Giving human characteristics to animals or non-living things.
Personification
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things using the connecting words "like" or "as." EXAMPLE: Love is like a battlefield.
Simile
A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things without using the connecting words "like" or "as." EXAMPLE: Love is a battlefield.
Metaphor
A single line of poetry.
Verse
A figure of speech where the writer purposely and obviously exaggerates to an extreme. It is used for emphasis or as a way of making a description more creative and humorous.
Hyperbole
Poetry that does not rhyme or have a measurable meter.
Free Verse
A figure of speech that puts together opposite elements. The combination of these contradicting elements serves to confuse or give the reader a laugh. EXAMPLE: Her room is an organized mess, or controlled chaos, if you will.
Oxymoron
The repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels in a chunk of text. Example: "A worM naMed Maurice took he garden by storM."
Consonance
A word that sounds like what it means. EXAMPLE: Buzz! Click! Bang! Whoosh!
Onomatopoeia
A story or narrative in poetic form.
Ballad
A joke based on the interplay of homophones- words with the same pronunciation but different meanings. It can also play with words that sound similar, but not exactly the same.
Pun
An object or action that means something more than the literal meaning.
Symbol
The central meaning or dominant message the poet is trying to deliver to the readers.
Theme
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. EXAMPLE: "From Forth the Fatal loins of these two Foes; A pair of star-crossed lover take their life."
Alliteration
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
Oxymoron
A brief reference to a real or fictional person, event, place, or work of art.
Allusion
The repetition of vowel sounds in a chunk of text. EXAMPLE: "Ivan will trY to lIght the fIre."
Assonance
A phrase that expresses a figurative meaning different from the actual meaning of the words used. EXAMPLE: "Kick the bucket" is means "death."
Idiom
The recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Depending on how sounds are arranged, the _____ of a poem may be fast or slow, choppy or smooth.
Rhythm
“Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. "It is a long tail, certainly, but why do you call it sad?”
Pun