Poetry

Pyrrchic

A metrical unit consisting of two unstressed syllables, in accentual-syllabic verse, or two short syllables, in quantitative meter. Example: SHOULD you ASK me, WHENCE these STORies? WHENCE these LEgends AND traDItions, WITH the Odors OF the FORest, WITH the DEW and DAMP of MEAdows, WITH the CURLing SMOKE of WIGwams, WITH the RUSHing OF great RIVers, WITH their FREquent REpeTItions, AND their WILD reVERberAtions, AS of THUNder IN the MOUNtains?

Septet

A stanza comprising of seven lines. Example: But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we, Of many far wiser than we, And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

Octave

An eight-line stanza or poem. Example: For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea

Free Verse

Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech Example: The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on

Metrical variation

Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern An example of metrical variation: is the inversion of a foot, which turns an iamb

Rhyme/ Rhyme Scheme

The repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. Example: Roses are red (a) Violets are blue (b) Sugar is sweet (c) So are you (b)

Open form poetry

There is no required rhyme scheme, rhyming pattern, or set number of lines in a stanza. Example: a religious concrete poem shaped like an altar

Cinquain

a five-line poem. Example: Look up... From bleakening hills Blows down the light, first breath Of wintry wind...look up, and scent The snow!

Iamb

a foot containing unaccented and short syllables followed by a long and accented syllable in a single line of a poem (unstressed/stressed syllables) Example: The only news I know Is bulletins all day From Immortality. The only shows I see, Tomorrow and Today, Perchance Eternity

Metrical feet

a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm. Example: 'In the house and on the street, how many different feet you meet!'

Monometer

a line of verse of one measure or foot. Example: Gods chase Round vase. What say? What play? Don't know Nice, though.

Common meter or Hymn measure: (Emily Dickson): iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter

a metrical pattern for hymns in which the stanzas have four lines containing eight and six syllables alternately rhyming Example: abcb or abab

Stanza

a stanza is a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme. Example: couplet, tercet, etc.

Trimeter (tetrameter, penta, hexagon, hepta, octa)

a verse of three measures or feet a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet penta means five hexagon means six hepta means seven octa means eight Example: We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself

Dimeter

a verse or line of two measures or feet. Example: He is gone on the mountain /He is lost to the forest.

Heroic couplet

commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Example: Fox in socks, our game is done, sir. Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

Closed form poetry

has adopted a pattern Example: a Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, has three quatrains, and ends with a rhyming couplet

Lyric poem

have a musical rhythm, and their topics often explore romantic feelings or other strong emotions. Example: Turn back the heart you've turned away Give back your kissing breath Leave not my love as you have left The broken hearts of yesterday But wait, be still, don't lose this way Affection now, for what you guess May be something more, could be less Accept my love, live for today

Couplet

having two successive rhyming lines in a verse and has the same meter to form a complete thought. Example: "The time is out of joint, O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right!"

Spondee

is a beat in a poetic line which consists of two accented syllables (stressed/stressed) or DUM-DUM stress pattern. Example: Break, break, break, On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!

Apostrophe

is a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation "O" used as a way to detach the writer from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech Example: "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."

Trochee

is a metrical foot comprised of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Example:

Dactyl

is a metrical foot, or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which first one is accented followed by second and third unaccented syllables in quantitative meter. Example: Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking Out of the mockingbird's throat, the musical shuttle Out of the Ninth-month midnight

Blank Verse

is a poem with no rhyme but does have iambic pentameter meaning it consists of lines of five feet, each foot being iambic, meaning two syllables long, one unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. Example: 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

Prose Poetry

is a poem with no rhyme but has an iambic pentameter meaning it consists of lines of five feet, each foot being iambic, meaning two syllables long, one unstressed followed by a stressed syllable Example: The woods look lovely against the setting darkness and as I gaze into the mysterious depths of the forest, I feel like lingering here longer. However, I have pending appointments to keep and much distance to cover before I settle in for the night or else I will be late for all of them.

Anapest

is a poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed. Example: I must finish my journey alone

End-stopped line

is a poetic device in which a pause comes at the end of a syntactic unit. This pause can be expressed in writing as a punctuation mark such as a colon, semi-colon, period or full stop. Example: Bright Star, would I were as stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night, And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite....

Internal rhyme

is a poetic device which can be defined as metrical lines in which its middle words and its end words rhymes with each other. Example: Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Chiasmus

is a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect. Example: Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You

Meter ( iamb ) Foot/ Metrical foot

is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem. Example: Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go

Synaestheia

is a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one senses like hearing, seeing, smell etc. at a given time Example: With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then could not see to see.

Quatrain

is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Example: "Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all

Refrain

is a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections. Example: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep

Tercet

is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Example: An old silent pond... A frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again.

Onomatopoeia

is defined as a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. Example: The sheep went, "Baa." The bird's chirp filled the empty night air The dishes fell to the floor with a clatter

Scansion

is the process of marking the stresses in a poem, and working out the metre from the distribution of stresses. Example: 'Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all . . .'

Prosody

is the study of meter, intonation and rhythm of a poetic work. Example: If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold

Consonance

refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. Example: The ship has sailed to the far off shores. She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year. Shelley sells shells by the seashore

Anaphora

repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences. Example: My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My life is my inspiration.

Assonance

takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds. Example: Men sell the wedding bells

Sestet

the last six lines of a sonnet. Example: It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me

Alliteration

words that have the same first consonant sound fall within the same sentence or phrase. Example: Alice's aunt ate apples and acorns around August