Poetry Terms: Arranging of the Words

The vantage point of the speaker, or “teller” of the story or poem.

• stance

• verse

• point of view

• author

the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her

perspective (uses “I”).

• 1st person

• 2nd person

• 3rd person limited

• 3rd person omniscient

the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters through the limited perceptions of one other person.

• 2nd person

• 1st person

• 3rd person limited

• 3rd person omniscient

the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to “know” and describe what all characters are thinking.

• 3rd person limited

• 3rd person omniscient

• 1st person

• 2nd person

One single line of a poem arranged in a metrical pattern.

• verse

• line

• quote

• piece

A division of a poem created by arranging the lines into a unit, often repeated in the same pattern of meter and rhyme throughout the poem; a unit of poetic lines (a “paragraph” within the poem).

• paragraph

• line

• verse

• stanza

a pair of lines, usually rhymed; this is the shortest stanza

• quatrain

• couplet

• closed

• open

lines with no prescribed pattern or structure — the poet determines all the variables as seems appropriate for each poem

• fixed form

• free verse

• line

• ballad