Bob's poetry terms

Allusion

" is an indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work with which the author believes the reader will be familiar

Figurative language

" is language that communicates ideas beyond the literal meaning of words. Figurative language can make descriptions and unfamiliar or difficult ideas easier to understand. Special types of figurative language, called figures of speech, include simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and apostrophe.

Archetype

"is a pattern in literature that is found in a variety of works from different cultures throughout the ages. An archetype can be a plot, a character, an image, or a setting. For example, the association of death and rebirth with winter and spring is an archetype common to many cultures"

Quatrain

A four line stanza

Allegory

"An allegory is a work with two levels of meaning, a literal one and a symbolic one. In such a work, most of the characters, objects, settings, and events represent abstract qualities. Personification is often used in traditional allegories. As in a fable or parable, the purpose of an allegory may be to convey truths about life, to teach religious or moral lessons, or to criticize social institutions

Iambic pentameter

"Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern of five feet, or units, each of which is made up of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter used in English poetry; it is the meter used in blank verse and in the sonnet. The following line is an example of iambic pentameter:

Meter

"Meter is the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. Each unit, known as a foot, has one stressed syllable (indicated by a ) and either one or two unstressed syllables (indicated by a ). The four basic types of metrical feet are the iamb, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; the trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable; the anapest, two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable; and the dactyl, a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Two words are typically used to describe the meter of a line. The first word identifies the type of metrical foot— iambic, trochaic, anapestic, or dactylic—and the second word indicates the number of feet in a line: monometer (one foot); dimeter (two feet); trimeter (three feet); tetrameter (four feet); pentameter (five feet); hexameter (six feet); and so forth. The meter in this poem is iambic tetrameter:

Sound devices

"See Alliteration; Assonance; Consonance; Meter; Onomatopoeia; Repetition; Rhyme; Rhyme Scheme; Rhythm"

Scansion

"The process of determining meter is known as scansion. When you scan a line of poetry, you mark its stressed ( ) and unstressed syllables ( ) in order to identify the rhythm.

Epigram

"a literary form that originated in ancient Greece. It developed from simple inscriptions on monuments into a literary genre—short poems or sayings characterized by conciseness, balance, clarity, and wit. A classic epigram is written in two parts, the first establishing the occasion or setting the tone and the second stating the main point. A few lines taken from a longer poem can also be an epigram. Epigrams are used for many purposes, including the expression of friendship, grief, criticism, praise, and philosophy.

Motif

"a recurring word, phrase, image, object, idea, or action in a work of literature. Motifs function as unifying devices and often relate directly to one or more major themes. Motifs in "The Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales, for example, include images of earthly love along with images of spiritual devotion. In Macbeth, references to blood, sleep, and water form motifs in the play.

Tone

"a writer's attitude toward his or her subject. A writer can communicate tone through diction, choice of details, and direct statements of his or her position. Unlike mood, which refers to the emotional response of the reader to a work, tone reflects the feelings of the writer. To identify the tone of a work of literature, you might find it helpful to read the work aloud, as if giving a dramatic reading before an audience. The emotions that you convey in an oral reading should give you hints as to the tone of the work. Examples: The tone of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is searingly ironic; the tone of Katherine Mansfield's "A Cup of Tea" is amused and ironic. In "The Prologue" from The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's jovial tone accounts for much of the work's humor. See also Connotation; Diction; Mood; Style.

Sensory details

"are words and phrases that appeal to the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. For example, the sensory detail "a fine film of rain" appeals to the senses of sight and touch. Sensory details stimulate the reader to create images in his or her mind. See also Imagery.

Heroic couplet

"consists of two rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter. The term heroic comes from the fact that English poems having heroic themes and elevated style have often been written in iambic pentameter. Alexander Pope's masterful use of the heroic couplet made it a popular verse form during the neoclassical period.

Romance

"has been a popular narrative form since the Middle Ages. Generally, the term refers to any imaginative adventure concerned with noble heroes, gallant love, a chivalric code of honor, daring deeds, and supernatural events. Romances usually have faraway settings, depict events unlike those of ordinary life, and idealize their heroes as well as the eras in which the heroes live. Medieval romances often are lighthearted in tone, consist of a number of episodes, and involve one or more characters in a quest. Example: Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is an example of a medieval romance. Its stories of kings, knights, and ladies relate many adventures, tales of love, superhuman feats, and quests for honor and virtue.

