A Glossary of Poetic Terms

 

Types of Poems (Verse Patterns)

 

Haiku

Haiku is a three-line Japanese poetic form that expresses a brief, vivid thought or observation about one event in nature. Haiku usually does not rhyme. It is written in the present tense and refers to one or more of the five senses. The pattern of the poem is three lines totaling seventeen syllables, arranged in lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables.

 

Example:

Winter wind whistles

Rude, crude, arrogant pusher.

Bow gracious silk tree.

by Iris M. Tiedt

 

Tanka

Tanka is an extension of haiku. It has a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern.

 

Example:

Silver raindrops fall:

A puddle of water stands.

Ocean before me,

All the world is reflected

Look hard and you see black mud.

by Irene Tabata

 

Shape Poem

A shape poem arranged words in the shape of whatever they are describing.

 

Example: (This poem is in the shape of a popsicle with the first bite taken from the corner.)

                    The

                    popsicle

                    days of

                    summer melt

                    away, one by

                              o

                              n

                              e

 

Cinquain

A cinquain contains eleven words arranged in five lines according to parts of speech. The first line has one word: a noun. The second line has two words: adjectives that describe the noun. The third line has three words: verbs that describe the noun’s action. The fourth line has four words: any parts of speech that describe a feeling. The fifth line is a one-word synonym for the word in the first line.

 

Example:

Dew

Shiny, wet

Dripping, running, lifting

Beautifully, joyful, drifting silence

Mist.

by Leslie Mitchell

 

Acrostic

An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word to begin a line of description.

 

Example: Tree

To swing from limb to limb

Resting beneath the leaves

Excites the chimpanzee

Eating bananas.

 

Limerick

A limerick is a five-line poem. Lines one, two, and five rhyme and contain three accented syllables called a triplet. Lines three and four rhyme and contain two accented syllables called a couplet.

 

Example:

There was a boy from Rome

Who never used a comb.

His hair was a sight,

It never looked right!

A boy like that should stay home.

 

Diamante

A diamante is a sixteen-word diamond-shaped poem. In seven lines, a diamante moves from the noun in the first line to its opposite in the last line. The first line is a noun. The second line has two adjectives that describe the noun. The third line has three verbs that describe the action of the noun. The fourth line has four nouns; the first two nouns are related to the noun in line one while the last two nouns are related to a word that is the opposite of the noun in the first line. The fifth line has three verbs that describe the noun in line seven. The sixth line has two adjectives that describe the noun in line seven. The last line is a noun that is the opposite of the noun in the first line. It is helpful to write lines one and seven first.

 

Example:

Summer

Warm, lazy

Swimming, playing, laughing

Vacation, sunshine, homework, snow

Freezing, shivering sneezing

Cold, forbidding

Winter.

by Jenny

 

Quatrain

A quatrain is a four-line verse pattern that may have any rhythm and rhyme scheme.

 

Example:

A window box of roses

Makes everyone stand still

To see a garden growing

Upon a windowsill.

by Emily Dickinson

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Poetic Devices

Sound Devices

• Alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words (e.g., "Waves want to be wheels;" "Linda licked a lemon lollipop;" "I love to see a garden growing.")
• Onomatopoeia - the use of words that sound like the natural noises they name (e.g., "quack," "crash," "drip," "creak," "woof")

Figurative Language

• Simile - uses like or as to compare one thing to another (e.g., "The car sprang forward like a tiger," "The boy is as ferocious as a lion.")
• Metaphor - an implied comparison that says one thing is another (e.g., "The road was a ribbon of moonlight.")
• Personification - gives human qualities to objects or animals (e.g., "The rainbow danced a jig.")