Allegory - A literary, dramatic, or pictorial device in which characters and events stand for   abstract ideas, principles, or forces, so that the literal sense has or suggests a parallel,  deeper symbolic sense.

Alliteration - The repetition of the same consonant sounds or of different vowel sounds at the  beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences”

Allusion - A reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a  covert  indication; indirect reference; a hint.

Anapest – A metrical foot comprising two unstressed syllables and one stressed - - /

Apostrophe - The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction,  especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition.
 
Assonance - The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables,  with changes in the intervening consonants, as in the phrase tilting at windmills.

Attitude - A state of mind or a feeling; the position of an author with respect to the subject being discussed.

—B—

Ballad - A narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple  stanzas and usually having a recurrent refrain. A ballad stanza usually follows the pattern
            of a,b,c,b

Blank verse - Verse consisting of unrhymed lines, usually of iambic pentameter.
 
—C—

Cacophany – The opposite of euphony;   Harsh sounds which are used deliberately by writers, especially poets to achieve a particular effect.

Caesura - A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by  metrics.
 
Conceit - A fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison; extended  metaphor

Connotation - The set of associative implications constituting the general sense of a word in  addition to its literal sense.

Consonance - The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of  words, as in blank and think or strong and string.

Couplet - A unit of verse consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming and having the  same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic unit.

—D—

Dactyl – a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones: / - -

Denotation - The most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or  associated meanings.

Diction - Choice and use of words in speech or writing.

Dimeter – A line of verse containing two feet.  The third and fourth lines of the limerick are dimeters.
 

—E—

Elegy - A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.

End rhyme - rhyme on the terminal syllables of the verses.

End stopped line – a term applied to a verse where the sense and meter coincide in a pause at the end of the line.

Enjambment - The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next  with no pause.

Epic - An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a  legendary or traditional hero.

Epic Simile – an extended simile sometimes running to fifteen or twenty lines, in which the comparisons made are elaborated in considerable detail.

Euphony - Agreeable sound, especially in the phonetic quality of words.

—F—

Figure of Speech – non – literal statements of description

Foot (feet) - A unit of poetic meter consisting of stressed and unstressed syllables in any of  various set combinations. For example, an iambic foot has an unstressed followed by a  stressed syllable.

Free verse - Verse composed of variable, usually unrhymed lines having no fixed metrical  pattern.
 
—G—

Genre - A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive  style, form, or content.

—H—

Heroic couplet - A verse unit consisting of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.

Heptameter – A metrical unit consisting of seven feet. A line of verse consisting of seven metrical feet.

Hexameter – A line of verse consisting of six metrical feet.

Hyperbole - A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I  could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

—I—

Iamb – a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: -/

Iambic pentameter -  a line of poetry containing five iambs per line; the typical meter used by Shakespeare in his plays.
 

Imagery - The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.

Internal rhyme - Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse, as in “the grains beyond age, the dark  veins of her mother” .
 

Irony - An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and  intended meaning; a literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical  effect.

—J—

Juxtaposition - positioning close together (or side by side)

—K—
 

—L—

Litote - A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in This is no small problem.

Lyric - Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings,  often in a songlike style or form.

—M—

Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is  used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles”  or “All the world's a stage”

Metaphysical Poetry – a type of poetry now generally applied to a group of 17th century poets; chiefly Donne, Carew, George Herbert, Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, Marvell, Cleveland and Cowley.

Meter - The measured arrangement of words in poetry, as by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity,  or the number of syllables in a line.

Metonymy - A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power.

Monometer - A verse consisting of a single metrical foot or one dipody.

Mood - A set of verb forms or inflections used to indicate the speaker's attitude toward the  factuality or likelihood of the action or condition expressed. In English the indicative  mood is used to make factual statements, the subjunctive mood to indicate doubt or  unlikelihood, and the imperative mood to express a command.

Motif - A dominant theme or central idea.

—N—

Narrative - Consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story: narrative poetry.

—O—

Octave - A group of eight lines of poetry, especially the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.  Also called octet.

Octameter - A line of verse consisting of eight metrical feet.

Ode - A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an  elevated style and formal stanzaic structure.

Onomatopoeia - The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds  associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

Oxymoron - A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in
           a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

—P—

Paradox - An assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction  from acceptable premises.

Parallel/parallelism - The use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding  clauses.
 

Parody - A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for  comic effect or ridicule.

Paradox - A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: the paradox that
standing is more tiring than walking.

Pastoral - A literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in an
idealized manner.

Pentameter – A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.

Personification - A figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with  human qualities or are represented as possessing human form, as in Hunger sat shivering  on the road or Flowers danced about the lawn.

Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet - A sonnet containing an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba  and a sestet of various rhyme patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd.

Phonology – The sound system of a language: the phonology of English.

Poetry - A piece of literature written in meter; verse.

Poetry, lyric - short poetry of songlike quality

Point of view - The attitude or outlook of a narrator or character in a piece of literature, a movie,  or another art form.

Prose - Ordinary speech or writing, without metrical structure.

Prose Poem – a composition printed as prose but distinguished by common in poetry such as
elaborately contrived figures of speech, rhyme, internal rhyme, etc.

—Q—

Quatrain - A stanza or poem of four lines.
 

—R—

Rhyme – Correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse.

Rhyme scheme – The arrangement of rhymes in a poem or stanza. It is usually represented by
      small letters:  thus abcb for the ballad stanza.

—S—
Sensory details – descriptive details relating to the five senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, and
smell

Sibilance –  repetition of “s” or “sh” sounds

Simile –  comparison using like or as

Slant rhyme – a rhyme that is not true.  Example:  rhyming powder with other.

Sonnet – A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes.
 Petrarchan pattern:  abba abba cdecde
 Shakespearean pattern:  abab cdcd efef gg

Spondee - A metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables.

Synecdoche – A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor) the       whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat) for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing from which it is made (as steel for sword).

Syntax – a pattern of words in a particular sentence; word order

—T—
Tercet - A group of three lines of verse, often rhyming together or with another triplet.

Terza Rima - A verse form of Italian origin consisting of tercets of 10 or 11 syllables with the middle line rhyming with the first and third lines of the following tercet.

Tetrameter - A line of verse consisting of four metrical feet

Tone - Manner of expression in speech or writing: took an angry tone with the reporters.

Theme - An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif: a theme of powerlessness that runs through the diary; a party with a tropical island theme.
Trimeter - A line of verse consisting of three metrical feet

Trochee - A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in season, or of a long syllable followed by a short syllable.

—U—

—V—

—W—

—X—

X-treme Poetry – an assignment to challenge your ability to think about poetry

—Y—

—Z—