Intro to Poetry Ch. 8-10 Vocab

English sonnet

Also called Shakespearean sonnet, it has the following rime scheme organized into 3 quatrains and a concluding couplet: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. The poem may turn—that is shift in moor or tone—between any of the rime clusters

Eye rime

a "false" rime in which the spelling of the words is alike, but the pronunciations differ (daughter and laughter).

Sonnet

a fixed form of 14 lines, traditionally written in iambic pentameter and rimed throughout.

Closed form

a generic term that describes poetry written in a pattern of meter, rime, lines, or stanzas. A closed form adheres to a set structure.

Cacophony

a harsh, discordant sound often mirroring the meaning of the context in which it is used. The opposite of cacophony is euphony.

Cesura or caesura

a light but definite pause within a line of verse. Cesuras often appear near the middle of a line, but their placement may be varied for rhythmic affect.

Run-on line

a line of verse that does not end in punctuation, but carries on grammatically to the next line. The use of run-on lines is called enjambment.

End-stopped line

a line of verse that ends in a full pause, often indicated by a mark of punctuation.

Epic

a long narrative poem tracing the adventures of a popular hero. Epic poems are usually written in a consistent form and meter throughout.

Iamb

a metrical foot in verse in which an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one. The iambic measure is the most common meter used in English poetry.

Anapest

a metrical foot in verse in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable.

Trochee

a metrical foot in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one.

Dactyl

a metrical foot in which one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones. Dactylic meter is less common in English than in classical Greek and Latin.

Spondee

a metrical foot of verse consisting of two stressed syllables.

Scansion

a practice use to describe rhythmic patters in a poem by separating the metrical feet, counting the syllables, marking the accents, and indicating the cesuras.

Feminine rime

a rime of two or more syllables with stress on a syllable other than the last (tur-tle and fer-tile).

Quatrain

a stanza consisting of four lines, it is the most common stanza form used in English-language poetry.

Fixed form

a traditional verse form requiring certain predetermined elements of structure—for example, a stanza pattern, set meter, or predetermined line length.

Couplet

a two-line stanza in poetry, usually rimed and with lines of equal lengths.

Epigram

a very short, comic poem, often turning at the end with some sharp wit or unexpected stinger.

Italian sonnet

also called Petrarchan sonnet, it rimes the octave (the first 8 lines) a b b a a b b a; the sestet (the last 6 lines) may follow any rime pattern, as long as it does not end in a couplet. The poem traditional turns, or shifts in in moor or tone, after the octave.

Consonance

also called slant rime. A kind of rhyme in which the linked words share similar consonant sounds but have different vowel sounds, as in reason and raisin, mink and monk. Sometimes only the final consonant sound is identical, as in fame and room.

Onomatopoeia

an attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associate with it.

Stress

an emphasis, or accent, placed on a syllable in speech. The unstressed syllable in a line of verse is called the slack syllable.

Blank verse

blank verse contains five iambic feet per line (iambic pentameter) and is not rimed.

Masculine rime

either a rime of one-syllable words (fox and socks) or—in polysyllabic words—a rime on the stressed final syllables (con-trive and sur-vive).

Form

in a general sense, form is the means by which a literary work expresses its content. In poetry, form is usually used to describe the design of a poem.

End rime

rime that occurs at the ends of lines, rather than within them. End rime is they most common kind of rime in English-language poetry.

Internal rime

rime that occurs within a line of poetry, as opposed to end rime.

Foot

the basic unit of measurement in metrical poetry. Each separate meter is identified by the pattern and order of stressed and unstressed syllables in its foot.

Euphony

the harmonious effect when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning in a way pleasing to the ear and mind. The opposite of euphony is cacophony.

Iambic pentameter

the most common meter in English verse, five iambic feet per line. Many fixed forms, such as the sonnet and heroic couplets, employ iambic pentameter.

Rhythm

the recurring pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem. A fixed rhythm in a poem is called meter.

Alliteration

the repetition of a consonant sound in a line of verse or prose. Alliteration can be used at the beginning of words (initial alliteration as in "cool cats") or internally on stressed syllables (internal alliteration as in "I met a traveler from an antique land.").

Assonance

the repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rime. Like alliteration, the assonance may occur initially ("all the awful auguries") or internally ("white lilacs").

Prosody

the study of metrical structures in poetry.

Rime

two or more words that contain an identical or similar vowel sound, usually accented, with following consonant sounds (if any) identical as well (woo and stew). An exact rime is a full rime in which the sounds following the initial letters of the words are identical in sound (follow and hollow.).

Closed couplet

two rimed lines of iambic pentameter that usually contain an independent and complete though or statement. Also called heroic couplet.

Accentual meter

verse meter based on the number of stresses per line, not the number of syllables.

Open form

verse that has no set scheme—no regular meter, rime, or stanzaic pattern. Open form has also been called free verse.