Welcome to our large glossary of poetry terms and examples! The poetry terms are organized by category and then in alphabetical order. Most poetry terms have at least one example or link to examples, including examples written by teens at Write the World.
Poetic techniques are the tools writers use to evoke meaning. From what sounds you choose to how you combine certain words; techniques aim to illicit a certain effect on the reader. Specifically choosing and trying different techniques can help writers improve the emotional impact and message of their poem.
In one sentence: The repetition of sound in a series or sequence of words.
Why writers use it: Writers use alliteration to create rhythm or emphasis through the repetition of the same sound.
Examples:
“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” (Poe)
"A whisper to swallow the sky." (Yechan, South Korea, "From Chrysalis to Sky")
In one sentence: A disruption of harmony or rhythm, such as sounds that clash with each other.
Why writers use it: Writer use dissonance as a jarring effect, to catch readers off-guard, or imply that something isn't in harmony or as it seems.
Examples:
"The wind flung a magpie away and a black-
Back gull bent like an iron bar slowly"
(Ted Hughes, “Wind”)
In one sentence: When a sentence continues past the end of the line without a pause.
Why writers use it: Enjambment can create a sense of flow and continuation, emphasize the word at the end of the line break without using punctuation, and it can also feel more like natural speech or spoken word.
Examples:
home within the thick-veined trees, the cicadas sing again.
maybe that is why my father stops the car in the middle of the road
after I laugh and tell him my teacher called me Judy
only because we share the same colored skin, but not really.(Cindy, 16, United States, "Cicada Season")
In one sentence: A non-literal use of language, such as metaphor or simile.
Why writers use it: To find commonality with something the reader might more readily understand.
In one sentence: A type of figure of speech that helps describe the subject by stating it is something else (object, feeling, idea, place, sound, etc.).
Why writers use it: A metaphor is often used to give the reader a richer understanding of the subject.
Often confused with the term simile.
Examples:
“The moon was a salt lick
For her cattle of darkness”
(Frank Stanford)
" 'Cause baby you're a firework"
(Katy Perry)
In one sentence: The technique of representing a particular emotion with symbols, images, actions, and events
Why writers use it: To evoke a desired emotional response in the reader.
Examples:
“The piercing chill I feel:
my dead wife’s comb, in our bedroom,
under my heel…”
(Taniguchi Buson)
In one sentence: A figure of speech that conjoins contradictory words.
Why writers use it: The tension between contradictory words helps writers express emotional contradictions, add an element of surprise, and/or reveal a deeper truth.
Examples:
Act natural
Organized chaos
Jumbo shrimp
Definitely maybe
In one sentence: A figure of speech in which a nonhuman thing is described as if it were a person.
Why writer use it: To associate or evoke emotion with an inanimate object.
Examples:
“There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.”
(Robert Frost, “Mowing”)
"how for just a heartbeat the island holds its breath"
(Jaime, Singapore, "Swollen Moun the of the Storm")
In one sentence: A word or phrase used multiple times.
Why writer use it: To create rhythm and emphasize the word, sound or beat.
Examples:
Lineage
Is what I carry on my back.
Lineage
Is a breath, held in reverence.
Lineage
Is the greatest monument.(Rebecca, United States, "Lineage")
In one sentence: A type of metaphor that compares the subject to something else, using "as" or "like" in order to describe it.
Why writers use it: To give the reader a richer understanding or frame of reference for the subject.
Often confused with the term metaphor.
Examples:
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or festers like a sore—
And then run?”
(Langston Hughes, "A Dream Deferred")
"A day without you is like a year without rain"
(Selena Gomez)
Some words hit like hailstones—
sharp, bruising, merciless.
Grief struck a woman’s chest—
spilled her open,
like a broken typewriter.(Shine Lee, South Korea, "It Rains Words")
In one sentence: Something that represents or is a sign for something else.
Why writers use it: Symbols help show an emotion, an experience or an abstraction in a concrete and visually impactfultful way.
Examples:
“Brown and barren” in the following poem represents growing old.
“Now the fields are brown and barren,
Bitter autumn blows”
(Sarah Teasdale, “Wild Asters”)
Forms are types of poetic structure: how you put the words together on the page and/or in rhythm and sound. Form might be one of the first decisions made when writing a poem, because they usually follow certain conventions or rules that may constrain your writing. Different forms have historical origins from different places in the world and different cultural aspects that you as a writer may wish to evoke.
In one sentence: In an acrostic poem, the first letters of each line should form the title of your poem.
Why writers use it: A type of concrete poem, the acrostic can be used to explore the meaning or essence of a person, thing or concept.
