Poetry Terms (All)
Allusion
- a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance which does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. Sample poem: "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats, 1819 Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearied, For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
half rhyme
- a rhyme in which words contain similar sounds but do not rhyme perfectly. In some near rhymes syllables of ending consonants match, however the preceding vowel sounds do not match. Less frequently, the vowel sounds of syllables match while consonant sounds do not. The former is known as consonance while the latter is known as assonance. Sample poem: "Hope" by Emily Dickinson "Hope" is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I've heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.
Villanelle
19 line poem composed of five tercets and a concluding quatrain; its rhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abaa. Two different lines are systematically repeated in the poem: line 1 appears again in line 6, 12, and 18, and line 3 reappears as lines 9, 15, and 19. Thus, each tercet concludes with an exact (or close) duplication of either line 1 or line 3, and the final quatrain concludes by repeating both line 1 and line 3.Sample poem: "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953 Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Apostrophe
A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character, a dead person, or a concept as if he/she/it could answer back; sometimes preceded by the exclamation "O". JULIET: Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. HAMLET: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. (This is an apostrophe because Yorick is dead.) ANTONY: O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Sample poem: "Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud" by John Donne, 1610 Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
Alliteriation
The repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or verse line. Sample poem: "Carrion Comfort" by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1885-7 Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist — slack they may be — these last strands of man In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be. But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me Thy wring-world right foot rock? Lay a lionlimb against me? Scan With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? And fan, O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and
assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds within words. Sample poem: "On Seeing the Wind at Hope Mansell" by Geoffrey Hill, 2006 Whether or not shadows are of the substance such is the expectation I can wait to surprise my vision as a wind enters the valley: sudden and silent in its arrival, drawing to full cry the whorled invisibilities, glassen towers freighted with sky-chaff; that, as barnstorming powers, rammack the small orchard; that well-steaded oaks ride stolidly, that rake the light-leafed ash, that glowing yew trees, cumbrous, heave aside. Amidst and abroad tumultuous lumina, regents, reagents, cloud-fêted, sun-ordained, fly tally over hedgerows, across fields.
Stichomythia
a technique in drama or poetry, in which alternating lines are given to alternating characters. It typically features repetition and antithesis. The term originated in the theatre of Ancient Greece, though many dramatists since have used the technique. Stichomythia is particularly well suited to sections of dramatic dialogue where two characters are in violent dispute. The rhythmic intensity of the alternating lines combined with quick, biting ripostes (comebacks) in the dialogue can create a powerful effect. Sample poem: Richard III, Act I, scene ii, by Shakespeare LADY ANNE: I would I knew thy heart. GLOUCESTER: 'Tis figured in my tongue. LADY ANNE: I fear me both are false. GLOUCESTER: Then never man was true. LADY ANNE: Well, well, put up your sword. GLOUCESTER: Say, then, my peace is made. LADY ANNE: That shall you know hereafter. GLOUCESTER: But shall I live in hope? LADY ANNE: All men, I hope, live so. GLOUCESTER: Vouchsafe to wear this ring. LADY ANNE: To take is not to give.
Zeugma
a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas Examples: "Take a packet and a seat." (The "taking" communicated here is different depending on the object of the verb. You actually physically pick up a packet, but you simple choose and sit in the seat.) "The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored." "She opened her door and her heart to the orphan." "He opened his mind and his wallet at the movies."
Polysyndeton
a figure of speech in which several conjunctions are used to join connected clauses in places where they are not contextually necessary Sample poem: "Autumn Song" by W. H. Auden, 1928 Now the leaves are falling fast, Nurse's flowers will not last;Nurses to the graves are gone,And the prams go rolling on.Whispering neighbours, left and right,Pluck us from the real delight;And the active hands must freezeLonely on the separate knees.Dead in hundreds at the backFollow wooden in our track,Arms raised stiffly to reproveIn false attitudes of love.Starving through the leafless woodTrolls run scolding for their food;And the nightingale is dumb,And the angel will not come.Cold, impossible, aheadLifts the mountain's lovely headWhose white waterfall could blessTravellers in their last distress.
