Because poetry tends to be an especially musical form of writing, there are a number of words that poets use to talk about their particular techniques. Here is some vocabulary to help you discuss the music of your poetry. Enjoy!
Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words.
Anapest
Two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one, as in un-der-STAND.
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Caesura
A pause within a line.
Dactyl
A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, as in SHUD-der-ing.
Diction
The selection of words in a literary work—for example, if a narrator says blood-red, that selection has different connotations than rose-red, even though the colors may be similar.
Elision
The omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable—such as o’er for over.
Falling meter
Meters that move (or fall) from stressed syllables to unstressed syllables.
Foot
A unit of measure in a metrical line; syllables included in a kind of musical bar or measure.
Iamb (as in Iambic)
An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in at-TEMPT.
Meter
The pattern of accents in poems.
Onomatopoeia
Words that imitate the sounds they describe.
Pyrrhic
A metrical foot composed of two unstressed syllables (as in for the).
Rhyme
Matching sounds in two or more words.
Rhythm
The repetition of accents or stresses.
Rising meter
Poetic meters that move (or ascend) from unstressed to stressed.
Spondee
A metrical foot represented by two stressed syllables.
Style
The way an author selects and arranges words, and develops ideas using literary techniques.
Syntax
The order of words.
Tone
The writer’s attitude implicitly conveyed through diction, syntax, etc.
Trochee
Accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, as in MAY-be.