FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Peter Piper picked
a peck of pickled peppers.
Assonance: Repeated vowel sounds. The cat sat on the mat.
Onomatopoeia: Words whose sound suggests its meaning. The bees buzzed.
Imagery: Creating pictures for the senses (through, e.g., similes or metaphors).
Fear was his constant companion.
Metaphor: A figure of speech stating two things are similar. The book was a passport
to adventure.
Simile: A comparison using like or as. She floated in like a cloud.
Hyperbole: An extravagant exaggeration. My backpack weighs a ton!
Personification: Giving human qualities to ideas and things. Her stomach growled.
Allusion: A reference to a specific person, place, or thing. She is as pretty as the Mona
Lisa.
Symbol: Representation of something complex, general, or abstract. The Statue of
Liberty symbolizes the democratic ideal.

FORMAT
Stanzas: A group of lines arranged together, similar to a paragraph.
Verse/Line: A group of words together on one line
Couplet: a two line stanza
Triplet (Tercet): a three line stanza
Quatrain: a four line stanza
Quintet: a five line stanza
Sestet (Sextet): a six line stanza
Septet : a seven line stanza
Octave: an eight line stanza

POETIC TECHNIQUES
Repetition: Intentional repeating of the same word or phrase throughout a poem.
Rhyme: Words sound alike because they share the same ending vowel and consonant
sounds. Cat, Hat, Bat
Rhythm: The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem. This above all to thine
ownself be true.
Rhyme Scheme: A pattern of rhyme (usually end rhyme, not always).
Speaker: The narrator of the poem.

TYPES OF POETRY
Narrative: A poem that tells a story.
Lyric: A short poem that expresses feelings or observations.
Ballad: A poem that tells a story and can be a song because of its rhyme; often a love
story.
Free Verse: Does not have any pattern or rhyme; sounds like someone talking to you.
Cinquain: A five-line poem with the syllable pattern: 2 4 6 8 2.
Haiku: A three-line poem with the syllable pattern: 5 7 5.
Diamante: A seven-line poem in the shape of a diamond with specific rules for each line.
Limerick: A five-line poem that is usually silly. Lines 1, 2 & 5 rhyme and have the same
number of syllables and lines 3 & 4 rhyme and have the same number of syllables.
Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.
Shape/Concrete: The words are arranged to create a picture that relates to the poem.
Acrostic: A poem that each line has a letter to form a word, usually the first letter in each
line.
Alphabet: A line is written for each letter of the alphabet, usually describing one topic.