Useful Poetic Terms
Simile Comparison of two things using
like or as like the blow of a fist.
Metaphor An implied comparison
Personifica The treatment of an object or
tion quality as if it were a person
Hyperbole The deliberate exaggeration to
emphasise an emotional effect
Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds
at the beginning of words
Assonance Repetition of vowel sounds in words
End Rhyme Use of rhyming words at the end of
two or more lines of poetry
Onomatopo Use of words that sound very much
eia like the noise they name.
Repetition Technique of repeating a word or
phrase for rhythm or emphasis.
Rhythm The way a poem flows from one
idea to the next.
Oxymoron Figure of speech with a self-
contradictory effect
Enjambmen The running of thought from one
t line to the next without a break in
the sentence.
Caesura A break in the middle of a
sentence.
Juxtapositi Two contrasting images placed next
on to each other e.g. here the
brightness of Juliet is compared to
dark skin by Shakespeare.
Sibilance The repetition of the s sound.
Allegory The moral of a poem or story.
Aubade A morning love song.
Couplet Two lines where the last words of
each rhyme.
Iambic Five unstressed followed by five
Pentamete stressed syllables
r
The hard gust of wind came brutal
Modesty is the best dress of a
woman.
The beams of light skipped on the
crest of waves.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten this little hand.
The sun slowly reaches the
highest point in its bright blue
home.
My stepmom shouted loud as a
train.
The musics pumpin
I start jumpin
Swish those skirts, snap those
fingers-
Go ahead, but watch the night go
poof.
We feared nothing,
because we had nothing to fear.
Whose wods these re I thnk I
knw.
His house is n the village though.
(Robert Frost)
Cruel kindness
Thou liest in Abrahams bosom all
the year;
And worshippst at the Temples
inner shrine,
God being with thee when we
know it not.
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye
O, she doth teach the torches to
burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the
cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiopes
ear;
Sizzling sausages
E.G. the message or lesson that
the poem aims to teach
E.G. The Sunne Rising
This thou perceivest, which makes
thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must
leave ere long.
Let me not to the marriage of true
minds
Paradox Contradicting statements Impossible is not a word in my
vocabulary