| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words |
| assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds |
| ballad meter | a four-line stanza rhymed xaxa with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| dactyl | a metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables |
| elegy | a lament, usually for the death of a particular person |
| end-stopped | a line with a pause at the end |
| free verse | poetry which is not written in traditional meter but is still rhythmical |
| haiku | five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables |
| heroic couplet | two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit |
| hexameter | a line containing six feet |
| iamb | a metrical foot of two syllables, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable |
| internal rhyme | rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end |
| ode | a long, formal serious lyric written in a complex form |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sound suggests their meaning |
| pentameter | a line containing five feet |
| rhyme royal | a seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc |
| sonnet | normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter |
| stanza | a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme |
| terza rima | a three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc |
| tetrameter | a line containing four feet |