Examples:
Parts of my heart I won’t say,
Or tales of my mind I hide away.
Every thought turns into ink,
Trailing my hands before I think.
Radiant feelings I cannot destroy,
Yearning for words that feel like joy.(Noor, India, "Poetry")
In one sentence: A ballad is a narrative poem consisting of quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter with a rhyme scheme (usually ABCB).
Why writers use it: Ballads are used to tell stories about love, adventure, tragedy or history using repetition, rhythm and rhyme to entertain the audience.
Examples:
There was once a fox and a wolf
Who met on Fate’s demand,
They shook hands and joined forces
Something they both couldn't stand.(Anu, the Netherlands, "The ballad of the Fox and the Wolf")
In one sentence: A ghazal is a poem composed of couplets that can stand alone, but are linked together by a repeating rhyme and refrain.
Why writers use it: Originating in Arabic and Persian traditions, a ghazal often expresses longing, spiritual yearning or bittersweet love.
Examples:
For couplets the ghazal is prime; at the end
Of each one’s a refrain like a chime: “at the end.”But in subsequent couplets throughout the whole poem,
It’s this second line only will rhyme at the end.(John Hollander, "Ghazals on Gazals")
This is how I feel, when did you forget me
my emotions would reveal, when did you forget me
Everything you knew was me
I used to be your zeal, when did you forget me
(Peony, United States, "When did you forget me?")
In one sentence: A haiku is a short 3-line poem with 5-7-5 syllables per line.
The haiku form originated in Japan and follows the following structure:
Why writers use it: Traditionally, the subject matter of haikus focused on an aspect of the natural world, and often juxtaposed two images or ideas. For example, in the following poem, the image of leaves and birds are compared.
Examples:
The last winter leaves
Clinging to the black branches
Explode into birds.
-unknown
Tin roof leaks mid-sip
Swirl of rust, milk, cardamom
This is nashta too!(coconotmelon, Pakistan, "Monsoon Breakfast")
In one sentence: A humorous short poem with a rhyme scheme of AABBA.
Centuries-old and almost always humorous, limericks became so popular in the 19th century that newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic held weekly limerick-writing competitions. The Limerick Breakdown:
Why writers use it: The familiar rhythm and strong beat is perfect for jokes and wordplay. In addition, the rhyme scheme makes it easy for limericks to be memorized and repeated far and wide!
Examples:
Is Algebra fruitless endeavor?
It seems they’ve been trying for ever
To find x, y, and z
And it’s quite clear to me:
If they’ve not found them yet then they'll never.
(Graham Lester)
Thank you for giving your time!
and sharing your skill so sublime
with a world that does care ---
I owe you out there
for giving me courage to write mine.
(by anonymous teen on Write the World)
In one sentence: Poetry that is not broken into lines, but is instead set out like prose: using flow-on sentences and paragraphs.
Why writers use it: A prose poem brings elements of poetic and narrative writing together into one form.
In one sentence: A classic form that has inspired poets for centuries, the traditional sonnet has 14 lines, each 10 syllables long.
Its rhymes are arranged as either:
ab ab, cdcd, efef, gg - English Sonnet
abba abba cdecde - Italian Sonnet
Why writers use it: Connected to a long literary tradition, sonnets allow poets to challenge themselves to work within the specific pattern that create a musical, rhythmic pattern, and express an idea through the satisfying turn (volta) in the last two lines.
Examples:
Tall and crashing waves take away the pain
The shore salutes the slowly setting sun
It's sunny even on the days it rains
It's warm as much as any day in June
The waves sing a song and end in laughter
The sand shall wrap me up in an embrace
I pray to return the morning after
I pray that I might gaze at summer's face
If I get too close and then she burns me,
I suppose I can rub on some aloe
If her eyes go bad and she walks blindly
I know her summer still will stay aglow
They say our life is nothing but a beach
She is my life, I listen when she speaks(Gerrit, United States, "The Coastal Sonnet")
In one sentence: Poetry intended for live performance.
Why writers use it: With roots in hip hop, rap, jazz, and folk, spoken word and slam poetry often focuses on contemporary issues, such as social justice, politics, and community.
Example: Joshua Bennett (Write the World's 2015 guest judge) performs “Tamaraʼs Opus” at the White House, using sign language, tone, and voice to complement the piece.
In one sentence: a 19-line poem with two refrains and a strict rhyme scheme.
Why writers use it: The repetition creates a circular, echoing effect that evoke emotion.