Oxymoron
a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect, commonly a combination of an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meanings Sample poem: "The Send-Off" by Wilfred Owen, 1918 Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way To the siding-shed, And lined the train with faces grimly gay. Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray As men's are, dead. Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp Stood staring hard, Sorry to miss them from the upland camp. Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp Winked to the guard. So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. They were not ours: We never heard to which front these were sent. Nor there if they yet mock what women meant Who gave them flowers. Shall they return to beatings of great bells In wild trainloads? A few, a few, too few for drums and yells, May creep back, silent, to still village wells Up half-known roads
Irony
a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. Sample poem: "Ironic Poem About Prostitution" by George Orwell, 1936 When I was young and had no senseIn far-off MandalayI lost my heart to a Burmese girlAs lovely as the day.Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,Her teeth were ivory;I said, 'for twenty silver pieces,Maiden, sleep with me'.She looked at me, so pure, so sad,The loveliest thing alive,And in her lisping, virgin voice,Stood out for twenty-five.
Simile
a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things with the help of the words "like" or "as" Sample poem: "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns, 1785 O my luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; O my luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry. Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun: O I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee weel, my only luve, And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.
Metonymy
a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated Example sentences: England decides to keep check on immigration. (England refers to the government.) The Oval Office was busy in work. ("The Oval Office" is a metonymy as it stands for people at work in the office.) The White House for the president or the president's administration. The Kremlin for the Russian president or his administration. Sample poem: "Out, Out—"by Robert Frost The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside him in her apron To tell them 'Supper.' At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap— He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh, As he swung toward them holding up the hand Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all— Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man's work, though a child at heart— He saw all spoiled. 'Don't let him cut my hand off— The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!' So. But the hand was gone already. The doctor put him in the dark of ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright. No one believed. They listened at his heart. Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affair
Litotes
a figure of speech which employs an understatement by using double negatives or, in other words, positive statement is expressed by negating its opposite. Text Excerpt: "A Tale of a Tub" by Jonathan Swift, 1709 "I am not unaware how the productions of the Grub Street brotherhood have of late years fallen under many prejudices." [Beowulf] raised the hard weapon by the hilt, angry and resolute - the sword wasn't useless to the warrior... (Beowulf, line 1575)
Metaphor
a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart (very different) from each other but have some characteristics common between them. Sample poem: "The Sun Rising" by John Donne, 1607 Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus, Through windows, and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run? Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide Late school boys and sour prentices, Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride, Call country ants to harvest offices, Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. Thy beams, so reverend and strong Why shouldst thou think? I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, But that I would not lose her sight so long; If her eyes have not blinded thine, Look, and tomorrow late, tell me, Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me. Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday, And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay. She's all states, and all princes, I, Nothing else is. Princes do but play us; compared to this, All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy. Thou, sun, art half as happy as we, In that the world's contracted thus. Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be To warm the world, that's done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.
Hyperbole
a figure of speech, which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis Sample poem: "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W. H. Auden, 1937 As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: "Love has no ending. "I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, "I'll love till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky. "The years shall run like rabbits, For in my arms I hold The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world." But all the clocks in the city Began to whirr and chime: "O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time. "In the burrows of the Nightmare Where Justice naked is, Time watches from the shadow And coughs when you would kiss. "In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy Tomorrow or today. "Into many a green valley Drifts the appalling snow; Time breaks the threaded dances And the diver's brilliant bow. "O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed. "The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teacup opens A lane to the land of the dead. "Where the beggars raffle the banknotes And the Giant is enchanting to Jack, And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, And Jill goes down on her back. "O look, look in the mirror, O look in your distress; Life remains a blessing Although you cannot bless. "O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start; You shall love your crooked neighbor With all your crooked heart." It was late, late in the evening, The lovers they were gone; The clocks had ceased their chiming, And the deep river ran on.
Synthesthesia
a form of imagery that mixes the experiences of the senses (hearing something visual, smelling something audible). Example: "He smelled the blue fumes of her scent." Sample poem: "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats, May 1819 My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness,— That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease. O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim: Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And leaden-eyed despairs, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: Already with thee! tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays; But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs, But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith the seasonable month endows The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves; And mid-May's eldest child, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy! Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain— To thy high requiem become a sod. Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown: Perhaps the self-same song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn; The same that oft-times hath Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
refrain
a line or lines that recur(s) throughout a poem. The refrain may vary slightly but is generally exactly the same. It usually occurs at the end of a stanza or section but need not do so.
