Poetic Terms

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Lyric

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A short poem, often song like, with the emphasis not on narrative but on the speaker's emotion or reverie.

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Elegy

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A lyric poem that is melancholy or mournfully contemplative; sometimes laments a death.

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Ode (hymn)

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A lyric poem that is long, elaborate, and on a lofty theme such as a morality or a hero's victory.

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Narrative Poem

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A poem whose main purpose is to tell a story.

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Dictation

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Choice of words and / or grammatical constructions (i.e., formal, coloquial, jargon, slang, etc.)

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Colloquial

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Everyday speech; particular to an area or group of people.

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Tone

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The attitude of the author, evident from the diction, use of symbolism, irony, and figures of speech.

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Similie

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Items from different classes are compared by a connective such as "like", "as", "or" "than" or by a verb such as "appears" or "seems".

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Metaphor

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Items from different classes compared without the use of "like" or "as".

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Metonymy

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Something is named that replaces something closely related to it.

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Synecdoche

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The hole is replaced by the part, or the part by the whole.

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i.e., "he has a new set of wheels", "give me a hand"

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Personification

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Giving human qualities to abstractions or inanimate objects.

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Apostrophe

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An address to a person or thing not literally listening.

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i.e., "O Santa...", "O lovely rose.."

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Irony

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Saying things that are not be taken literally, forming a contrast.

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Verbal Irony

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Contrast between what is said and what is meant.

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Sarcasm

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Heavy, mocking verbal irony. Almost never found in literature.

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Understatement

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Saying less then what is meant.

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Hyperbole

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An exaggeration.

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Situational Irony

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Contrast between what is intended and what is accomplished.

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Paradox

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An apparent contradiction.

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Connotation

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Suggested or Associated meaning.

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i.e., skeleton=death

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Denotation

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Dictionary definition.

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Imagery

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Sensory content of poems; appeals to the five senses.

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Allusion

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A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature.

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Symbol

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An image loaded with significance Beyond literal definition; suggestive rather than definite.

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Natural Symbols

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Symbols recognized as standing for something in particular even by people from different cultures.

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Conventional Symbols

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Symbols which people have agreed to accept as standing for something other than themselves.

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Rhythm

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Stresses at regular intervals.

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Meter

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A pattern of stressed (accented) sounds in English poetry.

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Perfect Rhyme

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Differing consonant sounds are followed by identical stressed vowel sounds, and the following sounds, if any, are identical.

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i.e., foe/toe, meet/fleet, buffer/rougher

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Half-Rhyme

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Only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical; the stressed Val sounds as well as initial consonant sounds, if any, differ.

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i.e., soul/oil, mirth/forth, trolley/bully

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Eye-Rhyme

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The sounds do not in fact rhyme, but the word look as though they would rhyme.

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i.e., cough/bough

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Masculine-Rhyme

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The final syllables are stressed and, after their differing initial consonant sounds, or identical in sound.

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i.e., stark/mark, support/retort

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Feminine-Rhyme

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Stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables.

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i.e., revival/arrival, flatter/batter

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End-Rhyme

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The rhyming words occur at the ends of the lines.

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Internal-Rhyme

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Rhyme occurs within lines.

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i.e., "each narrow cell in which we dwell"

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Alliteration

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Sometimes defined as the repetition of initial sounds

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i.e., "Sally sells sea shells at the sea shore."

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Assonance

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The repetition, in words of proximity, of identical vowel sounds preceded and followed by differing consonant sounds.

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i.e., tide/mine

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Consonance

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The repetition of identical consonant sounds in differing vowel sounds in words in proximity.

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i.e., fail/feel, rough/roof, pitter/patter

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Onomatopoeia

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The use of words that imitate sounds, such as his are buzz.

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Stanza

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A rhythmical unit in which lines of poetry are commonly arranged.

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Couplet

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A stanza of two lines, usually, but not necessarily, with end rhymes.

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Triplet

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A three-line stanza, usually with one rhyme.

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Quatrain

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A four-line stanza, rhymed or unrhymed.

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Sonnet

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A closed, fixed form. A 14 line poem, predominantly in iambic pentameter.

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Villanelle

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A closed, fixed French form; five tercets and a quatrain.

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Blank Verse

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English poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

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Free Verse

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Rhythmical lines vary in length, adhering to know fixed metrical pattern, and usually unrhymed.

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Prose Poem

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A short work that looks like prose but is highly rhythmical or rich in images, or both.