Examples:
just play with me for another half hour
we'll make recess last past allotted time
pretending we're the roadside wildflowers
we'll invent the rules, make our own power
we'll call them out on petty cheating crimes
just play with me for another half hour(Anonymous writer on Write the World, United States, "why can't I go back to elementary school")
Additional types of poems that don't necessarily follow a specific form or structure.
In one sentence: A poem of mourning and reflection, usually written in response to loss.
Why writers use it: An elegy can honor someone who has passed away, help the author and/or reader process grief, and/or search for meaning and hope.
Examples:
In the realm of sorrow, a poem lies,
Its verses heavy with heart-wrenching cries.
With words like daggers, it cuts deep,
Into the souls of those who weep.(Ivy, United States, "Elegy of Eternal Sorrow")
In one sentence: A narrative poem featuring a heroic main character over the course of a journey spanning large amounts of time, distance, and/or impact.
Why writers use it: Originating from oral storytelling traditions, epic poems can represent the ideals and culture of a people through the tribulations and triumphs of the hero.
Examples:
TELL ME, O MUSE, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
(Homer, "The Odyssey")
In one sentence: A poem dedicated to a person, object, idea or experience.
Why writers use it: An Ode can honor the subject, explore its meaning, or simply marvel at its beauty or impact.
Examples:
Ode to the online,
The folks that make unknown corners of the internet
Feel like home.(Anonymous writer on Write the World, "Ode to the Online")
This category includes how poems can be broken up into parts, and the characteristics of those parts.
In one sentence: A group of lines in a poem, broken up by a space or numbered.
Why writers use it: Just like a paragraph break, a space between stanzas can indicate a shift in time, tone, or thought; or indicate a pause.
Examples:
young beast, butterfly chaser:
do you not know
your time has not come?
these paralyzed limbs used to
pull your small body up to prowl
your mountains of laundry and dishes.(Gemma, United States, "crest")
In one sentence: A phrase or line repeated throughout a poem.
Why writers use it: similar to repetition, a refrain can emphasize a certain image or emotion by taking the reader back through teh refrain again and again.
Examples: Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman (Write the World's 2018 guest judge) performs “An American Lyric” at the Library of Congress, repeating the refrain "there's a poem" throughout the piece.
Verses identify what type of rhythm the poem has. This includes no pattern (free verse) or a rigid pattern (iambic pentameter), or somewhere in-between. In this category of terms, we included types of verse as well as the elements of verses. The type of verse can be a big clue to the reader on how to read and follow the poem, especially as this usually applies to the entire poem rather than just parts of it.
In one sentence: Unrhyming iambic pentameter.
Why writers use it: Creates a natural speech-like rhythm without the constraints of needing to rhyme.
Examples:
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
(Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
In one sentence: Two successive rhyming lines that are of the same length.
Why writers use it: Couplets create a strong rhythmic beat, and can be easier to memorize and repeat.
Example:
“The time is out of joint, O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right!”(Shakespeare, Hamlet)
In one sentence: The deletion of unstressed syllables.
Why writers use it: Removing syllables can help create the intended rhythm to fit the meter, or speed up or smooth out the line. It can also be used to reflect colloquialism, or how the speaker actually speaks.
Examples:
“ere” for “ever”
In one sentence: The unit of measurement for meter, usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable.
Why writers use it: To create an intended rhythm, pacing and/or mood and tone.
In one sentence: Poetry with lines that do not rhyme, or have a regular meter.
Why writers use it: Free verse can give a writer a lot more creative freedom to build the rhythm and flow, to reflect speech or thoughts, or focus on imagery and emotion.
Examples:
The ocean must've handed you to me
How my mother hands me a Binondo siopao
still steaming, skin splitting to leak char siu grease
onto my sugar-powdered palms(Anna, Philippines, "Blobfish Will Save the World")
In one sentence: A foot with one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable (the most common meter of poetry).
Why writers use it: Iambs can create a smooth, repetitive rhythm, like a heartbeat.
Example:
In the words, belong and predict, the second syllable is typically accented, so they read beLONG and preDICT.
In one sentence: A line consisting of five iambs.
Why writers use it: Iambic pentameter can feel smooth and natural and evoke a traditional form.
(We have bolded the accented syllable in the first line of the verse below. Try reading the verse aloud, clapping on each accented syllable.)
Example:
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep
(Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
In one sentence: The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within the lines of a poem.
Example:
WORDS in a SEN-tence you STRESS when you SPEAK.
In one sentence: A single unit of sound within a word.
Example:
The dash-es in this sen-tence mark the syll-a-bles.
That's the end of the poetry glossary! Did we miss anything? Let us know at hello@writetheworld.org!