Poetry Vocabulary Worksheet – Stanza, Meter, Poem Forms

All 36 terms

Lines and stanzas 12

couplet A pair of rhyming lines, one right after the other. "The rain came down / all over town" is a couplet.
enjambment The running on of a sentence from one line into the next. With enjambment the reader hurries on to the next line.
envoi A short closing stanza that sums up or addresses someone. A ballade often ends with an envoi.
heroic couplet Two rhymed lines, each in iambic pentameter. Each of its two lines has ten syllables.
line A single row of words in a poem. A haiku has three lines.
line break The place where one line stops and the next begins. A poet chooses each line break.
quatrain Four lines of verse that form one stanza. Many ballads are written in quatrains.
refrain A line or lines repeated through a poem. A refrain often closes each stanza.
rhyme scheme The order in which a poem's rhymes fall, written as ABAB. ABAB means lines one and three rhyme, and lines two and four rhyme.
stanza A block of lines in a poem, with a gap before the next. A song's verse is a kind of stanza.
syllable A piece of a word spoken in a single push of the voice. "Stanza" has two syllables.
tercet Three lines of verse that form one unit. The three lines of a tercet may rhyme or not.

Show all 36 terms (24 more)

Meter and rhyme 12

alliteration One opening sound heard in several words close together. "Seven silver swans" uses alliteration.
anapest Two weak syllables followed by a strong one. "un-der-STAND" is an anapest.
dactyl A strong syllable followed by two weak ones. "HAP-pi-ly" is a dactyl.
end rhyme A rhyme between the last words of two lines. In "The rain came down / all over town" the end rhyme is down and town.
eye rhyme Two words spelled alike at the end but said differently. Love and move make an eye rhyme.
foot One unit of a line's beat, two or three syllables long. "The cat" is one foot.
iamb A weak syllable followed by a strong one. "be-LOW" is an iamb.
iambic pentameter A ten-syllable line of five weak-strong pairs. "I WALKED a-LONG the ROAD to TOWN to-DAY" is iambic pentameter.
internal rhyme A rhyme that falls inside a line. "The rain in the lane" has an internal rhyme.
meter The regular beat of strong and weak syllables in verse. Clapping along with a poem brings out its meter.
spondee Two strong syllables side by side. "HEART-BREAK" is a spondee.
tetrameter A line of verse with four feet. "The CAT sat DOWN up-ON the MAT" is tetrameter.

Kinds of poem 12

clerihew A comic four-line verse about a person named in line one. A clerihew rhymes AABB.
concrete poetry Poetry whose words are laid out to form a picture. A poem about rain may run down the page in drops.
free verse Verse that keeps to no set beat and no rhyme scheme. Free verse often sounds like everyday speech.
haiku A poem from Japan in three short lines, seventeen syllables. A haiku's three lines hold 5, 7 and 5 syllables.
limerick A comic poem in five lines, the third and fourth short. Lines one, two and five of a limerick rhyme.
narrative poem A poem built around a story, with characters and events. A ballad is a narrative poem.
nursery rhyme A short traditional verse or song for young children. Many children can say a nursery rhyme by heart.
pantoum A poem in four-line stanzas that repeats lines in a chain. The second and fourth lines of a stanza come back as the first and third of the next.
prose poem A poem written in full sentences that run on as a paragraph. A prose poem fills the page from margin to margin.
senryu A haiku-like poem that is usually humorous. A senryu has up to seventeen syllables.
sonnet A fourteen-line poem, a form that began in Italy. Many sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.
triolet An eight-line poem whose first line comes back twice. In a triolet the fourth and seventh lines repeat the first.

How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-02. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the entry for the term in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, and against the articles Glossary of poetry terms (line break, heroic couplet, the triolet, the pantoum and the clerihew's rhymes) Narrative poetry, Free verse and Ballade (forme fixe) in English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The example lines of verse are our own. The example after each meaning is our own. Licence: own work

How it works

This poetry vocabulary worksheet prints twelve terms down the left and their meanings, mixed up, down the right. Three sets cover lines and stanzas, meter and rhyme, and kinds of poem.

Read the full guide

Three sets

Set opens on Lines and stanzas: stanza, line, couplet, tercet, quatrain, refrain, rhyme scheme and enjambment. Meter and rhyme has foot, iamb, dactyl, iambic pentameter, end rhyme and alliteration. Kinds of poem has haiku, limerick, sonnet, free verse and concrete poetry.

A poetry vocabulary worksheet for kids

Set Pairs to 6 or 8 for a shorter sheet. Under the tool each term has an example: "be-LOW" is an iamb.

Type term = meaning lines in the box to print the terms of the poem your class is reading.

Questions and answers

What are the basic terms of poetry?

A line is one row of words, and a stanza is a group of lines. A couplet is two rhyming lines in a row, a quatrain is a stanza of four lines, and the rhyme scheme is the pattern of the rhymes.

What is iambic pentameter?

A ten-syllable line made of five weak-strong pairs, such as: I WALKED a-LONG the ROAD to TOWN to-DAY. Each weak-strong pair is called an iamb.

What is the difference between a haiku and a limerick?

A haiku is a Japanese poem of three lines with 5, 7 and 5 syllables. A limerick is a funny five-line poem rhymed AABBA.

Is there a poetry vocabulary worksheet PDF?

Press Print worksheet and choose Save as PDF in your print window. The answer key follows the sheet as the last page: a line joins each term to its meaning.