Poetry Vocabulary
What is the speaker?
The voice behind the poem; the character or narrator saying the poem.
What is a simile?
The comparison of two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.”
What is onomatopoeia?
The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to, such as boom or splat.
What is free verse?
A poem that does not rhyme or contain a structured meter.
What is a metaphor?
A direct comparison of two unlike things without using the words "like" or "as."
What is a stanza?
A grouping of lines that form a unit in a poem.
What is personification?
When an idea or object is given human attributes and/or feelings as if it were human.
What is alliteration?
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
What is a haiku?
A Japanese poem composed of three lines and seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count, and often focuses on images from nature.
What is imagery?
Highly descriptive language that paints a picture in the reader's mind by appealing to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch).
What is mood?
The feeling and atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader.
What is hyperbole?
An overtly exaggerated statement or claim.
What is rhyme scheme?
The ordered pattern of rhymes at the end of lines in a poem.
What is a sonnet?
A fourteen-line poem written in one stanza, traditionally in iambic pentameter and it must have a formal rhyme scheme.
What is enjambment?
When a sentence or phrase in a poem continues from one line to the next without any punctuation or pause at the end of the line.
What is a quatrain?
A four-line stanza or grouping of four lines of verse.
What is an allusion?
A subtle, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, artwork, or movement.
What is assonance?
Repetition in vowel sounds in words that don’t end with the same consonant.
What is an elegy?
A form of poetry in which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or loss.
What is a ballad?
A narrative poem—often set to music—that tells a story in short stanzas, traditionally featuring a strong rhythm and a repeating refrain.
What is metonymy?
A word or phrase that replaces the name of an object or concept for another to which it is related, such as “the Crown” for the monarchy.
What is an oxymoron?
A combination of two words that appear to contradict each other, such as “bittersweet.”
What is an iamb?
A metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.
What is a villanelle?
A highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.
What is consonance?
The repetition of consonant sounds within or at the ends of words in close proximity