Poetry Terms

A poet writes with a certain attitude or tone and makes the reader sense a certain feeling or…

• symbol

• mood

• imagery

• metaphor

Poets sometimes use a word to stand for another idea--like a black rose standing for death. This is called...

• a metaphor

• symbolism

• alliteration

• an allusion

When a poet uses descriptive words that appeal to the reader's senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and/or taste, the poet is using…

• allusion

• symbolism

• mood

• imagery

This--in a poem--is like a paragraph in an essay. It is one section of the poem, set apart from other sections by a blank line.

• meter

• rhyme

• stanza

• couplet

When a poem just briefly mentions a famous or well known person, place, or event, it is using the device named this.

• metaphor

• allusion

• alliteration

• imagery

This is a couple of lines--usually similar lengths, with the same meter, and they often rhyme.

• stanza

• meter

• haiku

• couplet

This is the attitude of the poet or writer shown through his or her word choices and techniques.

• tone

• mood

• imagery

• poetry

This poem follows no rules. It doesn't have a meter or rhyme.

• stanza

• ekphrastic

• ode

• free verse

In this poem, what matters is the number of syllables.

• haiku

• meter

• rhyme

• ode

This is when one thing is compared to something else--by saying that one thing IS something else.

• symbolism

• metaphor

• meter

• imagery