Poetry Terms

exact rhyme

Repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in a poem.

assonance

Repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds within two or more words in close proximity

end rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

imagery

The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes.

rhythm

The recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables. The presence of rhythmic patterns lends both pleasure and heightened emotional response to the listener or reader.

alliteration

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.

dactylic foot

Three syllables with the stress on the first syllable

anapestic foot

Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable

mixed metaphor

a combination of two or more incompatible metaphors, which produces a ridiculous effect.

hyperbole

a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. may be used for either serious or comic effect

simile

a directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than."

conceit

a fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor. An ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things. A conceit may be a brief metaphor, but it also may form the framework of an entire poem.

understatement

a figure of speech and type of irony employed by writers or speakers to deliberate make a situation seem less important than it actually is. Understatement is the opposite of a hyperbole.

synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

oyxmoron

a form of paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness.

quatrain

a four line stanza with any combination of rhymes

poetic foot

a group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables associated with it. The most common type of feet are as follows: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, pyrrhic, and spondaic.

refrain

a group of words forming a phrase or sentence and consisting of one or more lines repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.

personification

a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics

villanelle

a nineteen line poem which consists of five tercets followed by a quatrain. Only two rhymes are used in a villanelle, the pattern being aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa. Line 1 is repeated in lines 6, 12, and 18. Line 3 is repeated in lines 9, 15, and 19 -- these lines are refrain.

narrative poem

a non-dramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. include ballads and epics, long stories detailing historic societies, heroic deeds or interesting events

sonnet

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

dramatic poem

a poem which employs a dramatic form or some element or elements of dramatic techniques as a means of achieving poetic ends. written in blank verse. Its main purpose is to tell a story or describe an event in an interesting and descriptive way.

didactic poem

a poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson. The distinction between didactic poetry and non-didactic poetry is difficult to make and usually involves a subjective judgement of the author's purpose on the part of the critic or the reader.

stanza

a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.

paraphrase

a restatement of an idea in such a way as to retain the meaning while changing the diction and form. A paraphrase is often an amplification of the original for the purpose of clarity.

paradox

a situation or action or feeling that appears to be contradictory but on inspection turns out to be true or at least to make sense

Italian sonnet

a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd or cdccdc. often split into a statement & counterstatement, or observation & amplifying conclusion. Has volta (turn) at 9th line

tercet

a stanza of three lines in which each line ends with the same rhyme

euphony

a style in which combinations of words pleasant to the ear predominate.

elegy

a sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or another solemn theme

scansion

a system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and the type of feet per line.. Analysis of verse into metrical patterns

end-stopped

a term that describes a line of poetry that ends with a natural pause often indicated by a mark of punctuation

terza rima

a three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc, etc. an arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs

octave

an eight-line stanza. Most commonly, octave refers to the first division of an Italian sonnet

iambic foot

an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

repartee

conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies

tone

how the author expresses his or her attitude, typically conveyed through choice of words, intonation of the voice, or author's viewpoint on a particular subject in a way that expresses meaning. Tone is described by adjectives and may change throughout a piece.

internal rhyme

in poetry is a rhyme that appears in the middle of a line of a poem.. sound repetition due to internal rhyme makes a poem or story unified. It is employed to heighten the poem's effects

meter

is what brings the poem to life and is the internal beat or rhythm with which it is read. Meter in poetry is a rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables arranged into feet. The most common is one soft foot and one hard foot and is called an Iamb. There are several kinds of meter, but most poetry uses a five-beat meter, with Iambic feet, called iambic pentameter.

masculine rhyme

monosyllabic word rhyme or a rhyme that occurs only in stressed final syllables of a word (such as claims, flames or rare, despair).

spondaic foot

poetic foot that repeats two stressed syllables

free verse

poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical

slant rhyme

rhyme in which the vowel sounds are nearly, but not exactly the same (i.e. the words "stress" and "kiss"); sometimes called half-rhyme, near rhyme, or partial rhyme

eye rhyme

rhyme that appears correct from spelling, but is half-rhyme or slant rhyme from the pronunciation

enjambment

the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next

theme

the main thought expressed by a work. In poetry, it is the abstract concept which is made concrete through its representation in person, action and image in the work.

style

the mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author, including diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, sound effects, and tone

syntax

the ordering of words into patterns or sentences, includes punctuation

consonance

the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words. The term usually refers to words in which the ending consonants are the same but the vowels that precede them are different.

devices of sound

the techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry. The devices are used for many reasons, including to create a general effect of pleasant or of discordant sound, to imitate another sound, or to reflect a meaning.

heroic couplet

two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit

couplet

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

pyrrhic foot

two unstressed syllables

irony

when something has a literal meaning that contrasts with its suggestive meaning

figurative language

writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, irony, and simile. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

English Sonnet (Shakespearean)

3 Quatrains and an ending couplet. Rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. a volta (turn) at end of line 12 & concluding couplet of summary or epigrammatic character.

antithesis

A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses sentences, or ideas. Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another for emphasis or stylistic effectiveness.

apostrophe

A figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract quality, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as though present.

ballad meter

A four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four.

cacophony

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds. It may be an unconscious flaw in the poet's music, resulting in harshness of sound or difficult or articulation, or it may be used consciously for effort.

satire

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies. writing which ridicules a particular subject, usually through comedy, to elicit disapproval from the reader

extended metahpor

A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work. an implied analogy, or comparison which is carried throughout a stanza or an entire poem

caesura

A pause, usually near the middle of a line of verse, usually indicated by the sense of the line, and often greater than the normal pause.

allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

rhyme royal

A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.

symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else

trochaic foot

A two syllable foot with the stress on the first syllable

sarcasm

A type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it. Its purpose is to injure or to hurt.

lyric poem

A type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling. Originally a composition meant for musical accompaniment. Fairly short, uttered by 1 character. mood is melodic and emotional. The writer uses words that express his or her state of mind, perceptions, and feelings, rather than tell a story. A lyric poem is usually written in the first person.

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

diction

A writer's or speaker's choice of words in a literary work. Diction may be described as formal (the level of usage common in serious books and formal discourse), informal (the level of usage found in the relaxed but polite conversation of cultivated people), colloquial (the everyday usage of a group, possibly including terms and constructions accepted in that group but not universally acceptable), or slang (a group of newly coined words which are not acceptable for formal usage as yet).

rhyme

Close similarity or identity of sound between accented syllables occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse. For a true rhyme, the vowels in the accented syllables must be preceded by different consonants.

feminine rhyme

Feminine rhyme, also called double triple rhyme, in poetry, [is] a rhyme involving two or three syllables (as in motion and ocean or willow and billow). Feminine rhymes consist of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable; for example, 'landing'/'standing'.

parallelism

Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other. a similar grammatical structure within a line or lines of poetry.

blank verse

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays.