Return to Introduction


 Stanza:  a single verse of poetry
 Alliteration:
 the repetition of the same sound, usually a consonant at the beginning of adjacent words or syllables to give life and character to the passage.
 


I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore...


 


-Yeats

 Consonance:
 The repetition of the identical or related consonant sounds
 


To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone....


 


-Shakespeare

 Assonance:
the repetition of identical or related vowel sounds
 


...in silent icicles,

Quietly shining to the quiet moon.


 


-Coleridge

 Rhythm:
repetition of an accent. arrangement of beats in a line of poetry or music

 

Imagery:

a word used to signify descriptive passages in poetry, particularly those which are vivid and particularized, but still more commonly, to signify figurative language, especially similes and metaphor, which provide a clue to poetic intent, structure, and effect. In short, imagery is when a poet can create a unique and notable sensory image for her reader. In class, we talk about imagery in terms of showing something to the reader instead of just telling the reader about it.
 Voice:
the way a poet approaches and describes her subject matter. For example, the poet could take on the identity of the object in the poem in order to narrate, or the poem may choose to describe the object in the third person.
 Metaphor:
a comparison which enables the poet to use two ideas at once; she applies the qualities of one, which is familiar, to the form and substance of the other.
 


The mothers grow lovely; their faces soften,

the birds in their throats awake...


 


-Mueller

 Simile:
a comparison between do essentially different objects that uses the terms "like" or "as"
 


The attic wasps went missing by like bullets...


 


-Frost

 Line break:
the end of a line of poetry as chosen by the poet's layout of words on the page
Return to Introduction