| Alliteration | the repetition of initial consonant sounds.
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| Antiphonal | a way to do a group reading, where the class is divided into two groups and the groups take turns reading each verse.
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| Assonance | the repetition of particular vowels.
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| Ballad | a narrative poem that has been adapted for singing or that gives the effect of a song. Originally, ballads were not made or sung for children but were the literature of all the people. Characteristics of the ballad form are the frequent use of dialogue in telling the story, repetition, marked rhythm and rhyme, and refrains that go back to the days when ballads were sung. Popular ballads have no known authors, as they were handed down from one generation to the next; the literary ballad, however, does have a known author. Ballads usually deal with heroic deeds and include stories of murder, unrequited love, feuds, and tragedies.
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| Choir | a group of voices.
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| Concentrated form | poets choose their words carefully; most poetry, especially good poetry, is so concentrated and compact that few people can grasp its meaning in one exposure.
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| Concrete poetry | many poets today are writing picture poems that make the reader see what they are saying. The message of the poem is presented not only in the words (sometimes just letters or punctuation marks) but in the arrangement of the words. Meaning is reinforced, or even carried, by the shape of the poem.
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| Connotation | meaning.
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| Contrast | because the language of poetry is so compressed, every word must be made to convey the meaning of the poem.
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| Didactic | having the purpose of instruction.
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| Dissection and analysis | too-detailed analysis of every poem is detrimental to children's enjoyment of poetry. An appropriate question or comment to increase meaning is fine; but critical analysis of every word in a poem, every figure of speech, and every iambic verse is lethal to appreciation.
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| Emotional intensity | poetry communicates experience by appealing to both the thoughts and the feelings of its reader. It has the power to evoke in its hearers rich sensory images and deep emotional responses. Poetry demands total response from the individual--all the intellect, senses, emotion, and imagination.
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| Figurative language | metaphorical language; figures of speech.
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| Free verse | free verse does not have to rhyme but depends on rhythm or cadence for its poetic form. It may use some rhyme, alliteration, and pattern. It frequently looks different on a printed page, but it sounds very much like other poetry when read aloud.
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| Haiku | an ancient Japanese verse form that can be traced back to the thirteenth century. There are only 17 syllables in the haiku; the first and third lines contain 5 syllables, the second line 7. Almost every haiku can be divided into two parts: first, a simple picture-making description that usually includes some reference, direct or indirect, to the season; and second, a statement of mood or feeling. A relationship between these two parts is implied, either a similarity or a telling difference.
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| Limerick | a nonsense form of verse that is particularly enjoyed by children. This is a five-line verse in which the first and second lines rhyme, the third and fourth rhyme, and the fifth line rhymes with lines one and two and usually is a surprise or humorous statement. Freak spellings, oddities, and humorous twists characterize this form of poetry.
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| Literary ballad | popular ballads have no known authors, as they were handed down from one generation to the next; the literary ballad, however, does have a known author.
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| Lyric | having musical qualities.
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| Metaphor | in a metaphor, the poet speaks of an object or idea as if it were another object.
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| Narrative poem | the narrative poem relates a particular event or episode or tells a long tale. It may be a lyric, a sonnet, or free verse; its one requirement is that it must tell a story. Many of children's favorite poems are these so-called story poems.
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| Onomatopoeia | the use of words that make a sound like the action represented by the word, such as crack, hiss, and sputter.
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| Personal anthologies | a collection of one's favorite poems.
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| Personification | a way of speaking about inanimate objects and animals as though they were persons.
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| Poetry cycles | three or four poems with the same theme.
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| Repetition | repetition is another way the poet creates particular sound effects in a poem.
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| Rhythm | the uniform recurrence of a beat.
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| Sensory | having to do with the senses.
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| Shape | the first thing children notice about reading a poem is that it looks different from prose--and usually it does. Most poems begin with capital letters for each line and have one or more stanzas; increasingly, however, poets are using the shape of their poems to reinforce the image of the idea.
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| Simile | when writers compare one thing with another, using such connecting words as like or as.
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| Verse | the use of imaginative symbols and vivid imagery and metaphor mark the difference between real poetry and verse. The versifiers provide instant gratification but leave the reader with little to ponder.
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