Auditory Imagery
The use of words or sequence of words that refers to a sound to create an image.
Bacchius
Two long syllables preceded by a short syllable in a metric foot; mostly used in ancient poetry.
| Ballad
A short narrative poem that usually represents a romantic theme, is imperonsally treated, or characterized by the simplicity of language.
| Ballad Meter
Alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.
| Ballad Stanza
Four lines rhymed a b c d , with 8, 6, 8, 6, syllables respectfully.
| Ballad-Broadside
In the late 16th and early 17th century historical or current events were written in a ballad in doggerel on a single piece of paper and included the name of a tune to which they were to be sung. These ballads sometimes conveyed moral or religious ideas or propaganda and were sold for a penny or two on street corners in England.
| Ballads-Child
Ballads contained in Francis J. Child’s work, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ( 1882-1898 ). Authentic creations of illiterate or semiliterate people whom preserved the ballads orally.
| Ballad-Folk
A folk ballad is usually composed to be sung and was often altered as it was repeated from generation to generation.
| Ballade
1. A poem composed of three stanzas and an envoy. The last line of the opening stanza is used as a refrain. The same rhymes, strictly limited in number, reoccur throughout the ballade.
2. A fixed form with three; seven or eight-line stanzas, with no more than three recurrent rhymes. An identical refrain follows each stanza and a closing envoi repeats the rhymes of the last four lines of the stanza. Often used in French poetry.
| Ballade-Double
Six octaves, or ten-line stanzas, built on three and four rhymes respectively with refrain, but rarely the envoy.
| Bard
A person whose gifts and long training fitted him to compose and recite poems.
| Blank Verse
Simply defined as unryhmed verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter.
| Bouts-Rimes
A game in which on of the players offers a set of rhyme-words to the other players. The players would then compete in producing an acceptable poem built on the given rhymes using them in their original order. .
| Bucolic
A poem dealing with a pastoral subject.
| Burden
Often repeated in the refrain, it is the central topic or idea.
| Burlesque
The exaggeration, sometimes grotesquely, of a minor subject intended to ridicule.
Cacophony
Often purposely used in poetry for effect, discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letters or syllables.
| Cadence
Rhythmical unit often used as a synonym for rhythm or metre. See Free Verse.
| Caesura, Cesura
A pause in the reading of a line that does not affect the metrical account of the timing. It may be dictated by grammer, logic, or cadence, and is analogous to the pause for breath at the close of a musical phrase. Cesura is masculine after a stressed syllable, and feminine after an unstressed syllable.
| Canon
In a literary sense, the authoritative works of a particular writer. It is an accepted list of works perceived to represent a cultural, ideological, historical, or biblical grouping.
| Canso
Often restricted to a Provençal love song of 5, 6, or 7 stanzas, the envoy, but is not always equal in length. The canso contains both masculine and feminine rhymes.
| Canto
A major division in a long poem. References made to The Cantos refers to the untitled poem by Ezra Pound.
| Canzone
A general term for the words of a Provençal or Italian love song often relating to the praise of beauty. See Troubadour.
| Carpe Diem
Latin for "seize the day," a common motif in lyric verse throughout the history of poetry, with the emphasis on making the most of current pleasures because life is short and time is flying.
| Catachresis
The misuse or abuse of words, or the use of the wrong word for the context, as a tone for repent.
| Catalectic, Catalexis
A line from which unstressed syllables have been dropped is said to be truncated or catalectic. The act is called truncation or catalexis. Such lines
| Catalog Verse
A poem comprised of a list of persons, places, things, or abstract ideas which share a common denominator. As an ancient form, it was originally a type of didactic poetry.
| Cataphora
The use of a grammatical substitute, like a pronoun, which has the same reference as the next word or phrase.
| Cento
A poem made up of lines from many different poems. Often such a poem is called a patchwork poem.
| Chain Rhyme
A rhyme scheme in which a rhyme in a line of one stanza is used as a link to a rhyme in the next stanza.
| Chain Verse
Similar to chain rhyme, but links words, phrases, or lines (instead of rhyme) by repeating them in succeeding stanzas.
| Chanson De Geste
A song of heroic deeds that refers to a class of Old French epic poems of the Middle Ages.
| Chant Royal
It alters the ballade structure using five stanzas, each of 11 lines and a five line envoy with the customary refrain. The rhyme scheme is ababccddede, and the envoy ddede.
| Chapbook
A small book or pamphlet containing ballads, poems, popular tales or tracts, etc.
| Chiasmus
The inversion in a phrase or clause of the order of words in the preceding phrase or clause.
| Choree, Choreus
A rare form of trochee.
| Choriambics
A metre beginning with a trochee and ending with an iamb, with each of the three remaining feet containing a trochee and an iamb.