Synecdoche
a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole Examples: "His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her." ["Faces" refers to people (not just their faces).] referring to a car as "wheels" referring to a helper as a "hand" referring to the alphabet as the "ABCs" referring to cows as "heads" of cattle. Sample poem: "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818 I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear --"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.'
dramatic monologue
a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person; in such a poem, the poet takes on an imaginary persona or the persona of a historical figure (i.e. Robert Browning wrote poems taking on the personas/personalities of famous Italian Renaissance painters) Sample poem: "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning, 1812 - 1889 That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will 't please you sit and look at her? I said 'Frà Pandolf' by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance, But to myself they turned (since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, How such a glance came there; so, not the first Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not Her husband's presence only, called that spot Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps Frà Pandolf chanced to say, 'Her mantle laps Over my lady's wrist too much,' or 'Paint Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat:' such stuff Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough For calling up that spot of joy. She had A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast, The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule She rode with round the terrace—all and each Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame This sort of trifling? Even had you skill In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will Quite clear to such an one, and say, 'Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there exceed the mark'—and if she let Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, —E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet The company below then. I repeat, The Count your master's known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretence Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
epic
a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero Sample poem: "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, 1667 1.Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 2.Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste ... 648. They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 649. Through Eden took their solitary way.
ode
a lyric poem usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style, varying length of line, and complexity of stanza forms. An ode is a relatively long (perhaps one to four pages in length), serious, and meditative lyric poem that treats a noble or otherwise elevated subject in a dignified and calm manner. It is a formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea. Sample poem: Ode on a Grecian Urn, by John Keats Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearied, For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
sestina
a lyrical fixed form consisting of six 6-line usually unrhymed stanzas in which the end words of the first stanza recur as end words of the following five stanzas in a successively rotating order and as the middle and end words of the three verses of the concluding tercet Sample poem: "Sestina" by Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1871 I saw my soul at rest upon a day As a bird sleeping in the nest of night, Among soft leaves that give the starlight way To touch its wings but not its eyes with light; So that it knew as one in visions may, And knew not as men waking, of delight. This was the measure of my soul's delight; It had no power of joy to fly by day, Nor part in the large lordship of the light; But in a secret moon-beholden way Had all its will of dreams and pleasant night, And all the love and life that sleepers may. But such life's triumph as men waking may It might not have to feed its faint delight Between the stars by night and sun by day, Shut up with green leaves and a little light; Because its way was as a lost star's way, A world's not wholly known of day or night. All loves and dreams and sounds and gleams of night Made it all music that such minstrels may, And all they had they gave it of delight; But in the full face of the fire of day What place shall be for any starry light, What part of heaven in all the wide sun's way? Yet the soul woke not, sleeping by the way, Watched as a nursling of the large-eyed night, And sought no strength nor knowledge of the day, Nor closer touch conclusive of delight, Nor mightier joy nor truer than dreamers may, Nor more of song than they, nor more of light. For who sleeps once and sees the secret light Whereby sleep shows the soul a fairer way Between the rise and rest of day and night, Shall care no more to fare as all men may, But be his place of pain or of delight, There shall he dwell, beholding night as day. Song, have thy day and take thy fill of light Before the night be fallen across thy way; Sing while he may, man hath no long delight.
ballad
a narrative poem written in rhythmic verse suitable for singing Sample poem: "Sergeant-Major Money" by Robert Graves, 1917 It wasn't our battalion, but we lay alongside it, So the story is as true as the telling is frank. They hadn't one Line-officer left, after Arras, Except a batty major and the Colonel, who drank. 'B' Company Commander was fresh from the Depot, An expert on gas drill, otherwise a dud; So Sergeant-Major Money carried on, as instructed, And that's where the swaddies began to sweat blood. His Old Army humour was so well-spiced and hearty That one poor sod shot himself, and one lost his wits; But discipline's maintained, and back in rest-billets The Colonel congratulates 'B' Company on their kits. The subalterns went easy, as was only natural With a terror like Money driving the machine, Till finally two Welshmen, butties from the Rhondda, Bayoneted their bugbear in a field-canteen. Well, we couldn't blame the officers, they relied on Money; We couldn't blame the pitboys, their courage was grand; Or, least of all, blame Money, an old stiff surviving In a New (bloody) Army he couldn't understand.
narrative
a poem that tells a story and has a plot; like a lyric, narrative represents a broad category of poems. Any poem that tells a story about characters from a 3rd person point of view can be considered a narrative poem. Lyrics are NOT narratives. Sample poem: Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked. And he was rich—yes, richer than a king— And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.
