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Poetry terms
poetry terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| alliteration | the repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds beginning words, in close proximity. (ex: pensive poets, nattering nabobs of negativism) |
| allusion | unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognize |
| anapest | unstressed unstressed stressed. Also called "galloping meter." (ex: 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.") |
| anaphora | repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a work or the section of a work |
| apostrophe | speaker in a poem addresses a person not present or an animal, inanimate object, or concept as though it is a person. (ex: Wordsworth--"Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour / England has need of thee") |
| assonance | the repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity. Example: deep green sea |
| ballad | a narrative poem composed of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter) rhyming x-a-x-a. Ballads may use refrains. (ex: "Jackaroe," "The Long Black Veil") |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter. (ex: Shakespeare's plays) |
| caesura | a short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry. Carpe diem poetry: "seize the day." Poetry concerned with the shortness of life and the need to act in or enjoy the present. (ex: Herrick's "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time") |
| common meter(Emily Dickinson) | iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter |
| couplet | two successive rhyming lines. couplets end the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet |
| consonance | is the counterpart of assonance; the partial or total identity of consonants in words whose main vowels differ. (ex: shadow meadow; pressed, passed; sipped, supped. Owen uses this "impure rhyme" to convey the anguish of war and death) |
| dactyl (dactylic) | stressed unstressed unstressed. This pattern is more common (as dactylic hexameter) in Latin poetry than in English poetry. Example: Grand go the years in the Crescent above them/Worlds scoop their arcs/ and firmaments row (Emily Dickinson) |
| diction | diction is usually used to describe the level of formality that a speaker uses. |
| Diction (formal or high) | Proper, elevated, elaborate, and often polysyllabic language. This type of language used to be thought the only type suitable for poetry |
| Neutral (or middle diction) | Correct language characterized by directness and simplicity. |
| Diction (informal or low) | Relaxed, conversational and familiar language. |
| dramatic monologue | a type of poem, derived from the theater, in which a speaker addresses an internal listener or the reader. In some dramatic monologues, especially those by Robert Browning, the speaker may reveal his personality in unexpected and unflattering ways |
| end rhyme | rhyme is at the end of a line |
| end-stopped line | a line ending in a full pause, usually indicated with a period or semicolon |
| enjambent | a line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line |
| foot (prosody) | a measured combination of heavy and light stresses. The numbers of feet are given below. monometer (1 foot) dimeter (2 feet) trimeter (3 feet) tetrameter (4 feet) pentameter (5 feet) hexameter (6 feet) heptameter or septenary (7 feet) |
| heroic couplet | two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter; the second line is usually end-stopped. |
| hyperbole (overstatement) and litotes (understatement) | hyperbole is exaggeration for effect; litotes is understatement for effect, often used for irony. |
| iambic pentameter: Iamb (iambic) | an unstressed stressed foot.The most natural and common kind of meter in English; it elevates speech to poetry |
| image | images are references that trigger the mind to fuse together memories of sight, sounds, tastes, smells (olfactory), and sensations of touch (tactile). Imagery refers to images throughout a work or throughout the works of a writer or group of writers. |
| internal rhyme | an exact rhyme (rather than rhyming vowel sounds, as with assonance) within a line of poetry: "Once upon a midnightdreary, while I pondered, weak and weary." |
| metaphor | a comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it were something else. Does not use "like" or "as" for the comparison (see simile). |
| metaphysical conceit | an elaborate and extended metaphor or simile that links two apparently unrelated fields or subjects in an unusual and surprising conjunction of ideas. The term is commonly applied to surprising conjunction of ideas and the metaphorical language. |
| meter | the number of feet within a line of traditional verse. (ex: iambic pentameter) |
| octave | the first eight lines of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, unified by rhythm, rhyme, and topic. |
| paradox | a rhetorical figure embodying a seeming contradiction that is nonetheless true. |
| onomatopoeia | a blending of consonant and vowel sounds designed to imitate or suggest the activity being described. Example: buzz, slurp. |
| personification | attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things or abstractions |
| petrarchan or italian sonnet | 8 lines (the "octave") and 6 lines (the "sestet") of rhyming iambic pentameter, with a turning or "volta" at about the 8th line. Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (or cde cde) |
| petrarchan sonnet | a sonnet (14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter) that divides into an octave (8) and sestet (6). There is a "volta," or "turning" of the subject matter between the octave and sestet. |
| rhyme | The repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words, most often at the ends of lines. (ex: June--moon) -end rhyme -slant rhyme -rhyme scheme |
| rhyme scheme | the pattern of rhyme, usually indicated by assigning a letter of the alphabet to each rhyme at the end of a line of poetry |
| scan (scansion) | the process of marking beats in a poem to establish the prevailing metrical pattern. Prosody, the pronunciation of a song or poem, is necessary for scansion |
| sestet | a six-line stanza or unit of poetry. |
| shakespearean or english sonnet | 3 quatrains and a couplet, often with three arguments or images in the quatrains being resolved in the couplet. Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg |
| shakespearean sonnet | a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, composed of three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. |
| simile | a direct comparison between two dissimilar things; uses "like" or "as" to state the terms of the comparison |
| slant rhyme | a near rhyme in which the concluding consonant sounds are identical but not the vowels. (ex: sun/noon, should/food, slim/ham) |
| sonnet | a closed form consisting of fourteen lines of rhyming iambic pentameter |
| spondee | stressed stressed. A two-syllable foot with two stressed accents. The opposite of a pyrrhic foot, this foot is used for effec |
| stanza | a group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose; the meters and rhymes are usually repeating or systematic. |
| syntax | word order and sentence structure. |
| trochee (trochaic) | stressed unstressed. (ex: "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright") |
| volta | the "turning" point of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually occurring between the octave and the sestet. |
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