alliteration  The repetition of the beginning sounds of words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of

pickled peppers,” “long-lived,” “short shrift,” and “the fickle finger of fate.”

assonance the use of the same vowel sound with

different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables, as in a line of verse. Examples are time  and light  or mystery  and mastery

cacophony   the use of unharmonious or dissonant

speech sounds in language

cou·plet

a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length.

figurative The meaning of the poem that is

deeper than just the words on the page.

im·age·ry figurative or descriptive language in

a literary work

internal rhyme 

a rhyme created by words within two or more lines of a verse.

literal   word for word

metaphor A comparison of two things not using

the words “like” or “as.”

meter poetic measure; arrangement of

words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses

onomatopoeia the formation of words whose sound

is imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated, such as hiss, buzz,  and bang

oxymoron A rhetorical device in which two

seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect: “She is just a poor little rich girl.”

personification the attribution of human

characteristics to things, abstract ideas, etc, as for literary or artistic effect

prose the ordinary form of spoken or

written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.

rhyme A word agreeing with another in end

sound: Find is a rhyme for  mind and  womankind

simile a figure of speech in which two unlike

things are explicitly compared using “like” or “as”, for example “she is like a rose.”

Stanza an arrangement of a certain number

of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem

Symbol something used for or regarded as

representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.

theme a unifying or dominant idea

tone The overall mood or feeling in a

poem.