pysma
a rhetorical term for the asking of multiple questions in succession; the questions would require a complex answer if a response were actually expected William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2, Lines 576-607 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd, Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing! For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
end rhyme
a rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses Sample poem: "The Tyger" by William Blake, 1794 Tyger, tyger, burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare seize the fire?And what shoulder and what artCould twist the sinews of thy heart?And, when thy heart began to beat,What dread hand and what dread feet?What the hammer? What the chain?In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil? What dread graspDare its deadly terrors clasp?When the stars threw down their spears,And watered heaven with their tears,Did he smile his work to see?Did he who made the lamb make thee?Tyger, tyger, burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeDare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Caesura
a rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end. Sample poem: "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope, 1734 Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;The proper study of Mankind is Man.Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise, and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little, or too much:Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;Created half to rise, and half to fall;Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;Sole judge of Truth, in endless error hurl'd:The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!Go, wond'rous creature! Mount where Science guidesGo, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;Go, soar with Plato to th'empyreal sphere,To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule -Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!Superior being, when of late they sawA mortal man unfold all Nature's law,Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape.Could he, whose rules the rapid Comet bind,Describe or fix one movement of his Mind?Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,Explain his own beginning, or his end?Alas what wonder! Man's superior partUncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art:But when his own great work is but begun,What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.Trace Science then, with Modesty thy guide;First strip off all her equipage of Pride,Deduct what is but Vanity, or Dress,Or Learning's Luxury, or Idleness;Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain,Mere curious pleasure, ingenious pain:Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent partsOf all, our Vices have created Arts:Then see how little the remaining sum,Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come!
caesura
a rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end. Sample poem: "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope, 1734 Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;The proper study of Mankind is Man.Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise, and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little, or too much:Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;Created half to rise, and half to fall;Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;Sole judge of Truth, in endless error hurl'd:The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!Go, wond'rous creature! Mount where Science guidesGo, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,Correct old Time, and regulate the Sun;Go, soar with Plato to th'empyreal sphere,To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;Or tread the mazy round his follow'rs trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the Sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule -Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!Superior being, when of late they sawA mortal man unfold all Nature's law,Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape.Could he, whose rules the rapid Comet bind,Describe or fix one movement of his Mind?Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,Explain his own beginning, or his end?Alas what wonder! Man's superior partUncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art:But when his own great work is but begun,What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.Trace Science then, with Modesty thy guide;First strip off all her equipage of Pride,Deduct what is but Vanity, or Dress,Or Learning's Luxury, or Idleness;Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain,Mere curious pleasure, ingenious pain:Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent partsOf all, our Vices have created Arts:Then see how little the remaining sum,Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come!
idyll
a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or pastoral scenes or suggests a mood of peace and contentment Sample poem: "The Shepherd" by William Blake, 1789 How sweet is the shepherd's sweet lot! From the morn to the evening he strays; He shall follow his sheep all the day, And his tongue shall be filled with praise. For he hears the lambs' innocent call, And he hears the ewes' tender reply; He is watchful while they are in peace, For they know when their shepherd is nigh.
aubade
a song or poem greeting the dawn; a morning love song Sample poem: "Parting at Morning" by Robert Browning, 1849 Round the cape of a sudden came the sea, And the sun looked over the mountain's rim: And straight was a path of gold for him, And the need of a world of men for me.
Italian sonnet
a sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet rhyming in any of various patterns (as cde cde or cdc dcd). Sample poem: "The Pity of It" by Thomas Hardy, April 1915 I walked in loamy Wessex lanes, afar From rail-track and from highway, and I heard In field and farmstead many an ancient word Of local lineage like 'Thu bist,' 'Er war,' 'Ich woll', 'Er sholl', and by-talk similar, Nigh as they speak who in this month's moon gird At England's very loins, thereunto spurred By gangs whose glory threats and slaughters are. Then seemed a Heart crying: 'Whosoever they be At root and bottom of this, who flung this flame Between kin folk kin tongued even as are we, 'Sinister, ugly, lurid, be their fame; May their familiars grow to shun their name, And their brood perish everlastingly.'
