Poetry Vocabulary

Front

a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words

Back

acrostic

Front

the repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words (usually consonants)

Back

alliteration

Front

In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible.

Back

assonance

Front

a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas

Back

ballad

Front

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter

Back

blank verse

Front

two rhyming words that are consecutive or very close together in a phrase or line

Back

close rhyme

Front

two lines of verse, usually in the same meter & joined by rhyme, that form a unit

Back

couplet

Front

a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead

Back

elegy

Front

a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds & adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation

Back

epic

Front

a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world

Back

haiku