Poetry Bingo

You read a meaning; pupils find the poetry term on their card.

Tap a square to mark it. For a PDF, press Print and choose Save as PDF.

Card 1 of 6

Card 2 of 6

Card 3 of 6

Card 4 of 6

Card 5 of 6

Card 6 of 6

Card 1 of 6

5 × 5
More options

Poetry terms list, 46 terms. Paste your own to replace it, or type to add to it.

Cards per printed page

What you type stays in this browser. It is only put into a link when you press Share.

Ready to play

46 terms in the bag

Every term is called once, in random order.

Playing with 46 terms. The game is kept in this browser until you start a new one.

Called so far 0

Nothing called yet. Each call is listed here so a winning card can be checked.

Next step Print a poetry vocabulary worksheetPlay the devices set next

How it works

Poetry bingo with 46 terms in three groups: the parts of a poem, its sound and rhythm, and the forms a poem can take. Each term has a one-line meaning to call.

Read the full guide

Call the meaning, not the word

Press Call the game and read the line under each call: A stanza, or a whole poem, of four lines. Pupils with Quatrain mark it. The printed call sheet pairs all 46 terms with their meanings, so it settles a disputed bingo.

Parts and forms, not devices

Simile, metaphor and the other devices are left out on purpose. They have their own set, figurative language bingo, so the two games can run in one unit without a repeated square.

  • Tercet, quatrain, sestet and octave are groups of 3, 4, 6 and 8 lines, and a couplet is 2. Teach the numbers first.

Questions and answers

How many lines are in a haiku, a limerick and a sonnet?

In English a haiku is often three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. A limerick has five lines that rhyme AABBA. A sonnet has fourteen lines and a set rhyme scheme.

What is the difference between free verse and blank verse?

Free verse has no regular meter and no regular rhyme. Blank verse keeps a regular meter, usually iambic pentameter, but its lines do not rhyme.

What is the difference between a stanza and a verse?

A stanza is a group of lines, usually set apart by a blank space. Verse formally means a single line, though it is now used for any group of lines. That double meaning is why verse has no square here.

All 46 terms

Parts of a poem 12

  • Caesura A pause inside a line, where one phrase ends and another begins.
  • Couplet Two lines in a row that rhyme and share the same meter.
  • Enjambment A sentence that runs over the end of a line into the next, with no punctuation.
  • Line One row of words in a poem.
  • Line break The place where one line of a poem ends and the next begins.
  • Octave Eight lines of poetry; the first part of an Italian sonnet.
  • Poet A person who writes poems.
  • Quatrain A stanza, or a whole poem, of four lines.
  • Refrain A line or lines repeated through a poem, like the chorus of a song.
  • Sestet A stanza, or a whole poem, of six lines.
  • Stanza A group of lines in a poem, usually set apart by a blank space.
  • Tercet A stanza, or a whole poem, of three lines.

Sound and rhythm 13

  • End rhyme Matching sounds in the last words of lines.
  • Eye rhyme Two words spelled alike but said differently, such as cough and dough.
  • Foot The small unit of rhythm that repeats in a line, usually two, three or four syllables long.
  • Iamb Two syllables: an unstressed one, then a stressed one, as in above.
  • Iambic pentameter A line of five feet, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
  • Internal rhyme Matching sounds that fall inside a single line, not at its end.
  • Meter The basic pattern of rhythm in the lines of a poem.
  • Rhyme The same sounds repeated at the end of two words or more.
  • Rhyme scheme The pattern of matching sounds at the ends of a poem's lines, written in letters such as ABAB.
  • Scansion Working out and marking the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.
  • Slant rhyme Word endings that sound similar but not identical.
  • Syllable A unit of sound in a word: ignite has two, ig and nite.
  • Trochee Two syllables: a stressed one, then an unstressed one.

Forms of poem 21

  • Acrostic A poem in which the first letters of the lines spell a word or a message.
  • Ballad A song-like poem, often set to music, that tells a story, commonly in four-line stanzas.
  • Blank verse Poetry with a regular meter whose lines do not end in matching sounds.
  • Cinquain A poem built on a pattern of five lines.
  • Concrete poem A poem whose words are arranged on the page to picture its subject.
  • Diamante A poem of seven lines whose words form the shape of a diamond.
  • Elegy A poem of serious reflection, usually written in sorrow for someone who has died.
  • Epic A very long poem telling the remarkable deeds of remarkable characters.
  • Free verse Poetry with no regular meter and no regular pattern of matching end sounds.
  • Haiku A short poem from Japan; in English it is often three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables.
  • Limerick A five-line poem with the pattern AABBA; lines three and four are shorter.
  • Lyric poem A poem that expresses personal feelings, usually spoken in the first person.
  • Narrative poem A poem that tells a story, often in the voices of a narrator and characters.
  • Nursery rhyme An old poem or song meant for young children.
  • Ode A poem that praises a person or an event.
  • Prose poem A poem written in sentences and paragraphs, with no line breaks.
  • Sestina Six stanzas of six lines that reuse the same six end words, then a three-line close.
  • Sonnet A poem of fourteen lines that follow a set pattern of matching end sounds.
  • Tanka A poem from Japan in five parts that follow a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.
  • Verse novel A book-length story told in poems.
  • Villanelle A poem of nineteen lines in which two lines keep coming back.

More tools

Show 8 more

Browse Puzzles