Poetry Glossary - Understand Poetry Terms

Term	Definition	Example
Allegory	A narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. It tells a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols that have both literal and figurative meanings.	George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is an allegory of Soviet totalitarianism.
Alliteration	The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.	Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Allusion	An indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.	"He was a real Romeo with the ladies."
Anaphora	The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.	"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets..."
Antithesis	A rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.	"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Apostrophe	A figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing.	"O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Assonance	The repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.	"Hear the mellow wedding bells."
Ballad	A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas, often with a repeated refrain.	Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a famous ballad.
Bathos	An abrupt transition from a serious or elevated subject to a trivial one, often for comedic effect.	"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
Blank Verse	Unrhymed iambic pentameter.	"The dreams are clues that tell us take chances."

Our comprehensive Poetry Glossary, designed for students, teachers, and poetry enthusiasts alike. Whether you're delving into poetic forms, exploring rhyme schemes, or understanding the nuances of metrical feet, our glossary is an essential resource to enhance your study of poetry.

Our glossary covers a wide range of poetry terms, from alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds, to the structure of free verse, which flows without a fixed metrical pattern. Learn about how stressed and unstressed syllables form the foundation of metrical feet, or explore how a rhyme scheme organizes the pattern of sounds at the end of lines in a poem.

Use the search function to quickly find terms like group of lines in a stanza or the repetition of sounds in a poem or section. Whether you're looking to understand how a series of words creates rhythmic patterns or how the number of syllables affects the flow of a line of poetry, our glossary has the definitions and examples you need.