Lyrical ballads

"is a ballad with a single author. Modeled on the early English and Scottish folk ballads, literary ballads became popular during the romantic period. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a romantic literary ballad.

Idiom

"is a common figure of speech whose meaning is different from the literal meaning of its words. For example, the phrase "raining cats and dogs" does not literally mean that cats and dogs are falling from the sky; the expression means "raining heavily"

Extended metaphor

"is a comparison between two essentially unlike things that nevertheless have something in common. It does not contain the word like or as. In an extended metaphor, two things are compared at length and in various ways— perhaps throughout a stanza, a paragraph, or even an entire work. The likening of God to a shepherd in "Psalm 23" is an example of an extended metaphor. Like an extended metaphor, a conceit parallels two essentially dissimilar things on several points. A conceit, though, is a more elaborate, formal, and ingenious comparison than the ordinary extended metaphor. Sometimes a conceit forms the framework of an entire poem, as in John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," in which the poet describes his own and his lover's souls as the two legs of a mathematician's compass.

Ode

"is a complex lyric poem that develops a serious and dignified theme. Odes appeal to both the imagination and the intellect, and many commemorate events or praise people or elements of nature. Examples of odes that celebrate an element of nature are Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and "To a Skylark."

Irony

"is a contrast between expectation and reality. This incongruity often has the effect of surprising the reader or viewer. The techniques of irony include hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm. Irony is often subtle and easily overlooked or misinterpreted. There are three main types of irony. Situational irony occurs when a character or the reader expects one thing to happen but something else actually happens. In Thomas Hardy's poem "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?" the speaker questions who is digging on her grave and why. The responses to her questions and the final revelation shock the speaker and create a shattering irony in the poem. Verbal irony occurs when a writer or character says one thing but means another. An example of verbal irony is the title of Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal." The reader soon discovers that the narrator's proposal is outrageous rather than modest and unassuming. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or viewer knows something that a character does not know. For example, in Act One of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the audience knows that Macbeth is thinking of killing Duncan, but Duncan does not.

Apostrophe

"is a figure of speech in which an object, an abstract quality, or an absent or imaginary person is addressed directly, as if present and able to understand. Writers use apostrophe to express powerful emotions, as in this apostrophe to the ocean:

Personification

"is a figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an object, animal, or idea. Writers use personification to communicate feelings and images in a concise, concrete way. In line 117 of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," for example, the earth is personified: "Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth." In the following lines, time is personified:

Hyperbole

"is a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or for humorous effect. Notice the jarring effect created by this hyperbole:

Simile

"is a figure of speech that compares two things that have something in common, using a word such as like or as. Both poets and prose writers use similes to intensify emotional response, stimulate vibrant images, provide imaginative delight, and concentrate the expression of ideas. In her story "The Duchess and the Jeweller," Virginia Woolf uses similes to describe the duchess as she sits down: An epic simile is a long comparison that often continues for a number of lines. It does not always contain the word like or as. Here is an example of an epic simile:

Metaphor

"is a figure of speech that compares two things that have something in common. Unlike similes, metaphors do not use the words like or as, but make comparisons directly. In the following poem, the phrase "Time's wingèd chariot" is a metaphor in which the swift passage of time is compared to a speeding chariot:

Stanza

"is a group of lines that form a unit in a poem. A stanza is usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, and number of lines. During the 20th century, poets experimented more freely with stanza form than did earlier poets, sometimes writing poems without any stanza breaks.

Epic poem

"is a long narrative poem on a serious subject presented in an elevated or formal style. An epic traces the adventures of a hero whose actions consist of courageous, even superhuman, deeds, which often represent the ideals and values of a nation or race. Epics typically address universal issues, such as good and evil, life and death, and sin and redemption. Beowulf is an enduring epic of the Anglo-Saxon period. 