shakespearen sonnet
a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a couplet with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. Sample poem: "SONNET 116" by William Shakespeare, 1609 Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Paradox
a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth; often used to make a reader think over an idea in innovative way Sample poem: "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" by William Wordsworth, 1802 My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die!The Child is father of the Man;And I could wish my days to beBound each to each by natural piety
Asyndeton
a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy Examples: "...we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." -John F. Kennedy "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be..." -Winston Churchill "Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." -General Douglas MacArthur
euphony
agreeableness of sound; pleasing effect to the ear, especially a pleasant sounding or harmonious combination of words; use of long vowels that are more melodious than consonants, use of harmonious consonants such as "l, m, n, r" and soft "f" and "v" sounds, and uses soft consonants or semi-vowels "w", "s", "y" and "th" or "wh" extensively to create more pleasant sounds. Sample Poem: "Ode to Autumn" by John Keats, 1819 1.Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shellsWith a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease,For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.2. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.3. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skie
Epithet
an adjective or phrase that is used to express the characteristic of a person or thing, such as Ivan the Terrible. In literature, the term is considered an element of poetic diction, or something that distinguishes the language of poetry from ordinary language. Homer used certain epithets so regularly that they became a standard part of the name of the thing or person described, as in "rosy-fingered Dawn" and "gray-eyed Athena." The device was used by many later poets, including John Keats in his sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer": "Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne
coneit
an extended metaphor; this is a comparison used throughout a work; a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together to create a comparison that is exceedingly unlikely but is, nonetheless, intellectually imaginative Sample poem: "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne, 1611 As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say The breath goes now, and some say, No: So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love. Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears, Men reckon what it did, and meant; But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent. Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. But we by a love so much refined, That our selves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the other do. And though it in the center sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
cacophony
harshness in the sound of words or phrases. These unharmonious and dissonant sounds include the explosive consonants k, t, g, d, p, and b, and the hissing sounds ch, sh, and s. Sample poem: "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carrol, 1871 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
syncope
he contraction or the shortening of a word by omitting sounds, syllables or letters from the middle of the word Sample poem: SONNET 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
verse
in its broadest sense, a term referring either to poetry or to an individual poem—that is, any metrical composition. (For instance, you might refer to William Wordsworth's "I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud" as verse.) In a narrower sense of the word, verse is an individual line of poetry. A stanza is NOT a verse.
Synathroesmus
piling up of terms, especially adjectives, often as invective (i.e. used to insult or say something bad) Sample poem: William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2, Lines 576-607 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd, Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing! For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech, Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
Lyric
poems with a musical rhythm, whose topics often explore romantic feelings or other strong emotions. You can usually identify a lyric poem by its musicality: if you can imagine singing it, it's probably lyric. This type of poem is different from a ballade in that it does not have a narrative structure. Rather, a lyric is more like a love song, than a song that tells a story. Also, a lyric is a first person account; it describes impressions, feelings, internal reality, and response to stimuli from the speaker's point of view. Finally, lyric is a category of poetry, rather than a specific type of poem. Subcategories of the lyric are, for example elegy, ode, sonnet and dramatic monologue and most occasional poetry. Sample poem: "Air and Angels" by John Donne, 1600 Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee, Before I knew thy face or name; So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be; Still when, to where thou wert, I came, Some lovely glorious nothing I did see. But since my soul, whose child love is, Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do, More subtle than the parent is Love must not be, but take a body too; And therefore what thou wert, and who, I bid Love ask, and now That it assume thy body, I allow, And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow. Whilst thus to ballast love I thought, And so more steadily to have gone, With wares which would sink admiration, I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught; Ev'ry thy hair for love to work upon Is much too much, some fitter must be sought; For, nor in nothing, nor in things Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere; Then, as an angel, face, and wings Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear, So thy love may be my love's sphere; Just such disparity As is 'twixt air and angels' purity, 'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.
free verse
poetry that does not rhyme and does not have a regular rhythm Sample poem: "Eschatology, Piscatology" by James Brookes, 2012 The halotolerant crocodile idles in brackish water like a tow truck. Salt glands meter in its diapsid skull; smug ****er that the epochs couldn't kill. How easy "kill" then closes onto "smile," the lockjaw of a life that rides its luck, knowing from hindmost teeth to jackknifed tail Leviathan is neither fish nor mammal.
altar poem
poetry that visually conveys the poet's meaning through the graphic arrangement of letters, words, or symbols on the page Sample poem: "The Pillar of Fame" by Robert Herrick, 1647 Fame's pillar here at last we set, Out-during marble, brass or jet; Charmed and enchanted so As to withstand the blow O f o v e r t h r o w ; Nor shall the seas, Or o u t r a g e s Of storms, o'erbear What we uprear; Tho' kingdoms fall, This pillar never shall Decline or waste at all; But stand for ever by his own Firm and well-fixed foundation.
