Poetry Vocabulary

Extended Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

Assonance: If alliteration occurs at the beginning of a word and rhyme at the end, assonance takes the middle territory. “Food” and “tune” are assonance because of the “oo” sound in the middle of the word.

Meter: Meter is the rhythm established by a poem, and it is usually dependent not only on the number of syllables in a line but also on the way those syllables are accented.

Blank verse = Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is often unobtrusive and the iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of ordinary speech. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Verse = A single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose).

Alliteration = the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.

Image = language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

Mood = the emotional attitude the author takes towards their subject. 

Internal Rhyme = a rhyme that takes place within a line, instead of at the end of the line. Used in most hip-hop lyrics. Example: I fought, the shot grazed my shin

Simile = the comparison of two unlike things using like or as. Example: He eats like a pig. Vines like golden prisons.

Metaphor= comparison of two unlike things using the verb "to be" and not using like or as as in a simile. EXAMPLE: He is a pig. Her love is a broken firework.

Oxymoron = putting two contradictory words together. EXAMPLE: Jumbo Shrimp

Onomatopoeia = a word that imitates the sound it represents. Example: splash, wow, gush, kerplunk

Enjambment: the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break.