Poetry Terms

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

Repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together in a poem.

Front 2

Allusion

Back 2

Reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or pop culture.

Front 3

Assonance

Back 3

Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words that are close together in a poem.

Front 4

Couplet

Back 4

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Front 5

Epic

Back 5

Long story told in elevated language (usually poetry), which relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.

Front 6

Fable

Back 6

Very brief story in prose or verse that teaches a moral, or a practical lesson about how to get along in life.

Front 7

Free Verse

Back 7

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme. It may use internal rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, refrain, and parallel structure.

Front 8

Metaphor

Back 8

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, in which one thing becomes another thing without the use of the word like, as, than or resembles.

Front 9

Simile

Back 9

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as like, as, resembles, or than.

Front 10

Irony

Back 10

Contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality -between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what is really true.

Front 11

Onomatopoeia

Back 11

Use of a ward whose sound imitates or suggest its meaning.

Front 12

Personification

Back 12

Kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.

Front 13

Refrain

Back 13

Repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines.

Front 14

Internal rhyme

Back 14

Occur in the middle of a line.

Front 15

Symbol

Back 15

Person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself as well.

Front 16

Theme

Back 16

Central idea of a work of literature.