occasional verse
poetry written to celebrate or commemorate a particular occasion or event. Poetry of this type may range from joyous to somber in tone. In the past, occasional verse has often been used to honor royalty or praise heroes, although it can be used in response to any event such as births, deaths, marriages, and military victories. from On the Pulse of Morning, by Maya Angelou (written for President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993) A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow, I will give you no hiding place down here. You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness Have lain too long Facedown in ignorance, Your mouths spilling words Armed for slaughter. The Rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, But do not hide your face.
Personification
representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form Sample poem: "Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room" by William Blake, 1800 "Ah, William, we're weary of weather," said the sunflowers, shining with dew. "Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view?" They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun, and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run.
internal rhyme
rhyme between a word within a line and another either at the end of the same line or within another line Sample poem: "Pink Dominoes" by Rudyard Kipling, 1922 They are fools who kiss and tell" - Wisely has the poet sung. Man may hold all sorts of posts If he'll only hold his tongue. Jenny and Me were engaged, you see, On the eve of the Fancy Ball; So a kiss or two was nothing to you Or any one else at all. Menny would go in a domino - Pretty and pink but warm; While I attended, clad in a splendid Austrian uniform. Now we had arranged, through notes exchanged Early that afternoon, At Number Four to waltz no more, But to sit in the dusk and spoon. I wish you to see that Jenny and Me Had barely exchanged our troth; So a kiss or two was strictly due By, from, and between us both. When Three was over, an eager lover, I fled to the gloom outside; And a Domino came out also Whom I took for my future bride. That is to say, in a casual way, I slipped my arm around her; With a kiss or two (which is nothing to you), And ready to kiss I found her. She turned her head and the name she said Was certainly not my own; But ere I could speak, with a smothered shriek She fled and left me alone. Then Jenny came, and I saw with shame She'd doffed her domino; And I had embraced an alien waist - But I did not tell her so. Next morn I knew that there were two Dominoes pink, and one Had cloaked the spouse of Sir Julian Vouse, Our big Political gun. Sir J. was old, and her hair was gold, And her eye was a blue cerulean; And the name she said when she turned her head Was not in the least like "Julian."
masculine rhyme
rhyme on a single stressed syllable at the end of a line of poetry Sample Poem: "A Shropshire Lad 2: Loveliest of trees, the cherry now" by A. E. Housman, 1896 Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.
feminine rhyme
rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of respective lines, in which the final syllable or syllables are unstressed Sample poem: "London" by William Wordsworth, 1802 Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! Raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Enjambment
the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. Sample poem: "It is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free" by William Wordsworth, 1800 It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility; The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea; Listen! The mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunder—everlastingly. Dear child! Dear Girl! That walkest with me here, If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine: Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not.
onomotopoiea
the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it Sample poem: "Come down, O Maid" by Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1833 Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height: What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang) In height and cold, the splendour of the hills? But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; And come, for Love is of the valley, come, For Love is of the valley, come thou down And find him; by the happy threshold, he, Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize, Or red with spirted purple of the vats, Or foxlike in the vine; nor cares to walk With Death and Morning on the silver horns, Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice, That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls To roll the torrent out of dusky doors: But follow; let the torrent dance thee down To find him in the valley; let the wild Lean-headed Eagles yelp alone, and leave The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill Their thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, That like a broken purpose waste in air: So waste not thou; but come; for all the vales Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth Arise to thee; the children call, and I Thy shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Anaphora
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences Sample poem: "London" by William Blake I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
Symbolism
the use of a person, object, action, or idea whose meaning transcends its literal meaning or dictionary definition; a symbol is invested with significance beyond what it could carry on its own Sample poem: "Ah! Sun-flower" by William Blake, 1783 Ah Sun-flower! weary of time, Who countest the steps of the Sun: Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the travellers journey is done. Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow: Arise from their graves and aspire, Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter Sample poem: "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963 Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
speaker
voice behind the words of the poem. Similar to the narrator in a story or novel, the speaker can present ideas from the first person (a lyric usually) or the third person perspective (usually a narrative poem).
Consonance
when consonants in two or more words are the same but intervening vowels are different; also the recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity Sample poem: "Birches" by Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