Sonnet

"is a lyric poem of 14 lines, commonly written in iambic pentameter. For centuries the sonnet has been a popular form because it is long enough to permit development of a complex idea, yet short and structured enough to challenge any poet's skills. Sonnets written in English usually follow one of two forms. The Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet, introduced into English by Sir Thomas Wyatt, is named after Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet. This type of sonnet consists of two parts, called the octave (the first eight lines) and the sestet (the last six lines). The usual rhyme scheme for the octave is abbaabba. The rhyme scheme for the sestet may be cdecde, cdccdc, or a similar variation. The octave generally presents a problem or raises a question, and the sestet resolves or comments on the problem. John Milton's sonnets are written in the Petrarchan form. The Shakespearean, or English, sonnet is sometimes called the Elizabethan sonnet. It consists of three quatrains, or four-line units, and a final couplet. The typical rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. In the English sonnet, the rhymed couplet at the end of the sonnet provides a final commentary on the[...]"

Ballad

"is a narrative poem that was originally intended to be sung. Traditional folk ballads, written by unknown authors and handed down orally, usually depict ordinary people in the midst of tragic events and adventures of love and bravery. They tend to begin abruptly, focus on a single incident, use dialogue and repetition, and suggest more than they actually state. They often contain supernatural elements. Typically, a ballad consists of four-line stanzas, or quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyming. Each stanza has a strong rhythmic pattern, usually with four stressed syllables in the first and third lines and three stressed syllables in the second and fourth lines. The rhyme scheme is usually abcb or aabb. "Barbara Allan," and "Get Up and Bar the Door" are ballads. Notice the rhythmic pattern in the following stanza:

Rhythm

"is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Poets use rhythm to bring out the musical quality of language, to emphasize ideas, to create mood, to unify a work, and to heighten emotional response. Devices such as alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, and parallelism often contribute to creating rhythm. The slow rhythms of the following lines help to convey the mysterious mood of the poem:

Symbol

"is a person, place, or object that has a concrete meaning in itself and also stands for something beyond itself, such as an idea or feeling. Examples: In Boccaccio's story "Federigo's Falcon," the falcon comes to symbolize the passionate and consuming love of Federigo for Monna Giovanna. Sometimes a literary symbol has more than one possible meaning. For example, the rose in William Blake's poem "The Sick Rose" might symbolize goodness, innocence, or all of humanity.

Pastoral

"is a poem presenting shepherds in rural settings, usually in an idealized manner. The language and form of pastorals are artificial. The supposedly simple, rustic characters tend to use formal, courtly speech, and the meters and rhyme schemes are characteristic of formal poetry. Renaissance poets were drawn to the pastoral as a means of conveying their own emotions and ideas, particularly about love. Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a pastoral.

Narrative poem

"is a poem that tells a story using elements of character, setting, and plot to develop a theme. Epics, such as Beowulf and the Iliad, are narrative poems, as are ballads. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also a narrative poem. See also Ballad

Couplet

"is a rhymed pair of lines. A simple couplet may be written in any rhythmic pattern. The following couplet is written in iambic tetrameter (lines of four iambs each):

Psalm

"is a sacred song or lyric poem. Most psalms were originally set to music and performed during worship services in the temples of ancient Israel. In the Bible, the Book of Psalms contains 150 sacred psalms.

Lyric

"is a short poem in which a single speaker expresses personal thoughts and feelings. Most poems other than dramatic and narrative poems are lyrics. In ancient Greece, lyrics were meant to be sung—the word lyric comes from the word lyre, the name of a musical instrument that was used to accompany songs. Modern lyrics are not usually intended for singing, but they are characterized by strong, melodic rhythms. Lyrics can be in a variety of forms and cover many subjects, from love and death to everyday experiences. They are marked by imagination and create for the reader a strong, unified impression. The following lines from John Keats's famous poem exemplify the emotional intensity of lyric poetry:

Paradox

"is a statement that seems to contradict, or oppose, itself but, in fact, reveals some element of truth. Paradox is found frequently in the poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries. In Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 30," he begins "My love is like to ice, and I to fire," and then continues to develop the paradox, asking why his "fire" does not melt and her "ice" and so on. A special kind of concise paradox is the oxymoron, which brings together two contradictory terms. Examples are "cruel kindness" and "brave fear." See also Metaphysical Poetry.

