Poetry Terms

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.

• Personification

• Allusion

• Metaphor

• Ballaed

A type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music.

• Ballad

• Free Verse

• Imagery

• Meter

A word’s dictionary definition.

• Connotation

• Meter

• Assonance

• Denotation

The idea or feeling that people associate with a word; a word’s secondary meaning.

• Denotation

• Connotation

• Rhythm

• Stanza

Also known a “vowel rhyme,” is the repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry. 

• Consonance

• Alliteration

• Assonance

• Verse

The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text. These alike sounds can appear anywhere in the word, but will usually be found at its end or middle, or at the end of the stressed syllable.

• Consonance

• Assonance

• Meter

• Alliteration

Refers to word choice

• Denotation

• Ballad

• Meter

• Diction

A term used in poetry to refer to lines that end without punctuation and without completing a sentence or clause.

• Free Verse

• Imagery

• Enjambment

• Rhythm

The name given to poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme.

• Meter

• Ballad

• Free Verse

• Mood

A unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats.

• Meter

• Rhythm

• Mood

• Tone