A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.

The comparison is hinted at but not clearly stated.

A rhyme of two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed, as “waken” and “forsaken” and “audition” and “rendition.”; sometimes called double rhyme.

Two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter and used widely in eighteenth-century verse.

A series of three-line stanzas (tercets) with a defined, “interlocking” rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.).

Characteristic of ordinary conversation rather than formal speech or writing.

A special type of third-person narration that slips in and out of characters’ consciousness. In other words, characters’ thoughts, feelings, and words are filtered through the third-person narrator.