Poetry and Figurative Language Vocabulary

comparison between essentially unlike things

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• idiom

comparison between two essentially unlike things using words “such as,” “like,” and “as.”

• metaphor

• analogy

• hyperbole

• simile

a short expression that is peculiar to a language, people, or place that conveys a figurative meaning without a literal interpretation of the words used in the phrase, not actually what is meant

• idiom

• personification

• simile

• metaphor

the use of language that sounds like the thing or action it describes

• hyperbole

• simile

• metaphor

• onomatopoeia

the endowment of inanimate objects, animals, or abstract concepts with animate or human-living qualities

• anthropomorphism

• dehumanization

• objectification

• personification

the pattern of rhymes falling at the ends of a poem’s lines

• meter

• stanza

• alliteration

• rhyme scheme

fundamental unit in verse, carrying meaning both horizontally across the page and vertically from one line to the next.

• line

• stanza

• paragraph

• word

a form of poetry that consists of 14 lines and has a specific rhyme scheme

• Haiku

• Limerick

• Sonnet

• Free verse

a humorous five-line poem with a specific rhythm and rhyme scheme (AABBA)

• Sonnet

• Limerick

• Haiku

• Free verse

a form of poetry that does not have a regular rhythm or rhyme scheme

• Sonnet

• Haiku

• Free verse

• Limerick