The voice used by an author to tell a story or speak a poem.

The speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the author's self.

A type of brief poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker.

It is important to realize, however, that although the lyric is uttered in the first person, the speaker is not necessarily the poet. There are many forms: dramatic, monologue, elegy, haiku, ode, and sonnet.

A poem that tells a story.

A narrative poem may be short or long, and the story it relates may be simple or complex.

An idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse.

Cliches often anesthetize readers, and are usually a sign of weak writing.

A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentences structure, and figurative language.

It includes Formal diction, Middle diction, Informal diction, and Poetic diction.

Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word.

For example, "fragrance" has a positive connotation and "stench" has a negative connotation.

A type of lyric poem in which a character (the speaker) addresses a distinct but silent audience imagined to be present in the poem

in such a way as to reveal a dramatic situation, and often unintentionally, some aspect of his or her own temperament or personality.

"Seize the Day"

This is a very common literary theme, especially in lyric poetry, which emphasizes that life is short, time is fleeting, and one should make the most of the present pleasures.

A brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.

For example, many poems contain allusions

(explicit or implicit) to the Bible.

A word, phrase, or figure of speech that

addresses the senses,

suggesting mental pictures of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or actions. Images offer sensory impressions to the reader and also convey emotions and moods through their verbal pictures.

A figure of speech that makes an comparison between two unlike things, without using the work "like" or "as."

They assert the identity of dissimilar things.

Tenor: the meaning or interpretation of the metaphor.

Vehicle: the thing to which the tenor is compared.

For example, in the metaphor "family tree" the vehicle is a physical tree and the tenor is the set of relationships.

A metaphor that continues through an entire poem.

For example, "A Author to Her Book" contains a controlling metaphor that compares the author's book to a child.  A controlling metaphor continues through an entire poem; an extended metaphor can continue through part or all of the poem.

A play on words

that relies on a word's having more than one meaning or sounding like another word.

An address, either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend.

Example: "To a Wasp"

Apostrophe often provides a speaker the opportunity to think out loud.

A boldly

exaggerated statement

that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true.

A narration or description usually restricted to a single meaning because its

events, actions, characters, setting, and objects represent specific abstractions or ideas.

Example: "Faith, Hope, and Charity" are women's names and represent abstract qualities.

The literary art of

ridiculing a folly or vice in order to expose or correct it.

a word that resembles a sound

Examples: Buzz, Click

The repetition of the same consonant sound in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of the word or stressed syllable.

Example:

fabulous fragrant flowers

Consists of one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable.

Example: Away

Consists of one stressed followed by one unstressed.

Example:  Lovely

Two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

Example: Understand

One stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

Example: Desperate

Note: the term "dactylic" is easier to use than "dactyl" because "dactylic" has three syllables.

a foot consisting of

two stressed syllables

Example: dead set

Is not a sustained metrical foot and is used

mainly for variety of emphasis.

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

A pause within a line

of poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line.

A poetic line that has

a pause at the end.

It reflects normal speech patterns and

is often marked by punctuation.

In poetry, when one

line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning.

A grouping of lines

set of by a space,

 that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.

The pattern of end rhymes.

Rhyme schemes are mapped out by

noting patterns of rhyme with small letters.

For example, the rhyme scheme of a limerick is AABBA.

A poetic unit of exactly six lines,

usually forming one part of a sonnet

Organized into

three quatrains

and a couplet,

which typically rhymes

abab cdcd efef gg.

A

brief, pointed, and witty poem

that usually makes a satiric or humorous point.

Most often written in couplets,

but takes no prescribed form.

A light, humorous style of fixed form poetry that usually consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba.

Lines 1,2, and 5 have 3 metrical feet and lines 3 and 4 have two metrical feet.

A style of lyric poetry borrowed from the Japanese that typically presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature, which traditionally is designed to lead to a spiritual insight.

Usually has three unrhymed lines consisting of

five, seven, and five syllables.

A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead,

often ending in consolation.

A relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style.

They are characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life; their tone tends to be formal and there is no specific pattern that defines an ode.

A humorous

imitation of another poem.

It can take any fixed or open form, because parodists imitate the tone, language, and shape of the original in order to deflate the subject matter, making the original work seem absurd.

Poetic Meter:

pentameter

A poetic line with

five metrical feet.

Example:

"The University of Michigan"

is iambic pentameter.

Poetic Meter:

Tetrameter

A poetic line with

four metrical feet.

Example:

"Whose woods these are I think I know"

is iambic tetrameter

Poetic meter:

Trimeter

A poetic line with

three

metrical feet.

Example:

"She lived in storm and strife"

is iambic trimeter

Poetic meter:

Iambic Pentameter

A poetic line consisting of five iambic metrical feet.

It is the standard poetic line in

English Poetry.

Example:

"Brought death into the world and all our woe"

(John Milton, Paradise Lost)