Poetic Terms

Victorian

(Early 19th-20th Century) Victorian era poetry refers to poetry written in England during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Following Romanticism, Victorian poets continued many of the previous era's main themes such as religious skepticism and valorization of the artist as genius, but Victorian poets also developed a distinct sensibility. The writers of this period are known for their interest in verbal embellishment, mystical interrogation, brooding skepticism, and whimsical nonsense.

Modernist

(Late 19th century) Modernist poetry grew out of the philosophical, scientific, political, and ideological shifts that followed the Industrial Revolution, up to WW1 and its aftermath. For artists, the Modernist era was a re-evaluation of the assumptions and aesthetic values of their predecessors. It evolved from the Romantic rejection of Enlightenment positivism and faith in reason. Modernism emerged with its insistent breaks with the immediate past, its different inventions, 'making it new' with elements from cultures remote in time and space. The questions of impersonality and objectivity seem to be crucial to Modernist poetry. Modernism developed out of a tradition of lyrical expression, emphasizing the personal imagination, culture, emotions, and memories of the poet. For the modernists, it was essential to move away from the merely personal towards an intellectual statement that poetry could make about the world.

Romantic

(~End of 18th-Early 19th Century) The Romantic era of poetry turned toward nature and the interior world of feeling, in opposition to the mannered formalism and disciplined scientific inquiry of the Enlightenment era that preceded it. English poets such as William Wordsworth and Lord Byron produced work that expressed spontaneous feelings, found parallels to their own emotional lives in the natural word, and celebrated creativity rather than logic. Referred to the sublime, the grotesque or extraordinary experiences that take us beyond the ordinary.

Italian sonnet

A _____* consisting of an octave rhyming (ABBA ABBA) and a sestet rhyming in any various patterns (such as CDE CDE or CDC DCD), also called a Petrarchan _____. *a poem with 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables, and the poem has a specific rhyme scheme, and a volta, or specific turn,

Caesura

A break in a verse where one phrase ends and the following phrase begins, usually using a comma, a tick, or two separate lines. This break can vary between the slightest perception of silence all the way up to a full pause.

Conceit

A conceit is a kind of metaphor that compares two very unlike things in a surprising and clever way. Conceits are often extended metaphors that dominate an entire passage or poem (John Donne was known for his metaphysical conceits).

Stanza

A division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter, or rhyming scheme. ________ in poetry are similar to paragraphs in prose, as both include connected thoughts, and are set off by a space.

Cavalier

A division of poets of the Jacobean era, Cavalier poets were supporters of King Charles I in the 17th century and wrote a straightforward, yet refined poetry style. Cavalier poets took pride in writing coherent, elegant lines of poetry. Many of the poems centered around sensual, romantic love and also the idea of carpe diem, which means to "seize the day". To the Cavalier poet, enjoying life was far more important than following moral codes, and as a result they lived for the moment. The meaning of cavalier is showing arrogant or offhand disregard, and this describes the attitude of Cavalier poets.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing one thing to another to make a description more emphatic or vivid, using terms "like" or "as"

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a word phrase that refers to a part of something is substituted to stand in for the whole, or vice versa (e.g. I have four mouths to feed at home; the strings were praised for their excellent performance; all hands on deck)

Metaphor

A figure of speech that compares two unlike things to make a description more emphatic or vivid, usually a comparison without using "like" or "as".

Metonymy

A figure of speech that replaces the name of an object with the name of something else with which it is closely associated.

Hyperbole

A form of figurative language where an unrealistic exaggeration is used.

Lyric

A formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.

Line/foot

A line or foot is how poems are subdivided. A foot is essentially a unit of rhythm in poetry that expresses a particular meter, and a line of the poem is usually composed of many feet, while numerous lines creates a stanza of a poem.

Trochee/trochaic

A metrical foot consisting of a long (or stressed) syllable followed by a short (or unstressed) syllables.

Dactyl/dactylic

A metrical foot consisting of one long (or stressed) syllable followed by two short (or unstressed) syllables.

Iamb/iambic

A metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed syllable).

Anapest/anapestic

A metrical foot consisting of two short (or unstressed) syllables followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

Pentameter

A metrical line of verse with five feet.

Tetrameter

A metrical line of verse with four feet.

Fourteener

A metrical line of verse with seven feet.

Alexandrine

A metrical line of verse with six feet.

Trimeter

A metrical line of verse with three feet.

Dimeter

A metrical line of verse with two feet. The particular type of foot can vary.

Villanelle

A nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.

Heroic couplet

A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters found in epic or narrative poetry, used by Alexander Pope.

Dramatic monologue

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader. Can also be characterized as a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character.

Blazon

A poetic mode where the speaker uses literary devices like metaphors, similes, and hyperboles to describe the physical attributes of a subject, usually female.

Triplet

A relatively rare stanza form in poetry, where three lines rhyme. It is a type of tercet, or three-lined stanza or poem.

Feminine rhyme

A rhyme between stressed syllables followed by one or more unstressed syllables (e.g. stocking/shocking, glamorous/amorous).

Masculine rhyme

A rhyme of final stressed syllables (e.g. blow/flow, confess/redress).

Slant rhyme

A type of rhyme with words that have similar, but not identical sounds.

Hudibrastic couplet

A unit of two humorous or mocking lines ending with a rhyme that contributes to the humor, often satirical.

