Random
Main idea or subject plus the author’s opinion (note: it is NEVER just one word; it is ALWAYS a phrase or statement)
Theme
Poetry that is free from limitations of a regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms but still provides artistic expression.
Free verse
A grouped set of lines in poetry.
Stanza
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
Alliteration
A specific type of alliteration that uses the soft consonants. In sibilance, the sibilant or hissing sounds are created.
Sibilance
Through the observation of facts presented in a particular pattern, one ultimately sees different or new interpretations and perspectives.
inference
A form of poetry that is usually 14 lines which are formed by three quatrains typically using a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef and ending with a rhyming couplet for the last two lines. Sonnets are typically associated with love.
Shakesperian sonnet
The use of any element of language - a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence - more than once with a structural intention.
Repetition
When two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds.
Assonance
A word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing.
Onomatopeia
A meaning, an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Connotation
A form of poetry that is long, often book-length, narrative in verse form and usually retells the heroic journey of a single person, or group of persons.
Epic
The deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an effect. Anaphora, possibly the oldest literary device, has its roots in Biblical Psalms used to emphasize certain words or phrases.
Anaphora
A figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.
Metaphor
A figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things.
Simile
The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation.
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not have to follow rhythmic patterns.
Narrative
A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.
Quatrain
A device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.
Antithesis
A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.
Personification
A stop or pause in a line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as a phrase or clause.
Caesura
A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader and reveals her/himself and/or inner thoughts and the dramatic situation.
Dramatic monologue
A literary device that demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables.
Rhythm
the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
Symbolism
A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect.
Oxymoron