Transcript Poetry Vocabulary

Poetry Vocabulary
Word Bank
Elements of Poetry
Includes:
Form (i.e. Narrative, free verse, lyrics,
sonnets, etc.)
Tone
Imagery
Figurative Language (similes, metaphors,
and personification)
Forms of Poetry
1. Narrative poems tell a story.
2. Lyric poems express the speaker’s feelings.
3. An ode is a type of lyric poem that celebrates
4.
5.
6.
7.
something.
A sonnet is also a lyric poem but follows very strict
rules.
An elegy mourns the loss of something important to the
poet.
Free verse has no regular rhythm or rhyme.
A catalog poem is free verse that lists the poet’s
thoughts or feelings on a subject.
Imagery (a.k.a. “sensory
language”)
Definition: language that appeals to the senses
of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
Example:
Goopy glops of cold oatmeal.
goopy: touch or sight
glops: touch or sight
cold: touch or taste
Simile (figurative language)
Definition:
A comparison between two unlike things,
using a word such as “like”, “as”, “than”,
or “resembles”.
Example:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”
Metaphor (figurative language)
Definition:
A comparison between two unlike things in
which one thing is said to be another
thing.
Example:
“Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”
Personification (figure of speech)
Definition:
A figure of speech in which a nonhuman or
nonliving thing or quality is talked about as if it
were human or alive.
Example:
…little brown rivers streaming
down the road
nibbling
at the edges of the tired snow…
Tone
Definition:
Attitude toward the subject
Example:
If a poet thinks that a scene is happy and
carefree, the details in the lines will reflect
that attitude.
Sounds of Poetry
Includes:
Rhythm
Rhyme
Repetition
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Definition: a repetition of consonant sounds
in words that are close together.
Example:
Sally sells seashells by the seashore.
(The “sh” sound in the middle of the two
words is also alliteration.)
Onomatopoeia
Definition:
The use of a word whose sound imitates or
suggests its meaning.
Examples:
hiss, buzz, snap, crackle, pop 
Rhythm
Definition:
A musical quality produced by the repetition of
stressed and unstressed syllables, or by the
repetition of certain other sound patterns
Example:
‫ ﮞ‬/‫ ﮞ‬/
‫ ﮞ‬/‫ ﮞ‬/
Day after day, day after day,
‫ﮞ‬
/
‫ﮞ‬
/
‫ ﮞ‬/ ‫ﮞ‬
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
Scanning
Definition:
Marking a poem’s rhythm for stressed (/) and
unstressed (‫ )ﮞ‬syllables
Example:
‫ ﮞ ﮞ‬/ ‫ ﮞ ﮞ‬/ ‫ﮞ‬
‫ﮞ‬
/
“You are old, Father William,” the young
‫ﮞ‬
/
man said,
Rhyme
Definition:
The repetition of accented vowel sounds
and all sounds following them in words
that are close together
Example:
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul
within me burning.
Internal Rhyme
Definition:
Rhymes within lines of a poem
Examples:
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within
me burning
For the moon never beams, without bringing me
dreams
End Rhyme
Definition: Rhymes at the end of a line
Examples:
Darkness settles on roofs and walls
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Henry Wadworth Longfellow
“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”
Repetition
Definition:
The recurring use of a sound, a word, a phrase, or
a line which creates music, appeals to our
emotions, and emphasizes important ideas.
Examples:
Riding, riding, riding
Marching, marching, marching
Wet wet wet