Poetic Devices Vocabulary

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

• Assonance

• Ballad

• Alteration

• Simile

A brief reference to a real or fictional person, event, place, or work of art

• Metaphor

• Allusion

• Verse

• Simile

The reputation of vowel sounds in a chunk of text

• Assonance

• simile

• Alliteration

• ballad

A story and/or narrative in poetic form.

• Verse

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Ballad

The author’s specific word choice

• free verse

• verse

• diction

• sonnet

Poetry that doesn’t always rhyme, or have a measurable meter

• Verse

• free verse

• sonnet

• diction

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things without using connecting words such as “like” or “as”

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Stanza

• Allusion

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things using connecting words, such as “like” or “as.”

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Allusion

• Sonnet

A unified group of lines in poetry. This is often marked by spacing between sections of the poem.

• Free verse

• verse

• diction

• Stanza

A word that sounds like what it means.

• Diction

• Onomatopoeia

• Verse

• Simile