1. Literary Devices
Poetry Unit:

2. Prose
Definition: spoken or written language that is not cast in poetical measure or rhythm
Example: Any poem that does not rhyme.

3. Memoir
Definition: An autobiographical account of a personal experience recalled from memory, usually written in an informal style; differs from autobiography in scope.
Example: Six word memoirs

4. Biography
Definition: An account of a person’s life written, composed, or produced by another person.
Example:

5. Autobiography
Definition: An account of a person’s life written, composed, or produced by that same person.
Example:

6. Structure
Definition: The organizational pattern of a text; structure may be apparent in either content or form or both.
Example: abba / abab / or repeition

7. Poetry
Definition: A genre of literature in which individual works are generally recognizable in terms of form and/or structure and figurative use of language
Example:

8. Diction
Definition: Precise word choice; selection of words for specific denotative, connotative, or figurative purposes
Example: High Diction with teacher / Lower diction with friends

9. Imagery
Definition: Vivid or figurative language used to represent those things that can be perceived by the five senses: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures
Example: The sun is red, red joy.

10. Symbolism
Definition: The practice of representing things or ideas by means of other objects or ideas; attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships.
Example: American Flag / White Dove.

11. Figurative Language
Definition: Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning; speech or writing employing figures of speech such as similes or metaphors.
Example:

12. Point of View
Definition: The vantage point from which an author tells a story.
Example: 1st person / 2nd person / 3rd person limited / 3rd person Omniscient

13. Aesthetic Effects
The reactions a reader has to the form, content, and or beauty of a work and that engender enjoyment or an emotional reaction in that reader.

14. Alliteration
Definition: The repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables
Examples: She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore

15. Onomatopoeia Definition: Words whose sounds suggest their meaning.
Example: Buzz / Clang / drip

16. Rhyme Scheme
Definition: The pattern in which rhyme sounds occur in a stanza or an entire poem
Example: AABA / AABA / AABA

17. Slant Rhyme
Definition: Off rhyme where the ending consonants rhyme but the initial sounds do not
Example: sown/clown; after/brother

18. Personification
Definition: Giving non-human things (animals,ideas,objects) human like qualities.
Example: The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.

19. Metaphor
Definition: A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another
Example: A sea of troubles

20. Simile
Definition: A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using like or as.
Example: My love is like a red rose

21. Hyperbole Definition: An exaggeration
Example: I walked A MILLION miles to school

22. Fixed Form Poems
Definition: Poems that conform to predetermined lines and stanzas
Example: Haiku / Sonnet / Ballad

23. Free Form Poems Definition: Poems that do not follow any pattern
Example: Any other poem that doesn’t have a specific rhyme pattern or structure

24. Narrative Poem Definition: Poems that tell a story
Example: Tears on Santa’s Cheek

25. Lyric Poem
Definition: A poem, generally brief, that creates a single, unified impression, usually dealing with emotion.