poetry
Words with meter
Poetry is language shaped by rhythm, sound, and concentrated imagery, typically arranged in lines rather than paragraphs.
It encompasses everything from sonnets to free verse to spoken word.
Poetry often prioritizes musicality and emotional resonance over straightforward communication: She writes poetry in her spare time.
The word extends to anything possessing poetic qualities—grace, beauty, or profound expression: The way he moves on the court is pure poetry.
Poem's line grouping
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- haikuJapanese seventeen-syllable verse
limerick · ballad · ode · epic · elegy · lyric · free verse · blank verse
Device that measures usage
- cadenceRhythmic pulse or pattern
- beatRhythmic pulse or strike
- stressPressure, mental or vocal
- tempoRate of musical performance
foot · scansion · pentameter · iambic · trochee · dactyl · anapest · spondee
Implied identity comparison
- simileComparison via "as"
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
imagery · alliteration · assonance · consonance · hyperbole · irony · allusion · synecdoche
Choice of words
- voiceSound from throat
- verseMetered poetic passage
- lineContinuous mark or queue
- strophePoetic structural division
refrain · volta · tone · register · compression · economy · revision · workshop
Source of creative impulse
- museThink deeply about
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- visionAbility to see
- dreamscapeImagined realm during sleep
reverie · fancy · inventiveness · originality · abstraction · surrealism · daydream · phantasmagoria
Culture passed by speech
- bardPoet of epics
- troubadourMedieval Provençal lyric poet
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
- skaldNorse heroic poet
recitation · anthology · canon · laureate · movement · modernism · romanticism · beat
stanza
Poem's line grouping
haiku · limerick · ballad · ode · epic · elegy · lyric · free verse · blank verse · villanelle
meter
Device that measures usage
tempo · foot · scansion · pentameter · iambic · trochee · dactyl · anapest · spondee · hexameter
metaphor
Implied identity comparison
- simileComparison via "as"
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
personification · imagery · alliteration · assonance · consonance · hyperbole · irony · allusion · synecdoche · metonymy
diction
Choice of words
strophe · refrain · volta · tone · register · compression · economy · revision · workshop · drafting
inspiration
Source of creative impulse
- museThink deeply about
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- visionAbility to see
dreamscape · reverie · fancy · inventiveness · originality · abstraction · surrealism · daydream · phantasmagoria · evocation
oral tradition
Culture passed by speech
- bardPoet of epics
- troubadourMedieval Provençal lyric poet
- griotAfrican oral tradition keeper
skald · recitation · anthology · canon · laureate · movement · modernism · romanticism · beat · confessional
passion
Intense emotional drive
- melancholySubdued, lasting sadness
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- sorrowDeep emotional distress
joy · love · heartache · despair · grief · bliss · nostalgia · yearning · lament · elation
psalm
Sacred scriptural song
scripture · chant · oracle · prophecy · blessing · incantation · sutra · mantra · devotional · sacred verse
- art formspainting, drawing, sculpture, photography, music
- artsartist, creativity, expression, songs, painting
- Arts & Sciencescreativity, music, painting, sculpture, literature
- creative worksbooks, autobiography, memoir, novels, diary
- cultural artsart, music, dance, theater, opera
- culturemusic taste, beliefs, food preferences, custom, festivals
poetryinarticulateness
Inability to speak clearly
gracelessness · banality · clumsiness · flatness · dullness
poetrynonfiction
Literature about real events
reportage · journalism · documentation · data · technical documentation
- waxing poeticSpeaking with heightened eloquence
- nonsense poetryPlayfully meaningless literary form
- poetic justiceFitting outcome matching misdeeds
- war poetryVerse about armed conflict
- traditional poetryFormally structured literary verse
- poetry in motionEffortlessly beautiful movement
poet, poetic, poets, poetical, poetically, poetics, poetaster, unpoetic