1. Figurative Language Devices & Related terms
Poetry-Specific

2. Two or more words which match in the same last sound
Rhyme
Two or more words which match in the same last sound
Example: If mrs. Bowling’s life gets any crazier,
Her vision will progressively get hazier

3. Rhythm A repetitive beat or meter within a poem
Nursery rhymes often have rhythm
Some contemporary poets intentionally avoid sing-song style rhythm because it is often viewed as juvenile for this reason

4. Internal rhyme
Words inside the line of a poem rhyme with the ending sounds of the same rhyme
Last stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s, “Annabel Lee”
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea.

5. Caesura
Walking Wounded (By Vernon Scannell)
The mud and leaves in the mauled lane smelled sweet, || like blood. || Birds had died or flown… Their heads were weighted down by last night’s lead And eyes still drank the dark. || They trail the night Along the morning road. || Some limped on sticks;
a break between words within a metrical foot, usually noted by a dash or a “double pipe” sign

6. Enjambment
where a sentence continues beyond the end of the line or verse. This technique is often used to maintain a sense of continuation from one stanza to another.

7. Stanza
a paragraph in a poem, surrounded above or below by skipped lines.

8. Syllable
A unit of spoken language
Example (Clap it out)

9. Blank Verse
an un-rhymed iambic pentameter verse (each line having 10 syllables)

10. No predictable rhythm or rhyme
Free Verse
No predictable rhythm or rhyme

11. Sensory Imagery
Pictures drawn in the reader’s mind by the words of the poet

12. Meter
An arranged pattern of rhythm in a line of verse. A recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress. Compositions written in meter are said to be in verse. There are many possible patterns of verse

13. Foot
Each unit of stressed and unstressed syllables

14. Iambic Pentameter
a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable
Most common in the English language

15. Sonnet
A 14 line poem, with each line containing 10 syllables each

16. English Sonnet/Elizabethan Sonnet/Shakespearean Sonnet
Contains three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet
Rhyme Scheme of (abab cdcd efef gg)

17. Italian Sonnet
consists of eight lines called an octave which consists of two quatrains (4 lines each) opens the poem as a two-line question, followed by six lines (sestet) that are the answer

18. Couplet Two lines of poetry with ending rhyme
Often at the end of poems

19. Quatrain
A verse of poetry consisting of four lines

20. Octave
A verse of poetry consisting of eight lines

21. Ode
a lyric poem, which often praises people, natural scenes, abstract concepts (love, etc.) or the arts: music or poetry