A form of poem in which the first syllables of each line spell out a word, name, or phrase. See How to Write an Acrostic Poem.
Repeating the consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words, such as the "p" sound in the words "My puppy makes pizza" in the poem My Puppy Makes Pizza. See Alliteration and Assonance Lesson Plan.
A word or phrase created by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. For example, "notes" is an anagram of "stone." See the poem Anna Graham for many more examples of anagrams.
Repeating the vowel sounds in the stressed, or accented, syllables in nearby words. For example, in the phrase "flying kites" the repeated long "i" sound are assonant. See Alliteration and Assonance Lesson Plan.
A form of poetry, usually suitable for singing, that tells a story in stanzas of two or four lines, and often has a refrain.
A five-line poetic form in which the lines have 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables, in that order. See How to Write a Cinquain Poem.
A four-line humorous poetic form comprised of two rhymed couplets, with the first line usually being the someone's name. See How to Write a Clerihew.
A rhyme of two words that are next to one another or close to one another, such as "Humpty Dumpty," tighty-whitey," "fat cat," or "fair and square." Not to be confused with Near Rhyme.
A poem in which the meaning is conveyed by the placement and design of the words on the page instead of, or in addition to, the usual arrangement of words. Also sometimes called Visual Poetry.
A rhyme where the stress is on the second-to-last syllable of the words, and the end sounds are the same, starting with the vowel of the stressed syllables. Some examples are batter / fatter, ocean / lotion, and camping / stamping. Double rhymes are also called "feminine rhymes." See How to Rhyme.
Rhyming words at the ends of the lines of a poem. See also internal rhyme.
A short poem written about someone who has died, often inscribed on the headstone of their grave. Epitaphs usually praise the person, and are sometimes humorous.
To overstate something; to claim that it is bigger, better, faster, smellier, etc. than is actually true. When Larry Made Lasagna is an example of a exaggeration poem. See How to Write an Exaggeration Poem. See also Hyperbole.
In poetry, a group of two or more syllables, one of which is stressed. Metrical poems are often written in feet with the same number of syllables with the stress in the same place in each foot. For example, the line "My puppy punched me in the eye" is made up of four feet, each with the stress on the second syllable, as in "my PUP | py PUNCHED | me IN | the EYE." The most common poetic feet are two or three syllables long. See the poem My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye.
Most commonly, an end rhyme where the lines are written in an unnatural manner in order to "force" the words to rhyme. A forced rhyme may also be a near rhyme, wrenched rhyme, or a line where irrelevant or unnecessary information is added to the poem for the sake of making lines rhyme. See Forced Rhymes and How to Avoid Them.
A "type" of poem, written by following a set of rules such as the number of lines or syllables, the placement of rhymes, etc.. Common poetic forms include acrostic, cinquain, free verse, haiku, etc. See Poetry Lessons for Kids to learn how to write many different poetic forms.
A poetic form that avoids using fixed patterns of meter. Free verse often also avoids rhymes, but still may make use of other poetic techniques such as imagery and metaphor, as well as sound devices such as assonance and alliteration.
A short, unrhymed Japanese poetic form with three lines of five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables. See How to Write a Haiku.
A word that has the same spelling and sound as another word, but a different meaning. For example "fine" (an adjective meaning nice) and "fine" (a noun meaning money you have to pay as a punishment) are homonyms.
A word that has the same sound as another word, but a different spelling and meaning. For example, "there," "their," and "they're" are homphones.
Pronounced "hi-PER-buh-lee." A extreme and obvious exaggeration, not meant to be believed or taken literally. For example, "he has million-dollar hair" or "this test is taking forever." See How to Write an Exaggeration Poem.
Language and poetic techniques used to create mental pictures and cause emotions in the reader.
Rhymes within a line of poetry. For example, the poem My Pet Germs by Kenn Nesbitt contains an internal rhyme on the third line of each stanza.
Poetry that is intended to be humorous, amusing, or entertaining. While there is some light verse written in free verse, most light verse is written in rhyme and meter. There are also many light-verse poetic forms, such as limericks, clerihews, double-dactyls, etc.
