Poetry Terms/Techniques First Semester Final

Cinquain

A five line stanza

Quatrain

A four line stanza

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem

Pun

A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Tone

The overall effect of the diction of a piece of writing, in addition to the other elements, such as the choice of subject, imagery, design of the poem, etc

Persona

The voice, or speaker of the poem

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

Italian sonnet / Petrarchan sonnet

14 lines in iambic pentameter The first and most common sonnet is this form of poem, or Italian. Named after one of its greatest practitioners, the this poem is divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines). The tightly woven rhyme scheme, abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd, is suited for the rhyme-rich Italian language, though there are many fine examples in English. Since this form of poem presents an argument, observation, question, or some other answerable charge in the octave, a turn, or volta, occurs between the eighth and ninth lines. This turn marks a shift in the direction of the foregoing argument or narrative, turning the sestet into the vehicle for the counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the octave demands.

English sonnet / Shakespearean sonnet

14 lines in iambic pentameter.The second major type of sonnet, this form of poem, follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end.

Tercet

3 line stanza

Quintets

5 line stanza

Villanelle

A 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern Highly structured form of poetry that is a nineteen-lines with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.The agency or agent who is speaking through the poem, apart from those passages that are actually dialogue

Archetype

A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response

Sonnet

A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.

Allusion

A reference to something that belongs to a world beyond the specific sphere of the poem

Meter

A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Caesura

A structural and logical pause within and only within the line, and usually, but not always, within a metric foot itself

Octave

An eight-line stanza

Connotation

An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Figurative Language

Another word for imagery. In a piece of poetry, an image that is a concrete, non-literal, informing representation of something. When a familiar thing is linked to an unknown thing.

Elegy

Began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response to the death of a person or group. Though similar in function, it is distinct from the epitaph, ode, and eulogy: the epitaph is very brief; the ode solely exalts; most often written in formal prose. The elements of a traditional poem of this nature mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Ballad

Centuries-old in practice, the composition of this form of poetry began in the European folk tradition, in many cases accompanied by musical instruments. Were not originally transcribed, but rather preserved orally for generations, passed along through recitation. Their subject matter dealt with religious themes, love, tragedy, domestic crimes, and sometimes even political propaganda. A typically is a plot-driven song, with one or more characters hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion. At best, does not tell the reader what's happening, but rather shows the reader what's happening, describing each crucial moment in the trail of events. To convey that sense of emotional urgency, the ballad is often constructed in quatrain stanzas, each line containing as few as three or four stresses and rhyming either the second and fourth lines, or all alternating lines.

Ode

Comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, this form of poetry can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.

Metaphor

Does not use the words "like" or "as" in its construction and makes an implicit comparison

Iambic Pentameter

Five iambic feet strung together

Tetrameter

Four-foot metrical line

Terza rima

Invented by the Italian poet Dante in the late thirteenth century to structure his three-part epic poem, The Divine Comedy, this form of poetry is composed of tercets woven into a rhyme scheme that requires the end-word of the second line in one tercet to supply the rhyme for the first and third lines in the following tercet. Thus, the rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, ded) continues through to the final stanza or line. Dante chose to end each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. Typically written in an iambic line, and in English, most often in iambic pentameter. If another line length is chosen, such as tetrameter, the lines should be of the same length. There are no limits to the number of lines a poem composed in this style may have.

Narrative

Longer generally and not as tightly coiled in forcefulness of tone. Discursive and pauses for moments of humor and slowly unfolding description. It sets an easy and readable pace, and helps readers to enjoy sequential events. At times, readers feel as thought they are in a vortex; when listening to such a poem we are comfortable. Engaged, and sometimes entranced, we could listen for hours. We do not love anything more deeply than we love a story-it is at the center of all literature.

Trochee

One heavy stress followed by one light stress

Dactyl

One heavy stress followed by two light stresses

Iamb

One light stress followed by one heavy stress

Monometer

One-foot metrical line

Euphony/Euphonious

Pleasing, harmonious, or sweet sound, the acoustic effect produced by words so formed and combined as to please the ear.

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter (there is no pattern to the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables)

Inversion

Refers to the changing of the normal word order-usually thought of as a bad thing. It feels "out of wack", and contorted. Bad examples of this generally occur in metrical verse, particularly rhymed.

Repetition

Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis

Sestet

Six line stanza

Hexameter

Six-foot metrical line

Sestina

The a complex form that achieves its often spectacular effects through intricate repetition. The thirty-nine-line form is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, the Provencal troubadour of the twelfth century. The name "troubadour" likely comes from trobar, which means "to invent or compose verse." The troubadours sang their verses accompanied by music and were quite competitive, each trying to top the next in wit, as well as in complexity and difficulty of style. Follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six end-words of the first stanza through the remaining five six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi. The lines may be of any length, though in its initial incarnation it followed a syllabic restriction. The envoi, sometimes known as the tornada, must also include the remaining three end-words, BDF, in the course of the three lines so that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines. In place of a rhyme scheme, this form of poem relies on end-word repetition to effect a sort of rhyme.

Scansion

The action of scanning a line of verse to determine its meter

Voice

The agency or agent who is speaking through the poem, apart from those passages that are actually dialogue

Style

The choices a writer makes; the combination of distinctive features of a literary work

Consonance

The repetition of both initial sounds and interior sounds of words

Alliteration

The repetition of the initial sound of words in a line or lines of verse

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in a line or lines of verse

Imagery

The representation of one thing by another thing

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word that, through its sound as well as its sense, represents what it defines

Poetic Diction

The use of specific types of words, phrases, or literary structures that are not common in contemporary speech or prose

Anapest

Two light stresses followed by one heavy stress

Couplet

Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

Spondee

Two stressed syllables

Pyrrhic

Two unstressed syllables

Dimeter

Two-foot metrical line

Feet

Units of stressed and unstressed syllables

Lyric

Up to at most 60 lines. Very popular. Brief, concentrated, has usually no more than a single subject and focus and no more than a single voice, and is more likely to employ a simple and natural rather than an intricate or composed musicality. It is not unlike a simple coiled spring, waiting to release its energy in a few clear phrases.

Simile

Uses the words "like" or "as" in its construction to make an explicit, stated comparison

Cacophony

Verse written in iambic meter (usually iambic pentameter) that DOES NOT RHYME

Conceit

When a comparison is particularly unusual or fanciful

Extended Metaphor

When a comparison of two things is repeated and extended throughout a poem, with repeated instances of imagery

Enjambment

When a line of poetry is turned so that the logical phrase is interrupted.

Negative Capability

When a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason

Personification

When one gives a physical characteristic or innate quality of animation to something that is inanimate, or to an abstraction

Slant rhyme

When words are not true rhyming words but almost rhyme

Diction

Word choice

Feminine Rhyme

Words of more than one syllable that end in a light stress

Masculine rhyme

Words that rhyme on a single stressed syllable