This document provides definitions for various types of poetry vocabulary terms, including alliteration, allusion, ballad, blank verse, concrete poem, figurative language, free verse, haiku, image, lyric poem, metaphor, mood, narrative poem, onomatopoeia, personification, refrain, repetition, rhyme, rhyme scheme, rhythm, simile, and stanza. It also discusses humor in poetry arising from surprise, exaggeration, and bringing together of unrelated things. Examples are provided of Lewis Carroll's humorous poem "Father William" and how rhythm and rhyme enhance humor. Limericks are defined as having five lines with a rhyme scheme and being lighthearted, and examples of l

1. PoetryPoetry
VocabularyVocabulary

2. 1. Alliteration:
– Repetition of initial consonant sounds
1. Allusion:
– A reference to a well-known person,
place, event, literary work, or work of
art
1. Ballad:
– A song-like poem that tells a story
4. Blank Verse:
– Poetry written in unrhymed, ten-
syllable lines

3. 5. Concrete Poem:
– A poem with a shape that suggests its
subject
5. Figurative Language:
– Writing that is not meant to be taken
literally
5. Free Verse:
– Poetry not written in a regular
rhythmical pattern or meter
8. Haiku:
– A three-lined Japanese verse

4. 9. Image:
– A word or phrase that appeals to one
or more of the five senses
9. Lyric Poem:
– Highly musical verse that expresses
the observations and feelings of a
single speaker
9. Metaphor:
– A figure of speech in which something
is described as though it were
something else

5. 12. Mood:
– The feeling created in the reader by
a literary work
13. Narrative Poem:
– A story told in verse
13. Onomatopoeia:
– The use of words that imitate sounds
13. Personification:
– A type of figurative language in which
a non-human subject is given human
characteristics

6. 16. Refrain:
– A regularly repeated line or group of
lines in a poem
16. Repetition:
– The use, more than once, of any
element of language
16. Rhyme:
– Repetition of sounds at the end of
words
16. Rhyme Scheme:
– A regular pattern of rhyming
words in a poem

7. 20.Rhythm:
– Pattern of beats or stresses in
spoken or written language
20.Simile:
– A figure of speech that uses
like or as to make a direct
comparison between two unlike
ideas
20.Stanza:
– A formal division of lines in a poem
considered as a unit
My love is like a red rose.

8. PoetryPoetry
Humor & PoetryHumor & Poetry

9. Humor
• Humor in poetry can arise
from a number of sources:
– Surprise
– Exaggeration
– Bringing together of
unrelated things
• Most funny poems have two
things in common:
– Rhythm
– Rhyme

10. Rhythm & Rhyme
• Using more spirited language makes
humorous situations even more humorous
“The Porcupine”
By Ogden Nash
Any hound a porcupine nudges
Can’t be blamed for harboring grudges.
I know one hound that laughed all winter
At a porcupine that sat on a splinter.

11. If you take away the rhythm
and rhyme, the humor vanishes.
Any hound that touches a porcupine
Can’t be blamed for holding a grudge
I know one hound that laughed all
winter long
At a porcupine that sat on a piece of
wood

12. Lewis Carroll
1832-1898
• Born in England
• Wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Wrote Through the Looking Glass
• His life was quiet and uneventful, but in
works like Father William, he found escape
from his serious work into a delightfully
zany, topsy-turvy world that still amuses
children old and young.

13. “Father William”
Page 400
• In this poem, a young man questions
his father about some rather unusual
behavior.
• Have you ever asked someone what
they were doing and received an
explanation that made very little
sense at all?

14. Limericks
• A limerick is a poem of five lines
• The first, second, and fifth lines
have three rhythmic beats and rhyme
with one another.
• The third and fourth lines have two
beats and rhyme with one another.
• They are always light-hearted,
humorous poems.

15. Limericks
There once was a man with no hair.
He gave everyone quite a scare.
He got some Rogaine,
Grew out a mane,
And now he resembles a bear!

16. Limerick About a Bee
I wish that my room had a floor,
I don’t care so much for a door.
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore.

17. Another Limerick
There once was a very small mouse
Who lived in a very small house,
The ocean’s spray
Washed it away,
All that was left was her blouse!

18. You will create a limerick
similar to this one…
There once was a man from Beijing.
All his life he hoped to be King.
So he put on a crown,
Which quickly fell down.
That small silly man from Beijing.

19. Fill in the blanks and
create your own Limerick.
There once was a _____ from _____.
All the while she/he hoped ________.
So she/he ____________________,
And ________________________,
That _________ from ___________.

20. Mrs. Smith’s Limerick:
There once was a man from Japan.
All the while he hoped for a tan.
So he lay on the beach,
And ate a ripe peach,
That came from a Georgia van.