Name ______

Period ______
Date ______

Literary Terms for Poetry

There are many literary devices commonly used to enrich

the ______and ______ of poetry.

These literary devices enrich ______by giving the reader several levels of connection:

  • simile:

a comparison of two unlike things which uses “like” or “as.”

Example: ______

  • metaphor:

a comparison of two unlike things which does not use “like” or “as.”

Example: ______

  • personification:

attributing human feelings, thoughts, or actions to non-human things.

Example: ______

  • symbol:

a person, a place or a thing that has meaning in itself, but that stand for something else as well.

Example: ______

  • imagery:

concrete details that appeal to the senses; by using specific images, an author establishes mood and

arouses emotion in his readers; creating a picture.

Example: ______

  • hyperbole:

an obvious and intentional exaggeration; an extravagant statement, not meant to be taken literally. Example: ______

  • concrete poetry:

it visually presents something important about a poem’s meaning. Some poems are shapes filled in

with words; in other poems words may outline a shape or imitate a movement.

These literary devices enrich ______by giving poetry a pleasing depth beyond the literal meaning of the words.

  • onomatopoeia:

The use of words whose sounds imitate or suggest their meaning.

Example: ______

  • alliteration:

The repetition of consonant sounds in worlds that are close together.

Example: ______

  • assonance:

The repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together.

Example: ______

  • rhyme: The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem.

Example: ______

______

o  internal rhyme: rhyme ______lines.

o  end rhyme: rhyme at the ______of lines.

o  couplet: ______lines that rhyme in one stanza

o  triplet: ______lines that rhyme in one stanza

  • tone:

An author’s attitude toward his subject as expressed in a literary work

Example: ______

  • allusion:

A reference within a literary work to a historical, literary, or biblical character, place, or event.

Example: ______

  • idiom:

A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its literal meaning. Example: ______