Sound Devices and Kinds of Poetry

Definition	Example
Alliteration: the repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm, or emphasis.	Big. bad, barking dog. The noisy gnat knit nine sweaters.
Assonance: the repeated use of a vowel sound.	How now brown cow. Twice five miles in a mazy motion.
Consonance: same consonant sounds in words with different vowel sounds that are not at the beginning of words.	If she love me, this believe, I will die ere she shall grieve Emily Dickenson
Internal rhyme: a rhyme that is within the line, rather than the end.	Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. Edgar Allen Poe
End rhyme: a rhyme that comes at the end of lines of poetry.	Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night. William Blake
Feminine rhyme: rhymes that end on one or two unstressed syllables.	A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted  With shifting change, as false women's fashion.  William Shakespeare
Masculine rhyme: rhymes ending on stressed syllables	Whose woods these are I think I know, His house is in the village, though; Robert Frost
Perfect rhyme: rhymes that have final stressed vowel sounds that are identical	Twinkle, twinkle little star How I wonder what you are.
Slant rhyme (aka half rhyme): rhymes that do not share the exact same vowel sound, but sound similar	If love is like a bridge Or maybe like a grudge, George Wolff
Eye rhyme (aka sight rhyme): a rhyme that includes words that are spelled or look the same, but do not sound the same	Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove…       Christophe Marlow
Forced rhyme: a rhyme that depends upon an unusual pronunciation of words to work.	See “Bonny Barbara Allan.”

Types of Poems

Narrative Poetry: a category of poetry that tells a story. 

Lyric Poetry: a category of poetry that presents personal impressions. 

Ballad: a narrative poem that is typically written in quatrains and has a musical quality to it (refrains, simple rhyme schemes, steady meter).

Ode: a formal lyric poem that addresses a subject of great importance or influence. 

Elegy: a formal lyric poem to lament the dead. 

Dramatic Monologue: a poem revealing a speaker's character through an account of an event, usually using a conversational tone. 

Sonnet: a formal poetic form composed of 14 lines of iambic pentameter