Note: Not an exhaustive list – for more terms and information, see: Poetic devices -

Wikipedia

Remember – poetic techniques can be divided into several categories – e.g. sound,
structure, language etc.

Alliteration: The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds
beginning words, in close proximity. Example: pensive poets, nattering nabobs of
negativism.
Allusion: Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their
readers will recognize.
Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line
throughout a work or the section of a work.
Apostrophe: Speaker in a poem addresses a person not present or an animal,
inanimate object, or concept as though it is a person. Example: Wordsworth--"Milton!
Thou shouldst be living at this hour / England has need of thee"
Assonance: The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close
proximity. Example: deep green sea.
Ballad: A narrative poem composed of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with
iambic trimeter) rhyming x-a-x-a. Ballads may use refrains. Examples: "Jackaroe,"
"The Long Black Veil"
Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Example: Shakespeare's plays
Caesura: A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry. Carpe
diem poetry: "seize the day." Poetry concerned with the shortness of life and the
need to act in or enjoy the present. Example: Herrick’s "To the Virgins to Make Much
of Time"
Chiasmus (antimetabole): Chiasmus is a "crossing" or reversal of two elements;
antimetabole, a form of chiasmus, is the reversal of the same words in a grammatical
structure. Example: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do
for your country. Example: You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall
see how a slave was made a man.
Common meter or hymn measure (Emily Dickinson): iambic tetrameter alternating
with iambic trimeter.
Consonance is the counterpart of assonance; the partial or total identity of
consonants in words whose main vowels differ. Example: shadow meadow; pressed,
passed; sipped, supped. Owen uses this "impure rhyme" to convey the anguish of
war and death.
Couplet: two successive rhyming lines. Couplets end the pattern of a
Shakespearean sonnet.
Diction: Diction is usually used to describe the level of formality that a speaker uses.
• Diction (formal or high): Proper, elevated, elaborate, and often polysyllabic
language. This type of language used to be thought the only type suitable for
poetry
 • Neutral or middle diction: Correct language characterized by directness and
simplicity.
• Diction (informal or low): Relaxed, conversational and familiar language.
Dramatic monologue: A type of poem, derived from the theater, in which a speaker
addresses an internal listener or the reader. In some dramatic monologues,
especially those by Robert Browning, the speaker may reveal his personality in
unexpected and unflattering ways.
End-stopped line: A line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a period or
semicolon.
Enjambment (or enjambement): A line having no end punctuation but running over
to the next line.
Explication: A complete and detailed analysis of a work of literature, often word-by-
word and line-by-line.
Foot (prosody): A measured combination of heavy and light stresses. The numbers
of feet are given below. monometer (1 foot) dimeter (2 feet) trimeter (3 feet)
tetrameter (4 feet) pentameter (5 feet) hexameter (6 feet) heptameter or septenary (7
feet)
Heroic couplet: two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter; the second line
is usually end-stopped.
Hymn meter or common measure: quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with
iambic trimeter rhyming a b a b.
Hyperbole (overstatement) and litotes (understatement): Hyperbole is exaggeration
for effect; litotes is understatement for effect, often used for irony.
Iambic pentameter: Iamb (iambic): an unstressed stressed foot. The most natural
and common kind of meter in English; it elevates speech to poetry.
Image: Images are references that trigger the mind to fuse together memories of
sight (visual), sounds (auditory), tastes (gustatory), smells (olfactory), and sensations
of touch (tactile). Imagery refers to images throughout a work or throughout the
works of a writer or group of writers.
Internal rhyme: An exact rhyme (rather than rhyming vowel sounds, as with
assonance) within a line of poetry: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
weak and weary."
Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it
were something else. Does not use "like" or "as" for the comparison (see simile).
Metaphysical conceit: An elaborate and extended metaphor or simile that links two
apparently unrelated fields or subjects in an unusual and surprising conjunction of
ideas. The term is commonly applied to the metaphorical language of a number of
early seventeenth-century poets, particularly John Donne. Example: stiff twin
compasses//the joining together of lovers like legs of a compass. See "To His Coy
Mistress"
Meter: The number of feet within a line of traditional verse. Example: iambic
pentameter.
Octave: The first eight lines of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, unified by rhythm,
rhyme, and topic.
Onomatopoeia. A blending of consonant and vowel sounds designed to imitate or
suggest the activity being described. Example: buzz, slurp.
Paradox: A rhetorical figure embodying a seeming contradiction that is nonetheless
true.
Personification: Attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things or
abstractions.
Petrarchan sonnet: A sonnet (14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter) that divides
into an octave (8) and sestet (6). There is a "volta," or "turning" of the subject matter
between the octave and sestet.
Pyrrhic foot (prosody): two unstressed feet (an "empty" foot) Quatrain: a four-line
stanza or poetic unit. In an English or Shakespearean sonnet, a group of four lines
united by rhyme.
Refrain: repeated word or series of words in response or counterpoint to the main
verse, as in a ballad.
Rhyme: The repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words, most often
at the ends of lines. Example: June--moon.
• Double rhyme or trochaic rhyme: rhyming words of two syllables in which
the first syllable is accented (flower, shower)
• Triple rhyme or dactylic rhyme: Rhyming words of three or more syllables
in which any syllable but the last is accented. Example:
Macavity/gravity/depravity
• Eye rhyme: Words that seem to rhyme because they are spelled identically
but pronounced differently. Example: bear/fear, dough/cough/through/bough
• Slant rhyme: A near rhyme in which the concluding consonant sounds are
identical but not the vowels. Example: sun/noon, should/food, slim/ham.
• Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhyme, usually indicated by assigning a letter
of the alphabet to each rhyme at the end of a line of poetry.
Rhyme royal: Stanza form used by Chaucer, usually in iambic pentameter, with the
rhyme scheme ababbcc. Example: Wordsworth's "Resolution and Independence"
Sestet: A six-line stanza or unit of poetry.
Shakespearean sonnet: A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter,
composed of three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
Simile. A direct comparison between two dissimilar things; uses "like" or "as" to state
the terms of the comparison.
Sonnet: A closed form consisting of fourteen lines of rhyming iambic pentameter.
Shakespearean or English sonnet: 3 quatrains and a couplet, often with three
arguments or images in the quatrains being resolved in the couplet. Rhyme scheme:
abab cdcd efef gg
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet: 8 lines (the "octave") and 6 lines (the "sestet") of
rhyming iambic pentameter, with a turning or "volta" at about the 8th line. Rhyme
scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (or cde cde)
Stanza: A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose; the meters
and rhymes are usually repeating or systematic.
Synaesthesia: A rhetorical figure that describes one sensory impression in terms of
a different sense, or one perception in terms of a totally different or even opposite
feeling. Example: "darkness visible" "green thought"
Syntax: Word order and sentence structure.
Volta: The "turning" point of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually occurring between the
octave and the sestet.