: end rhyme, where the final sound is somewhat similar rather than identical half rhyme
Ex: mine – life

4. RHYTHM A recurring combination of stressed and unstressed syllables
Beat of the poem; poem’s meter
Iambic Pentameter: five iambic (unstressed, stressed) pairs of syllables per line of poetry
I said to my baby,
Baby take it slow…
Lulu said to Leonard
I want a diamond ring.
- “Same in Blues” by Langston Hughes

5. FIGURES OF SPEECH Simile: a comparison using “like” or “as”
Metaphor: a direct comparison
Personification: assigning human qualities to non-human things
Hyperbole: an exaggeration

6. Extended Metaphor

7. POETIC DEVICES
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that are close together
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in words close together (as in internal rhyme)
Onomatopoeia: words that sound what they mean

8. POETRY TYPES Free Verse: poetry without rhyme or rhythm
Blank Verse: poetry without rhyme but WITH rhythm
Narrative Poetry: poetry that tells a story
Lyric Poetry: poetry that expresses a lot of feeling rather than tells a story
Shape (concrete) Poetry: poetry, where words are shaped in the form of the poem’s subject or object
Couplet: two lines of verse with rhyme and rhythm

10. POETRY TYPES Elegy: a poem in memory of someone dead
Epitaph: a poetic inscription on a tombstone
Sonnet: a poem of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with a strict rhyme scheme
Haiku: ancient Japanese form of poetry with no rhythm. It has 3 unrhymed lines: 1st & 3rd lines have 5 syllables; 2nd line has 7 syllables
Limerick: a whimsical poem of 5 lines with a rhyme scheme of AABBA
Acrostic: a poem, in which the first letter of each line spells out a word or message

12. LANGUAGE DEVICES
Pun: words with a hidden double meaning; “play on words”
Idiom: an expression with a meaning separate from the meanings of individual words; needs to be defined as a whole
Oxymoron: a combination of contradictory terms
Imagery: descriptive language that appeals to the five senses (smell, touch, sight, taste, and hearing)