| A | B |
|---|
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. |
| Onomatopoeia | The use of words that imitate sounds. |
| Rhyme | The repetition of sounds at the endsof words. |
| Consonance | The repetition of final consonant sounds in a series of words. |
| Meter | The rhythmical pattern of a poem determined by the number of stresses, or beats, in each line. |
| Simile | A figure of speech that uses like or as to make a direct comparison between two unlike ideas. |
| Figurative language | Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally. |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech in which something is described as though it is something else. |
| Imagery | The use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. |
| Personification | A type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics. |
| Allusion | A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. |
| Extended metaphor | The use of several comparisons to compare a subject to something else. |
| Rhyme Scheme | A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. |
| Stanza | A formal division of lines in a poem. |
| Repetition | The use, more than once, of any element of language - a sound, word, phrase, clause, or sentence. |
| Refrain | A regularly repeated line or group of lines in a poem or a song. |
| Symbol | Anything that stands for or represents something else. |
| Theme | The central message, concern, or purpose of a literary work. |
| Poetry | One of the three major types of literature. |
| Free verse | Poety not written in regular rhythmical pattern or meter. |
| Ballad | A songlike poem that tells a story, often one dealing with adventure or romance. |
| Blank verse | Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. |
| Concrete poem | A poem with a shape that suggests its subject. |
| Haiku | A three-line Japanese verse form. The first and third lines have five syllables while the second has seven syllables. |
| Lyric poem | A short, highly musical poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker. |
| Narrative poem | A story told in verse. These poems ofen have all the elements of a short story. |
| Prose | The ordinary form of written language. |
| Rhythm | The pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language. |