A humorous 5-line poetic form with an AABBA rhyme scheme. See How to Write a Limerick.
A single row of words in a poem. For example, a limerick has five lines, while a haiku has three lines. Lines are one of the main things that distinguish poetry from prose.
A poem that contains a list of things, people, places, etc. See How to Write a Funny List Poem.
Rhythmical patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
A poem that tells a story. Narrative poems usually have a plot and one or more characters.
Also called a "slant rhyme" or a "half rhyme," "near rhyme" is a general term describing words that sound similar, but aren't a perfect rhyme. Assonance, consonance and sight rhymes are common types of near rhymes. See also Assonance and Alliteration Lesson Plan.
A form of light verse, usually rhymed and metrical, often with strange characters, fantastic or impossible situations, and made-up words. Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky and Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat are famous examples of nonsense poetry.
A short, rhyming poem for young children, often telling a short story or describing an interesting character. The most well-known nursery rhymes in the English language are those attributed to Mother Goose.
A poem written to commemorate a specific occasion or event, such as a birthday, wedding, funeral, anniversary, graduation, military victory, etc.
A word or phrase that is spelled the same backward as it is forward, ignoring spaces, capitalization, and punctuation, such as "Bob," "mom," "radar," "race car," "madam, I'm Adam," etc.
Two words that have exactly the same vowel and consonant sounds at the ends, starting with the first vowel of the last stressed syllable. For example, green/bean, dummy/tummy, and cavity/gravity are all perfect rhymes. Note that the first consonant sound of the last stressed syllable must be different. For example leaf/belief is not a perfect rhyme because the final stressed syllable of each word begins with the same consonant "l" sound. See also: Near Rhyme, Assonance, and Consonance.
A written composition, often using rhythm, rhyme, metaphor, and other such artistic techniques to express an idea, feelings, or a story.
Literature written in verse, as opposed to prose, often written in metrical lines.
Ordinary writing or spoken language, usually written in sentences and paragraphs, as opposed to rhythmical lines.
A four-line poem or stanza.
A phrase, line, or stanza that is repeated throughout a poem, often after each stanza.
Using the same word, phrase, line, or stanza two or more times in a poem.
Having the same sound at the end of two or more words such as pine / fine, nickel / pickle, and ability / fragility. See also perfect rhyme, near rhyme, wrenched rhyme, and How to Rhyme Video Lesson Plan.
The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, written out as letters, such as AABB or ABAB. See Rhyme Schemes Lesson Plan to learn how to write the rhyme scheme of a poem.
The sound and feel created by the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables, usually repeated, in a poem.
Words that end with the same letters, but not the same sound, such as rough / cough / plough or prove / love / grove.
A rhyme in which the stress is on the final syllable of the words, such as cat / hat, and play / away. Also called a "masculine rhyme." See How to Rhyme.
A group of lines in a poem, separated by space from other stanzas, much like a paragraph in prose.
A part of a word, usually a vowel and it's surrounding consonants, that makes a single sound when spoken. All words have at least one syllable. For example, cat, I, and would are all one syllable long because they are spoken with a single movement of the mouth. Cattle, eyeball, and wouldn't are all two syllables because they require two separate sounds to be spoken.
A word that has the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another word.
A 5-line, 31-syllable unrhymed traditional Japanese poetic form, with five syllables on the first and third lines, and seven syllables on the second, fourth, and fifth lines. See also How to Write a Tanka Poem.
A group of three lines that rhyme with one another, or are connected to another tercet by their rhyme scheme.
The main idea, topic, or subject of a poem.
A rhyme in which the third-to-last syllable in the words final stressed syllable. For example, cavity / gravity, hammering / stammering, and nobility / agility are all triple rhymes. See How to Rhyme.
Rhyming the final syllables of two words, where one is stressed and the other is not. For example the words "sing" and "morning" are a wrenched rhyme because "sing" is stressed on the final (and only) syllable, but "morning" is stressed on the second-to-last syllable. Other examples include tin/imagine, frog/catalog, etc. See also Perfect Rhyme.