Rhyme’s Reason: Reading: Literature - Poetry - High School

If you want to be well-versed in poetry, review this vocabulary list. Learn about parts of a poem, genres of poetry, literary devices, rhyme and meter, and more. This list is truly poetry in motion!
91 words 1887 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. accent
    the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note
  2. Alexandrine
    (prosody) a line of verse that has six iambic feet
  3. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
  4. amphibrach
    a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed-unstressed syllables (e.g., `remember')
  5. anagram
    a phrase rearranged from the letters of another phrase
  6. anapest
    two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable
  7. anapestic
    characterized by two short syllables followed by a long one
  8. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
  9. ballad
    a narrative poem of popular origin
  10. caesura
    a break or pause in the middle of a verse line
  11. canto
    a major division of a long poem
  12. chanson de geste
    Old French epic poems
  13. conceit
    an elaborate poetic image comparing very dissimilar things
  14. consonance
    the repetition of sounds especially at the ends of words
  15. couplet
    a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse
  16. dactyl
    metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables
  17. dactylic
    of or consisting of dactyls
  18. dibrach
    a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables
  19. diction
    the manner in which something is expressed in words
  20. dirge
    a song or hymn of mourning as a memorial to a dead person
  21. doggerel
    a comic verse of irregular measure
  22. eclogue
    a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life
  23. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
  24. English sonnet
    a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg
  25. enjambment
    continuation from one line of verse into the next line
  26. envoy
    a brief stanza concluding certain forms of poetry
  27. epic
    a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
  28. epigram
    a witty saying
  29. epistle
    a specially long, formal letter
  30. epitaph
    an inscription in memory of a buried person
  31. epithalamium
    an ode in honor of a wedding
  32. figurative
    not literal
  33. foot
    a group of syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm
  34. free verse
    poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
  35. haiku
    an epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines
  36. heroic couplet
    a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style
  37. hexameter
    a verse line having six metrical feet
  38. Horatian ode
    an ode with several stanzas
  39. hymn
    a song of praise, especially a religious song
  40. iamb
    a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables
  41. iambic
    of metrical units having an unstressed/stressed pattern
  42. idyll
    a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life
  43. internal rhyme
    a rhyme between words in the same line
  44. Italian sonnet
    a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd
  45. lament
    a mournful poem
  46. lay
    a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
  47. limerick
    a humorous rhymed verse form of five lines
  48. lyric
    a short poem of songlike quality
  49. madrigal
    an unaccompanied partsong for several voices
  50. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  51. meter
    a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse
  52. metrical
    relating to the rhythmic arrangement of syllables
  53. metrical foot
    (prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm
  54. mood
    the prevailing psychological state
  55. octave
    a rhythmic group of eight lines of verse
  56. ode
    a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
  57. ottava rima
    a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse with the rhyme scheme abababcc
  58. panegyric
    a formal expression of praise
  59. pastoral
    a literary work idealizing the rural life
  60. pentameter
    a verse line having five metrical feet
  61. personification
    representing an abstract quality or idea as a human
  62. Petrarchan sonnet
    a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd
  63. Pindaric ode
    an ode form used by Pindar
  64. prose poem
    prose that resembles poetry
  65. pyrrhic
    a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables
  66. quatrain
    a stanza of four lines
  67. refrain
    part of a song or poem that recurs at regular intervals
  68. rhyme
    correspondence in the final sounds of two or more lines
  69. rhyme royal
    a stanza form having seven lines of iambic pentameter
  70. rhythm
    alternation of stressed and unstressed elements in speech
  71. rondeau
    a French verse form of 10 or 13 lines running on two rhymes
  72. rondel
    a French verse form of 10 or 13 lines running on two rhymes
  73. scan
    read metrically
  74. scansion
    analysis of verse into metrical patterns
  75. sestet
    a group of six lines of verse
  76. Shakespearean sonnet
    a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg
  77. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  78. sonnet
    a verse form of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
  79. Spenserian stanza
    a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c
  80. spondaic
    of or consisting of spondees
  81. spondee
    a metrical unit with stressed-stressed syllables
  82. stanza
    a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
  83. stress
    the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note
  84. terza rima
    a verse form with tercets having an interlaced rhyme scheme
  85. tetrameter
    a verse line having four stressed feet
  86. tone
    a quality that reveals the attitudes of the author
  87. tanka
    a Japanese verse form of 5 lines with 5 or 7 syllables
  88. trochaic
    of or consisting of trochees
  89. trochee
    a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed syllables
  90. trope
    language used in a nonliteral sense
  91. verse
    literature in metrical form
Created on Tue Jan 17 10:50:04 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 15:59:09 EDT 2017)

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