Metaphysical poetry

"is a style of poetry written by a group of 17th-century poets, of whom John Donne was the first. The metaphysical poets rejected the conventions of Elizabethan love poetry, with its musical quality and themes of courtly love. Instead, they approached subjects such as religion, death, and even love by analyzing them logically and philosophically. The metaphysical poets were intellectuals who, like the ideal Renaissance man, were well-read in a broad spectrum of subjects. The characteristics of metaphysical poetry include more than just an intellectual approach to subject matter, however. Instead of the lyrical style of most Elizabethan poetry, metaphysical poets used a more colloquial, or conversational, style. In spite of the simplicity of the words, the ideas may seem obscure or confusing at first, because metaphysical poets loved to play with language. Donne's writing is filled with surprising twists: unexpected images and comparisons, as well as the use of paradox, seemingly contradictory statements that in fact reveal some element of truth. Donne's poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" contains many characteristics of metaphysical poetry. See also Paradox.

Repetition

"is a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for emphasis or unity. Repetition often helps to reinforce meaning and create an appealing rhythm. The term includes specific devices associated with both prose and poetry, such as alliteration and parallelism. See also Alliteration; Parallelism; Sound Devices.

Terza Rima

"is a three-line stanza form originating in Italy. Its rhyme scheme is aba bcb cdc ded, and so on. Terza rima was popular with many English poets, including Milton, Byron, and Shelley"

Elegy

"is an extended meditative poem in which the speaker reflects upon death—often in tribute to a person who has died recently—or on an equally serious subject. Most elegies are written in formal, dignified language and are serious in tone. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, is a famous elegy.

Theme

"is an underlying message that a writer wants the reader to understand. It is a perception about life or human nature that the writer shares with the reader. In most cases, themes are not stated directly but must be inferred. In addition, there may be more than one theme in a work of literature. In Macbeth, for example, the themes include the corrupting effect of unbridled ambition, the corrosiveness of guilt, the lure and power of inscrutable supernatural forces, and the tragedy of psychological disintegration. The theme of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" has been interpreted as the transformation of the human personality through a loss of innocence and youth; another interpretation of the theme concerns the effects of sin and spiritual redemption. Recurring themes are themes found in a variety of works. For example, authors from varying backgrounds might convey similar themes having to do with the importance of family values. Universal themes are themes that are found throughout the literature of all time periods.

Poetry

"is language arranged in lines. Like other forms of literature, poetry attempts to re-create emotions and experiences. Poetry, however, is usually more condensed and suggestive than prose. Poems often are divided into stanzas, or paragraph-like groups of lines. The stanzas in a poem may contain the same number of lines or may vary in length. Some poems have definite patterns of meter and rhyme. Others rely more on the sounds of words and less on fixed rhythms and rhyme schemes. The use of figurative language is also common in poetry. The form and content of a poem combine to convey meaning. The way that a poem is arranged on the page, the impact of the images, the sounds of the words and phrases, and all the other details that make up a poem work together to help the reader grasp its central idea. See also Experimental Poetry; Form; Free Verse; Meter; Rhyme; Rhythm; Stanza.

Refrain

"is part of a stanza, consisting of one or more lines that are repeated regularly, sometimes with changes, often at the ends of succeeding stanzas.

Free verse

"is poetry that does not have regular patterns of rhyme and meter. The lines in free verse often flow more naturally than do rhymed, metrical lines and thus achieve a rhythm more like that of everyday human speech. Much 20th-century poetry, such as T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men," is written in free verse. See also Meter; Rhyme.

Line

"is the core unit of a poem. In poetry, line length is an essential element of the poem's meaning and rhythm. There are a variety of terms to describe the way a line of poetry ends or is connected to the next line. Line breaks, where a line of poetry ends, may coincide with grammatical units. However, a line break may also occur in the middle of a grammatical or syntactical unit, creating a pause or emphasis. Poets use a variety of line breaks to play with meaning, thereby creating a wide range of effects.

Connotation

"is the emotional response evoked by a word, in contrast to its denotation, which is its literal meaning. Kitten, for example, is defined as "a young cat." However, the word also suggests, or connotes, images of softness, warmth, and playfulness.

