Poetry Terms

Prose - Everyday reading and writing

Poetry - A peice of literature written in meter or verse.

Literal - The standard meaning of a word, phrase or sentence.

Figurative - Departure from the standard meaning of a word to achieve some special meaning or effect.

Hyperbole - An extreme exaggeration

Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a person, an object, or an idea is compared to something else without using like or as.

Personification - giving human attributes to things that are not human

Rhythm - pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in a line of poetry.

Onomatopoeia - a word whose sound imitates the actual sounds to produce a noticable effect.

Imagery - the use of concrete details that appeal to the five senses.

Cacophony - a succession of harsh, jolting sounds

Rhyme - the repetition of sounds

End Ryhme - Ryhme that comes at the end of lines

Internal Ryhme- Ryhme that occurs within a line

Repetition- to court over and over again in poetry

Verse- one line of poetry

Refrain- a word, phrase, or groups of lines repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of a poem