Blank Verse: poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines.

Free Verse: Poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern, or meter. Free verse seeks to capture the rhythms of speech.

Figure of speech: an expression that uses words in a non-literal way.

Refrain: the repetition of words, phrases, line, or lines according to a pattern.

Symbol: anything that stands for or represents something else.

Epic: a long narrative poem about the deeds of gods or heroes.

Sonnet: a 14-line lyric poem, usually written in rhymed iambic pentameter.

Lyric poem: a highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker.

Homophone: one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or spelling (as the words to, too, and two)

Homograph: one of two or more words spelled alike but different in meaning or pronunciation (as the bow of a ship, a bow and arrow)

Paradox: a statement that seems contradictory but that actually may be true.

Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined.

Mood: the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage.

Tone: the writer’s attitude toward his or her audience and subject.

Cacophony: a harsh or discordant sound; unpleasant

Euphony: pleasing, harmonious sounds

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds.

Alliteration: repetition of an initial sound in two or more words.

Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of words.

Diction: the choice of words used to give a specific tone.

SIMILE: a figure of speech in which LIKE or AS is used to make a comparision between two basically unlike ideas.

METAPHOR: a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else; a direct comparison between two things.

HYPERBOLE: a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

IAMBIC: unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable (as in "again")

TROCHEE: stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed syllable (as in "wonder")

RHYTHM: the pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language.

RHYME: the repetition of sounds at the end of the words.

ONOMATOPOEIA: the use of words that imitate sounds (as in WHIRR, THUD, BOOM, SIZZLE, HISS)

ENJAMBMENT: lines that do not end with grammatical breaks.

RHYME SCHEME: a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem (i.e., ababcc)