-two successive lines of verse, especially two that rhyme and are approximately the same length

Example: “You have forgotten what it is to smile /

In your too busy life– come, rest awhile.”

-from "Come, Rest Awhile"

-word choice; style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words of the poet or the speaker

Example: somnolence vs. sleepiness or drowsiness in “The Barn”

- the implied attitude of the poet toward his subject, characters, and readers (serious, playful, ironic, condescending, sentimental, etc.)

Example: “Holocaust” - serious, angry

-the central/main idea of the poem

Example: The little lessons our parents teach us as children lay the foundation for us to survive the bigger challenges we will face as we grow older = main idea of "First Lesson"

-a comparison of different things, using like or as

Example: “We were taken /

away in the dead of night like cattle in cars”

-from "Holocaust"

-the feeling a poem arouses in the reader

Example: “Holocaust”

-something concrete that represents something abstract

Example: swimming lessons represent life lessons in “First Lesson”

-two opposite elements closely associated to emphasize mood or tone differences

Example: “We played, we laughed /

we were loved. /

We were ripped from the arms of our /

parents and thrown into the fire.”

-from "The Holocaust"

-repetition of any word, idea, or phrase for thematic reasons

Example: “Lie back, lie out, lie up, lie gently, lie back” from “First Lesson”

-a short poem consisting of fifteen lines that have two main rhymes throughout; the first few words or a phrase from the first line are repeated twice in the poem as a refrain

Example: "The Mask"

-occurs when the first consonants change, but the following vowels and consonants stay the same

Example: "bells" and "dells"

-from "Come, Rest Awhile"

-the pattern in which rhyming sounds occur in a stanza; charted using small letters of the alphabet, a new letter assigned to new sounds

Example:

I didn’t go to church today, a

I trust the Lord to understand. b

The surf was swirling blue and white, c

The children swirling on the sand. b

He knows, He knows how brief my stay, a

How brief this spell of summer weather, d

He knows when I am said and done e

We’ll have plenty of time together d

-from "I Didn't Go to Church Today"

-a literary device that repeats the same words, phrases, sentences, or poetical lines to emphasize its significance and to make an idea clearer and more memorable

Example: "lazy" and "waits"

-from "Lazy Jane"

-narration; perspective through which the reader is presented the material of the poem

Example: “Lie back, daughter, let your head

be tipped back in the cup of my hand.”

-from “First Lesson”

-a figurative comparison of two dissimilar things because there is some particular way to compare those two different things

Example: “the barn is a nut ripened in forethought of cold”

-from "The Barn"

-a pattern of description or sensory experience within the text; the words or phrases a writer selects to create a certain picture in the reader’s mind; powerful forms engage all the senses: taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound

Example: “The fresh warm sweet smell of new timothy in it”

-from "The Barn"

-repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different; the repetition of the same consonant sounds in close proximity (usually within a line or two); although it is similar to alliteration, it is not limited to the first letters of words

Example: “Gently, and I will hold you.”

-from "First Lesson"

-the narrative voice of the poem-- not necessarily the voice of the poet

Example: the children killed in concentration camps in “Holocaust”

-the rhyme pattern of the end sounds of lines in a poem

Example: “Come, rest awhile, and let us idly stray

In glimmering valleys, cool and far away.”

-from “Come, Rest Awhile”

-repetition of exact vowel sounds with different consonant sounds

Example: “. . . when you tire on the long thrash

to your island, lie up, and survive.”

-from "First Lesson"