Octave

A verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter. The most common rhyme scheme for an octave is (ABBA ABBA). An octave is also the first part of an Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet.

Compliment

Act of praise to a women using Blazon characteristics.

Ictus

An artificial stress or accent placed over the top of particular syllables in a line of poetry to indicate which syllables the poet wants the reader to stress if the stress is not clear from the normal pattern of pronunciation.

Allegory

An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning. Often an allegory's meaning is religious, moral, or historical in nature.

Ode

An ode is a type of lyric poem. It is a stylistically elevated, elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.

Blank verse

Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter.

Elizabethan

Elizabethan poetry, as the name suggests, comprises the poetry written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The Elizabethan age, which spanned from 1558 to 1603.The sonnet form, which was championed by Shakespeare, was one of the most dominant forms of poetry during this time. Lyric and narrative poetry were also very common. Poetry and verse plays were majorly written in blank verse.

Volta

Found in a sonnet, the volta is a rhetorical shift or turn of thought, emotion, or argument. In Italian sonnets it occurs between the octave and the sestet, and in Shakespearean or English before the final couplet.

Rising meters

Iambs and anapests are _____. They go from unstressed to stressed syllables, and as a result usually end with a strong stress at the end of the line.

Apostrophe

In poetry, an apostrophe is a figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing. The word O is often used to signal such an invocation. (e.g. O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind).

Syntax

In poetry, the word order may be shifted to achieve certain artistic effects, such as producing rhythm or melody in the lines, achieving emphasis, and heightening connection between two words.

Jacobean (17th Century)

Lasting from 1603-1625, The poets of the middle of the 17th century were divided into two principal groups, secular or Cavalier poets (John Donne), and religious poets, subdivided into Anglicans (followers of Elizabeth) and Puritans. Cavalier poets, under the influence of Donne, used conversational tone, metaphysical conceits, etc. in their poems.

Epic hexameter

Otherwise known as dactylic ________ it is a form of meter traditionally associated with classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, used in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. consists of six feet, and in strict __________ each foot would usually be either a dactyl or spondee.

Free verse

Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter. It tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.

Spoken song/hip-hop

Spoken word is a poetic performance art that is word-based. It is an oral art that focuses on the aesthetics of word play such as intonation and voice inflection. Although spoken word can include any kind of poetry read aloud, it is different from written poetry in that how it sounds is often one of the main components. Unlike written poetry, it has less to do with physical on the page aesthetics and more to do with phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.

Meter

Stressed and unstressed syllable patterns within a poem that gives it a rhythmic and melodious sound.

Augustan (~Early-Mid 18th century)

The Augustan era (18th-century) in English poetry is noted for its fondness for wit, urbanity, and classical (mostly Roman) forms and values. Augustan poetry flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus, and poets in this era both translated and modeled their own verse after poets such as Virgil, Horace, and Propertius. Alexander Pope is the most notable figure in this era, who practically perfected the iambic pentameter closed couplet (heroic verse).

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

Collocation

The habitual juxtaposition of a particular word with another word or words. For example: heavy rain, strong smell, deep trouble.

Metaphysical school

The metaphysical school was not an official group during Donne's lifetime, but rather a group of 17th-century poets who adopted a style similar to Donne's. Donne and his contemporaries work contained irregular versification, images of extreme emotion and outlandish bodily comportment the use of paradox, and elaborate metaphors that sometimes extended for the entirety of a single poem. Topics of interest often included love, religion, and morality, which the metaphysical poets considered through unusual comparisons, frequently employing unexpected similes and metaphors in displays of wit. The inclusion of contemporary scientific advancements were also typical.

Scansion

The method or practice of determining and graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse, identifying the stressed and unstressed syllables.

Alliteration

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Elision

The omission of one or more sounds or syllables in a word or phrase. Also means the process of merging things, especially abstract ideas.

Rhyme scheme

The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse.

Prosody

The patterns of rhythm, intonation, stresses and sound to convey information; complements the poem's expression of emotions and ideas.

Verse-chorus-bridge

The primary components of a song's structure. The bridge serves to transition and offer a fresh perspective from the verse and chorus.

Assonance

The repetition of the sound of a vowel or dipthong* in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g. Try to light the fire, Hear the mellow wedding bells). *a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (e.g. coin, loud, side)

Sestet

The second division of an Italian sonnet that consists of six lines. The most common rhyme scheme in the sestet is arranged (ABC ABC), but this is not a necessary component of the sestet.

English/Shakespearean sonnet

The variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare used, comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). Also composed in iambic pentameter, and the volta is placed often at the beginning of the third quatrain.

Falling meters

Trochees and dactyls are _______. They go from stressed to unstressed syllables, and as a result usually end with an unstressed syllable at the end of each line.

Sibilance

Where strongly stressed consonants are created by producing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth, usually resembling a hissing sound (e.g. the consonants at the beginning of the words sip, zip, ship, and genre).

Quatrain (3)

a-a-b-a (Rubaiyat stanza)

Quatrain (1)

a-b-a-b (As in Shakespeare's sonnets)

Quatrain (2)

a-b-b-a ("In Memoriam" stanza)

Stress or accentual meter

has a fixed number of stresses per line regardless of the number of syllables that are present. Accentual verse is the simplest and oldest poetic measure in English.

Syllabic meter

has a fixed number of syllables per line, although stresses can vary in number, and plays a distinctly secondary role--or no role at all.