15-30

Metonymy

a figure of speech which is characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way we commonly speak of the king as the "crown," an object closely associated with kingship.

synecdoche

a form of metaphor which in mentioning a part signifies the whole. For example, we refer to "foot soldiers" for infantry and "field hands" for manual laborers who work in agriculture.

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 u / trochaic / u anapestic u u / dactylic / u u pyrrhic u u spondaic / / The following poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge illustrates all of these feet except the pyrrhic foot: Trochee trips from long to short. From long to long in solemn sort Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yet ill able Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable. Iambics march from short to long; With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.

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.

Sestet

a six-line stanza. Most commonly, sestet refers to the second division of an Italian sonnet.

tercet

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

Scansion

a system for describing the meter of a poem by identifying the number and the type(s) of feet per line. Following are the most common types of meter: monometer one foot per line dimeter two feet per line trimeter three feet per line tetrameter four feet per line pentameter five feet per line hexameter six feet per line heptameter seven feet per line octameter eight feet per line Using these terms, then, a line consisting of five iambic feet is called "iambic pentameter," while a line consisting of four anapestic feet is called "anapestic tetrameter." In order to determine the meter of a poem, the lines are "scanned," or marked to indicate stressed and unstressed syllables which are then divided into feet. The following line has been scanned: u / u / u / u / u / And still she slept an az ure- lid ded sleep

Octave

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

lyric poem

any short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings. Love lyrics are common, but lyric poems have also been written on subjects as different as religion and reading. Sonnets and odes are lyric poems.

ryhme

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, such as "fan" and "ran."

Sonnet

normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem. The conventional Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet is rhymed abba, abba, cde, cde; the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet is rhymed abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

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.

Meter

the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry. The meter of a poem emphasizes the musical quality of the language and often relates directly to the subject matter of the poem. Each unit of meter is called a foot.

Stanza

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