Speaker

The speaker (AKA narrator, persona) is the primary voice of the poem. 

Literal language

When people use literal language, they mean what they say.  They do not use figures of speech to use language in a special way.  Imagery often (but not always) relies on literal language.  For example, "The sky was streaked with lines of orange, purple and gold" is an example of literal language.  However, "The sky looked like oil on water" is an example of figurative language, because the sunset is being compared to oil on water.

Figure of speech/ figurative language

Figurative language refers to using language in non-literal ways.  Authors often use language so that they don't literally mean what they say.  For example, if someone says, my English teacher is a pig, s/he does not mean that a porcine creature is leading the class.  S/he is actually comparing the teacher to emphasize certain qualities that both possess (sloppiness, fatness, obnoxiousness).  Figures of speech are specific literary devices that often compare (i.e., metaphors), associate (i.e., metonymy), or appeal to they eye or ear (rhyme).  

Diction

Diction is a part of style that refers to an author’s choice of words and may be characterized by words like conversational, elevated, upper-class, regional, simple, complex, colloquial, etc.

Denotation

Denotation refers to the dictionary definition of words.  For example, the word cross has many dictionary definitions—an intersection, anger, an instrument of capital punishment, a religious icon, the act of moving from one side of something to another.  A poet might use this word to evoke many different meanings to help make a point in a poem. 

Connotation

Connotation refers to the implied meanings of a word.  For example, the word cross has many implied meanings.  For example, cross might make you think of Christ, a crossbreed, genetic engineering, salvation, or many other ideas.  Different contexts in a poem might make a reader think of different implications of a word.

Tone

Tone refers to an author's attitude towards her/his subject.  A piece might have a sincere, religious, comic, ironic, elevated, emotional, sentimental, etc. type of tone.  Tuning into the tone is critical in order to understand the main points a poet seems to make.  For example, if you don't understand when a poet is being ironic, you might get the complete opposite meaning of a poem that a poet intends. 

Imagery

Imagery refers to language that appeals to the senses.  Visual images appeal to sight (the door was a deep, chocolate brown color and reminded me of a Hershey bar).  Auditory images appeal to hearing (from Hardy's "Meeting at Night" "the quick sharp scratch / And blue spurt of a lighted match").  Olfactory images appeal to smell (when he opened the can of Skoal it evoked the sickly sweet smell of a dumpster).  Gustatory images refer to taste (I awoke with the bitter stale taste of day-old coffee in my mouth). Tactile images appeal to touch (the heat from the fire scorched my forehead like a desert sun).

Metaphor

A metaphor is a type of figurative language that compares two dissimilar things.  For example, my teacher is a pig is an example of a metaphor because it is comparing two dissimilar things, generally to make a point about the teacher—s/he might be sloppy, overweight, etc.  Similes and personifications are both types of metaphors. 

Simile

A simile is a type of metaphor that is a comparison of two different things using like or as.  For example, My Honda is like a cheetah would be a simile because it compares two different things to emphasize a particular quality (probably speed), but My Honda is like a Toyota would not be a simile because Hondas and Toyotas are too similar—they are both cars.

Personification

Personification is a type of metaphor in which human qualities are bestowed on inanimate objects (oftentimes they are from nature). 

Hyperbole

Hyperbole, or overstatement, refers to extreme exaggeration to achieve a particular effect, perhaps humorous, ironic, or dramatic.  For example,   if someone says that "his head is as large as a watermelon" she is probably exaggerating for comic effect.

Symbol

A symbol is an object, action, or event in a narrative that is significant in its own right but that also represents something else (a train might be an important mode of transportation in a story, but it might also symbolize the disadvantages of progress with the pollution it creates).

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of the same vowel sounds followed by the same consonant sounds.  For example, "Rob the slob" and "shatter clatter." Rhyme can occur within lines of poetry, but it often occurs at the end lines to develop a rhyme scheme or regular pattern of rhyming.  Poets often establish a rhyme scheme and then alter it to call attention to certain ideas or words in their poems.  Rhyme can also be used to create a particular feeling or establish a certain tone.

Alliteration

Alliteration is traditionally defined as the repetition of initial consonant sounds.  For example, "big boat" and "trick or treat" are examples of alliteration.  Authors often use alliteration to call attention to certain words in the work, word that might be especially important for the meaning of their piece.  Recently, critics have included a repetition of initial vowel sounds as a kind of alliteration as in "Al the aardvark asked me a question."

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in stressed syllables (without concluding consonant sounds.  For example, "white wine" is assonance because of the repetition of the I sound and the fact that "white" ends with a T sound and "wine" ends with an N sound.  "Night light" is not an example of assonance but an example of perfect rhyme. 

Rhythm

Rhythm refers to an irregular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.  Poetry can have rhythm which is not formalized.  Free Verse is a type of poetry that can have rhythm but does not have a regular meter.

Meter

Meter is a regularized pattern of rhythm made up of stressed and unstressed beats.  In poetry, lines can be made up a number of different kinds of meters which can establish the mood or tone of a poem.  As with rhyme schemes, poets often establish a certain meter and then violate that pattern to call attention to words or ideas.

Theme

A theme is a central idea in a work that can be abstracted through the action and images.  You should state a theme as a generalization (a broad statement or principle), and it should have a subject and a predicate.  A theme is not what a story is “about” but what a story “represents.”

Irony

Irony involves a discrepancy between one thing and another, and usually occurs in one of three ways: verbal irony--a discrepancy between what is said and meant (if I say “I like your shoes,” but you can tell I really don’t); situational irony refers to a discrepancy between what happens and what one would expect to happen (if a fire station burns to the ground); dramatic irony refers to a discrepancy between what characters know and what readers know (this kind of irony is more prevalent in drama and might occur if the audience has learned that Louie is the murderer, and the hero arrives to collaborate with Louie to solve the crime, but the hero doesn’t know that Louie is the murderer).