Poetry Terms

Mrs. Ryles (United States of America)
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Full list of words from this list:

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  1. lyric poem
    a short poem of songlike quality
    Lyric poems are expressions of spontaneous emotion and are necessarily short. Fletcher, Robert Huntington
  2. ballad
    a narrative poem of popular origin
    "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver" by Edna St. Vincent-Milay is a sad story of a poor mother who can not afford to clothe her child.
  3. epic
    a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
    Longfellow's epic, "Paul Revere's Ride" gives a fictionalized account of the famous American historical event.
  4. haiku
    an epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines
    Yamazaki shared a haiku - or Japanese poem - she wrote after seeing Earth for the first time from space.
  5. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
    Skelton, the poet laureate, in an elegy, lamented his “dolourous death.” Andrews, William
  6. free verse
    poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
    Mansfield sometimes uses regular rhyme schemes, but for The Candle she prudently chooses free verse.
  7. sonnet
    a verse form of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
    Shakespeare's sonnets can be read in any number of ways: as literary exercise, autobiographical narrative or anatomy of love.
  8. couplet
    a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse
    Some of his couplets are quite impressive: "You write my wrongs/I sing all your songs ..."
  9. ode
    a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
    Pablo Neruda has written odes to ordinary things like bread, socks, and artichokes.
  10. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
    Now and then the temptation was too strong and she fell into alliteration, writing of "ponderous puddings and curdled custards." Pennell, Elizabeth Robins
  11. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    There can be few better metaphors for depression than Frodo walking through ashen heaps carrying a heavy burden on an apparently hopeless quest.  Forbes (Oct 13, 2012)
  12. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
    "There are cities on Earth that make this look like a—a—" Brand cast about for understandable similes—"like a collection of animal burrows." Ernst, Paul
  13. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
    If you hear the slogan "information wants to be free," you may agree or disagree with the personification. Boyle, James
  14. imagery
    the ability to form mental pictures of things or events
    The visual imagery is stark and arresting—grimy hands, lined faces, wide-open vistas. Slate (Feb 4, 2013)
  15. symbol
    something visible that represents something invisible
    White bread, untouched by human hands and carefully wrapped for hygienic transport, became a symbol of purity. Slate (Apr 6, 2012)
  16. theme
    a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary work
    A prevailing theme in "The Road Not Taken" is that life's choices affect everything that comes after.
  17. tone
    a quality that reveals the attitudes of the author
    The poet's tone in "The Road Not Taken" is somewhat wistful.
  18. stanza
    a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
    The poet edited the earlier version with great care, making verbal variations in almost every line, and adding lines and even stanzas. Freneau, Philip
  19. rhyme
    correspondence in the final sounds of two or more lines
    Remember, limericks are five line poems, typically with an a-a-b-b-a rhyme scheme. Salon (Jan 7, 2013)
  20. repetition
    the continued use of the same word or word pattern
    "I have a dream" was invoked numerous times in King's "I have a dream" speech. That's one reason why people remember it.
Created on Tue Apr 02 00:15:02 EDT 2013 (updated Fri Apr 05 18:24:20 EDT 2013)

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