Poetry Glossary - Understand Poetry Terms

Term	Definition	Example
Word Picture	A descriptive or evocative piece of writing in poetry that creates a vivid image in the reader’s mind.	William Wordsworth’s nature poems often create word pictures of the English countryside.
Word Play	The clever and witty use of words to create humor, double meanings, or linguistic creativity in poetry.	Shakespeare’s sonnets are full of word play, using puns and double entendres to add layers of meaning.
Wrenched Accent	A forced change in the normal accent or stress pattern of a word in a poem to fit the meter or rhyme scheme.	In Robert Browning's poetry, wrenched accents are sometimes used to maintain the rhyme and rhythm.
Wrinkle Rhyme	A type of rhyme that is slightly imperfect or a slant rhyme, where the consonant sounds match but the vowel sounds do not.	Emily Dickinson often used wrinkle rhyme, as in "One need not be a Chamber—to be Haunted—".
Writing in Verse	The practice of composing text in metrical form, following the rules of rhythm and meter traditionally associated with poetry.	Shakespeare wrote his plays in both prose and verse, with most of his characters speaking in verse.

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.