Ryhme scheme

"is the pattern of end rhyme in a poem. A rhyme scheme is charted by assigning a letter of the alphabet, beginning with a, to each line. Lines that rhyme are given the same letter. In the following stanza, for example, the rhyme scheme is abab:

Assonance

"is the repetition of a vowel sound in two or more stressed syllables that do not end with the same consonant. Poets use assonance to emphasize certain words, to impart a musical quality, to create a mood, or to unify a passage. An example of assonance is the repetition of the long e sound in the following lines. Note that the repeated sounds are not always spelled the same

Consanace

"is the repetition of consonant sounds within and at the ends of words, as in the following example:

Onomatopoeia

"is the use of words whose sounds echo their meanings, such as buzz, whisper, gargle, and murmur. Onomatopoeia as a literary technique goes beyond the use of simple echoic words, however. Skilled writers, especially poets, choose words whose sounds in combination suggest meaning. In the following lines, the poet uses onomatopoeia to help convey the images and meanings he wants to express"

Speaker

"is the voice that talks to the reader. In some poems, the speaker can be identified with the poet. In other poems, the poet invents a fictional character, or a persona, to play the role of the speaker. Persona is a Latin word meaning "actor's mask."

Blank verse

"is unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter. Because iambic pentameter resembles the natural rhythm of spoken English, it has been considered the most suitable meter for dramatic verse in English. Shakespeare's plays are written largely in blank verse, as is Milton's epic Paradise Lost. Blank verse has also been used frequently for long poems, as in the following:

Romanticism

"refers to a literary movement that flourished in Britain and Europe throughout much of the 19th century. Romantic writers looked to nature for their inspiration, idealized the distant past, and celebrated the individual. In reaction against neoclassicism, their treatment of subjects was emotional rather than rational, imaginative rather than analytical. The romantic period in English literature is generally viewed as beginning with the publication of Lyrical Ballads, poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See also Neoclassicism.

Voice

"refers to a writer's unique use of language that allows a reader to "hear" a human personality in his or her writing. The elements of style that determine a writer's voice include sentence structure, diction, and tone. For example, some writers are noted for their reliance on short, simple sentences, while others make use of long, complicated ones. Certain writers use concrete words, such as lake or cold, which name things that you can see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. Others prefer abstract terms such as memory, which name things that cannot be perceived with the senses. A writer's tone also leaves its imprint on his or her personal voice. The term voice can be applied to the narrator of a selection, as well as to the writer.

Imagery

"refers to words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader. The majority of images are visual, but imagery may also appeal to the senses of smell, hearing, taste, and touch. In addition, images may re-create sensations of heat (thermal), movement (kinetic), or bodily tension (kinesthetic). Effective writers of both prose and poetry frequently use imagery that appeals to more than one sense simultaneously. For example, in John Keats's ode "To Autumn," the image "Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" appeals to two senses—sight and touch. When an image describes one sensation in terms of another, the technique is called synesthesia. For example, the phrase "cold smell of potato mold" from Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging" is an image appealing to smell described in terms of touch (temperature""A poet may use a controlling image to convey thoughts or feelings. A controlling image is a single image or comparison that extends throughout a literary work and shapes its meaning. A controlling image is sometimes an extended metaphor. The image of the Greek vase in Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and the image of digging in Heaney's poem "Digging" are controlling images. See also Description; Kinesthetic Imagery

Mood

"the feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader. The writer's use of connotation, imagery, figurative language, sound and rhythm, and descriptive details all contribute to the mood. In his poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," Dylan Thomas creates a solemn mood as he addresses his ailing father:

Ryhme

"when the sounds of their accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical, as in amuse and confuse. For true rhyme, the consonants that precede the vowels must be different. Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines of poetry is called end rhyme, as in Thomas Hardy's rhyming of face and place in "The Man He Killed." End rhymes that are not exact but approximate are called off rhyme, or slant rhyme, as in the words come and doom in Stevie Smith's "The Frog Prince." Rhyme that occurs within a single line is called internal rhyme: "

Folk ballad

See ballad

Literary Ballad

See ballad

Heroic couplet

See couplet

Figure of speech

See figurative language

Exaggeration

See hyperbole

Anapest

See meter

Dactyl

See meter

Foot

See meter

Iamb

See meter

Trochee

See meter

End Ryhme

See ryhme

Internal ryhme

See ryhme

Off ryhme

See ryhme

Slant ryhme

See ryhme

English sonnet

See sonnet

Italian sonnet

See sonnet

Octave

See sonnet

Petrarchan sonnet

See sonnet

Sestet

See sonnet

Alliteration

is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. Poets use alliteration to impart a musical quality to their poems, to create mood, to reinforce meaning, to emphasize particular words, and to unify lines or stanzas. Note the examples of alliteration in the following lines