Rhyme: The repetition of similar sounds at the end of lines. Example: “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills” (from “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth).

Meter: The rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (from Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare).

Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”. Example: “My love is like a red, red rose” (from “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns).

Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things without using “like” or “as”. Example: “All the world’s a stage” (from “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare).

Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human objects or ideas. Example: “The wind whispered through the trees” (from “The Wind” by Christina Rossetti).

Imagery: The use of vivid and descriptive language to create mental images. Example: “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas” (from “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes).

Symbolism: The use of objects or ideas to represent deeper meanings. Example: The color white symbolizing purity or innocence in literature.

Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in a line of poetry. Example: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within words in a line of poetry. Example: “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain” (from “My Fair Lady”).

Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate sounds. Example: “Buzz” or “hiss”.

Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. Example: “I’ve told you a million times!”

Enjambment: The continuation of a sentence or thought from one line of poetry to the next without a pause. Example: “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree” (from “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer).