Form
A poem that does not follow a regular rhyme scheme or metre.
Free verse
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words (e.g., wild winds whistle).
Alliteration
A comparison between two things using like or as.
Simile
A comparison between two things that does not use like or as.
Metaphor
Author of Paradise Lost, one of the greatest epic poems in English literature.
John Milton
A Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines with a 5–7–5 syllable pattern.
Haiku
Giving human qualities or actions to non-human things.
Personification
The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words (e.g., the deep green sea).
Assonance
A word that imitates the natural sound associated with it (e.g., buzz, clang).
Onomatopoeia
Romantic poet who wrote Ode to a Nightingale and To Autumn.
John Keats
A fourteen-line poem, often written in iambic pentameter, traditionally associated with love poetry.
Sonnet
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses.
Anaphora
A contradiction in terms placed together for effect (e.g., deafening silence).
Oxymoron
A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole (e.g., hands meaning workers).
Synecdoche
Modernist poet who wrote The Waste Land
T.S. Eliot
A fourteen-line poem with three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet, often with a volta before the final section.
Shakespearean sonnet
A contrast between expectation and reality for literary effect.
Irony
The repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words (e.g., blank and think).
Consonance
An exaggerated statement used for emphasis or effect.
Hyperbole
Victorian poet who wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Lord Tennyson
A narrative poem that often tells a dramatic story and traditionally uses a regular rhyme and rhythm.
Ballad
A reference to a well-known person, text, or event outside the poem.
Allusion
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive lines or clauses.
Epistrophe
A substitution of the name of one thing with something closely associated with it (e.g., the crown for a monarchy).
Metonymy
American poet known for The Road Not Taken.
Robert Frost