POETRY TERMS

1. Imagery- the descriptive language used in

literature to re-create sensory experiences.
The images in a work supply details of sight,
sound, taste, touch, smell, or movement and
help the reader to sense the experience being
described.

Imagery
Living Tenderly -Mary Swenson

My body a rounded stone

with a pattern of smooth seams.
My head a short snake,
retractive, projective.
My legs come out of their sleeves
or shrink within,
and so does my chin.
My eyelids are quick clamps.

2. Figurative Language- one of the

elements that make poetry, poetrybased on some sort of comparison
that is not literally true. Such
language is so natural to us that we
use it every day.

An example of figurative language:

The Budget Committee
hammered at the Treasury
Secretary for three hours.

3. Metaphor- a figure of speech in

which one thing is spoken of as if it
were something else. It is an
implied comparison through
identification. (Death is a long
sleep)

Metaphor -Eve Merriam

Morning is
A new sheet of paper
for you to write on.

Whatever you want to say,

all day,
until night
folds it up
and files it away.

The bright words and the dark words

are gone
until dawn
and a new day
to write on.

4. Simile- a figure of speech that

makes a direct comparison
between two subjects using either
like or as.

simile
from Tiger Year -Laura Tokunaga

planets circle in the gathering

dark like pale insects
around the opened throats of flowers

5. Personification- type of metaphor in

which a nonhuman thing or quality is
talked about as if it were human. In
the example below, trees are
personified as women throwing off
their robes.

Personification
The trees are undressing, and fling in many
places
On the gray road, the roof, the window sill

Their radiant robes and ribbons and yellow

laces
--Thomas Hardy,
from Last Week in October

6. Theme- general idea or insight

about life that the work reveals,
often is only implied, or suggested.
You can identify theme through
careful reading, analysis, and
thought.

7. Tone- how the speakers words

communicate the speakers
attitude toward the poems
subject. The speakers tone helps
convey a poems meaning and
create its effect on its audience.
(i.e. - serious, sad , and bitter)

8. Voice/Speaker- the speaker is the

imaginary voice assumed by the
writer of the poem. In other words,
the speaker is the character who
says the poem. This character
often is not identified by name.

9. Style/Word Choice- A writers style

is his or her typical way of writing.
Style includes word choice, sentence
length, grammatical structure,
organization, degree of formality,
tone, figurative language, and
rhythm.

10. Rhythm- the pattern of beat, or

stresses, in a spoken or written
language. In traditional poetry,
regular rhythmic pattern, or meter
is used. Poetry that is rhythmic but
does not have a regular pattern is
called free verse. Instead of
following a set metrical pattern, a
poem in free verse has its own
rhythm that suits its meaning.

11. Rhyme- a repetition of sounds at

the ends of words. Rhymed words
have the same vowel sounds in their
accented syllables.

first stanza from The Raven -Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,

weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of
forgotten loreWhile I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door,
Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at
my chamber doorOnly this and nothing more.

12. Repetition- reinforces the emotional

effect
My cognizance of the pit had become
known to the Inquisitorial agentsthe
pit, whose horrors had been destined for
so bold a recusant as myselfthe pit,
typical hell and regarded by rumor as
the ultima Thule of all their
punishments. The plunge into this pit I
had avoided

13. Alliteration- the repetition of initial

consonant sounds. Writers and poets
use alliteration to create pleasing
musical effects.

from I Was a Skinny Tomboy Kid

-Alma Villanueva

I grew like a thin, stubborn weed

watering myself whatever way I could.

14. Onomatopoeia- the use of words to imitate

sounds. Examples of such words include hiss,
hum, murmur, and rustle.

Robert Frost uses onomatopoeia in this line:

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard.

Onomatopoeia is used to create musical effects

and to reinforce meaning, especially in poetry.

15. Atmosphere- mood or feeling in a

work of literature (also called
mood) Atmosphere is usually
created through descriptive details
and evocative language. In The Pit
and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe
creates a dizzying atmosphere of
horror.

16. Stanza- group of consecutive lines

that form a single unit in a poem. A
stanza in a poem is something like a
paragraph in prose: It often expresses a
unit of thought. A stanza may consist of
only one line or of any number of lines
beyond that. A.E. Housmans Loveliest
of Trees consists of three four-line
stanzas, or quatrains, each expressing
a unit of thought.

17. Irony- the discrepancy between

expectations and reality

Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses irony in his poem,

Rime of the Ancient Mariner when he writes:

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

It is ironic that there is water everywhere, but none

that is actually drinkable. One would expect that with
a lot of water around, one would not go thirsty.