Poetry Terms

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Accent

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The prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word. In the word poetry, the accent (or stress) falls on the first syllable.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words. Some famous examples of alliteration are tongue twisters such as Betty Botta bought some butter and Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

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Antithesis

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A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other. An example of antithesis is "To err is human, to forgive, divine." (Alexander Pope)

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Apostrophe

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Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea. The poem God's World by Edna St. Vincent Millay begins with an apostrophe: "O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!/Thy mists that roll and rise!"

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Assonance

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The repetition or a pattern of similar sounds, especially vowel sounds, as in the tongue twister "Moses supposes his toeses are roses."

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Ballad

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A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.

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Ballade

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A type of poem, usually with three stanzas of seven, eight, or ten lines and a shorter final stanza (or envoy) of four or five lines. All stanzas end with the same one-line refrain. "Ballade of my Lady's Beauty," by Joyce Kilmer, is one example of a ballade.

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Blank verse

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Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

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Caesura

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A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. There is a caesura right after the question mark in the first line of this sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

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Carpe diem

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A Latin expression that means "seize the day." Carpe diem poems urge the reader (or the person to whom they are addressed) to live for today and enjoy the pleasures of the moment. A famous carpe diem poem by Robert Herrick begins "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may . . ."

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Classicism

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The principles and ideals of beauty that are characteristic of Greek and Roman art, architecture, and literature. Examples of classicism in poetry can be found in the works of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, which are characterized by their formality, simplicity, and emotional restraint.

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Conceit

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A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different. An example of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and in Emily Dickinson's poem "There is no frigate like a book."

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Consonance

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The repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, as in lost and past or confess and dismiss.

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Couplet

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In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.

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Elegy

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A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful. An example of this type of poem is Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

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Enjambment

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The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. An example of enjambment can be found in the first line of Joyce Kilmer's poem Trees: "I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree." Enjambment comes from the French word for "to straddle."

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Envoy, or Envoi

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The shorter final stanza of a poem, as in a ballade.

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Epic

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A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. Two of the most famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, which tell about the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus on his voyage home after the war.

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Epigram

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A very short, witty poem: "Sir, I admit your general rule,/That every poet is a fool,/But you yourself may serve to show it,/That every fool is not a poet." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

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Feminine rhyme

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A multi-syllable rhyme that ends with one or more unstressed syllables: paper/vapor, vacation/proclamation.

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Figure of speech

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A verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to achieve a particular effect. Figures of speech are organized into different categories, such as antithesis, hyperbole, litotes, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, simile, and synecdoche.

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Foot

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Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem. For example, an iamb is a foot that has two syllables, one unstressed followed by one stressed. An anapest has three syllables, two unstressed followed by one stressed.

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Free verse (also vers libre)

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Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter.

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Heroic couplet

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A stanza composed of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter

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Hyperbole

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A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money, waiting for ages, a flood of tears, etc. Hyperbole is the opposite of litotes.