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A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind using 'like' or 'as'. Example: 'Her cheeks are red like roses.'

In poetry, the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. Example: 'It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a Nun.'

The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse. Example: 'ABAB' in 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, / How I wonder what you are (A). / Up above the world so high, / Like a diamond in the sky (A).'

A figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Example: 'Time is a thief.'

The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. Example: 'The fire station burned down.'

The recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity. Example: 'The lumpy, bumpy road.'

The repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible. Example: 'Hear the mellow wedding bells.'

Descriptive or figurative language used to create word pictures; it uses sensory details to appeal to the physical senses. Example: 'The golden yellow sunlight filtered down through the pale new leaves of the oak trees.'

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. Example: 'The wind whispered through the trees.'

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. Example: 'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.'

A word that imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described. Example: 'The bees buzzed as they passed by.'

A unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also known as a foot. Example: 'Iambic pentameter' is five feet of unstressed then stressed syllables.

Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter. Example: 'Come slowly, Eden! Lips unused to thee. Bashful, sip thy jasmines, as the fainting bee.'

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Example: 'Jumbo shrimp' or 'deafening silence.'

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Example: 'She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore.'

The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Example: 'The dove is a symbol of peace.'

A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line. Example: Shakespearean sonnet, which has the rhyme scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG.

A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. Example: 'Atheism is a non-prophet organization.'

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Example: 'Every day, every night, in every way, I am getting better and better.'

An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference. Example: 'He was a real Romeo with the ladies.'

A Japanese form of poetry consisting of three lines with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5. Example: 'An old silent pond / A frog jumps into the pond— / Splash! Silence again.'

A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. Example: 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats' by W.H. Auden.

The repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences. Example: 'Where now? Who now? When now?'

Poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. Example: Much of Shakespeare's plays are written in blank verse.