Exploring Poetry: Terms and Techniques

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What is assonance?

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Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words, creating a musical effect. Example: 'The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.'

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What is a metaphor?

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A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as.' Example: 'The snow is a white blanket.'

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What is consonance?

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Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity within a sentence or phrase. Example: 'The ship has sailed to the far off shores.'

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What is onomatopoeia?

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Onomatopoeia refers to words that phonetically imitate the sound they describe. Example: 'The bacon sizzled in the pan.'

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What is personification?

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Personification is a literary device where human qualities are attributed to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract concepts. Example: 'The flowers nodded their heads in the breeze.'

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What is imagery in poetry?

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Imagery involves using descriptive language to create vivid mental pictures for the reader, appealing to the senses.

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What is a simile?

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A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things using 'like' or 'as.' Example: 'Her smile is like the sun.'

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What is alliteration?

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Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial consonant sounds in a series of words. Example: 'She sells sea shells by the sea shore.'

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What is a stanza?

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A stanza is a grouped set of lines in a poem, often separated by a space from other stanzas, similar to a paragraph in prose.

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What is a rhyme scheme?

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A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem, often described using letters to denote which lines rhyme.