Five Major Poetic Terms

1-Couplet: Two lines of verse, usually in the same metre and joined by rhyme, that form a unit. There are closed and open ended couplets.

Example: Closed Couplet
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;
Both these lines are end stopped and have a logical ending as they close.

Example: Open Couplet
Look in, and see each blissful Deitie
How he before the thunderous thron doth lie,...
The second line is a run-on and needs the first line to make out its meaning.

2-Metaphor: Language that implies a relationship, of which similarity is a significant feature, between two things and so changes our apprehension of either or both.

Example:
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,...
Here the a man is a tenor and his soul is his vehicle. The body is also the tenor. Other metaphors can also be found.

3-Quatrain: A four line stanza.

Example:
The hippopotamus's day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way--
The Church can sleep and feed at once.

4-Sonnet: A poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines, divided into octave and sestet , with a prescribed rhyme scheme, and concerned with a single thought or sentiment. There are two types of sonnets: Petrarchean and Shakespearean.

Petrarchean Sonnet
Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (or cdecde or cdedce)
The first eight lines create the octave and the next six lines create the sestet. The octave introduces a problem and the sestet (the beginning known as the volta) introduces a type of change to somewhat solve the problem.

Shakespearean Sonnet
Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
The first 12 lines are devised of three separate quatrains. The last two lines make a sestet. The three quatrains lead a problem and the final sestet brings in the climax.

5-Onomatopoeia: The coining or the use of words that imitate the sound of a thing. It also refers to sound symbolism which does not give a direct echo but is strongly suggestive of the thing presented.

Example:
the hiss of a snake
the buzz of a bee
the THUD of a fallen bucket to the ground
the SPLAT of water to the floor
etc...