| Cinquain
Adelaide Crapsey invented this form that consists of five lines. The five lines are of two, four, six, eight, and two syllables respectively.
| Classicism
Simply stated as the adherence to traditional standards that are universally valid and enduring.
| Clerihew
A form of light comic verse, originated by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. Clerihews are two couplets in length, rhyming aabb, usually dealing with a person mentioned in the initial rhyme. See clerihew.
| Climax
A series of words, phrases, or sentences arranged in a continuously ascending order of intensity. When the ascending order is not maintained, an anticlimax or bathos results.
| Closed Couplet
A couplet that is logically or grammatically complete.
| Close Rhyme
A rhyme of two close words, such as "red" "head".
| Closet Drama
A literary work written in the form of a drama, but intended by the author only for reading, not for performance in the theater.
| Closure
The effect of finality, balance, and completeness which leaves the reader with a sense of fulfilled expectations.
| Common Measure, Common Meter
A meter consisting chiefly of seven iambic feet arranged in rhymed pairs. A quatrian with a line of four accents followed by a line of three accents then repeated to create the four lines.
| Companion Poem
When a poem associates another, often complimenting it.
| Conceit
An ingenious, logically complicated image, or an elaborate metaphor.
| Concrete Poetry
Substitues for conventional elements of a poem as metre, rhyme, stanzaic form, and even normal syntax, which forms a structurally original visual shape, preferably abstract, through the use of reduced language, fragmented letters, symbols and other typographical variations to create an extreme graphic impact on the reader's attention. Sometimes seen as shape poetry.
| Connotation
Any meaning suggested by the sound or the look of a word, or how it is associated.
| Consonance
The close repetition of the same end consonants of stressed syllables with differing vowel sounds.
| Content
The substance of a poem.
| Conventions
In literature, established "codes" of basic principles and procedures for types of works that are recurrent. They strongly influence writers to select content, forms, style, diction, etc.
| Couplet
Two lines of verse that are usually joined in rhyme and have the same metre to form a unit.
| Crambo
A game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to the other players who must match it in rhyme.
| Cretic
A metrical foot consisting of a short syllable between two long syllables. Usually found in ancient poetry.
| Cross Rhyme
Occurs when the syllable at the end of a line rhymes with with a word in the middle of a line before or after it. See Welsh-Forms.
| Cycle
Typically applied to epic or narrative poems about a mythical or heroic event or character. |
Dactyl, Dactylic
A metrical foot of three syllables, the first of which is long or stressed and the next two short or unstressed.
| Decameter
A line of verse consiting of ten metrical feet.
| Decasyllable
A verse line of ten syllables, or a poem composed with ten syllable lines.
| Denotation
The accepted meaning of a word as distinct from an associated idea or connotation.
| Diaeresis, Dieresis
The pronunciation of two adjacent vowels as separate sounds. Also the mark indicating a separate pronunciation.
| Diction
The use or choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language in a literary work. The mode of verbal expression, with regard to clarity and accuracy.
| Didactic Verse
Verse that is written with instructions rather than with imagination. It is clearly intended for the purpose of instruction of theoretical, moral, or practical knowledge, or to explain the principles of art and science.
| Diiamb, Diamb
A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, with the first and third short and the second and fourth long.
| Dimeter
A line of verse consisting of two metrical feet. See dipody.
| Dipody
A unit of two feet, or a double foot.
| Dirge
A poem of grave meditation, or lament. The dirge is a song of lamentation that is apt to be less meditative than the elegy. See elegy.
| Dispondee
A metrical foot consisting of four long syllables. This is the equivalent to a double See spondee.
| Dissonance
Harsh, inharmonious sounds which are grating to the ear.
| Distich
Simply defined as a couplet most often used in classical elgiacs.
| Disyllable
A two syllable foot, or a word of two syllables.
| Disyllabic Rhyme
A rhyme in which the two last syllables of words share the same sound.
| Dithyramb
A lyric, irregular in structure and vehement in tone, suggesting the character of the choric hymn to Dionysus.
| Ditty
A poem that was meant to be sung.
| Dochmius
A metrical foot consisting of five syllables, the first and fourth being short and the second, third and fifth long.
| Dodecasyllable
A line of metrical verse containing twelve syllables.
| Doggerel
Crudely written poetry which lacks artistry in form or meaning. Trivial, poorly written verse that is sometimes intentionally, or unintentionally humourous.
| Double Dactyl
A form of light verse containing two quatrians. The first three lines are dactyls, and the fourth a dactyl and macron. The first line is nonsense, the second a proper name, and the sixth line is a single double dactyl word. The fourth and eighth lines are truncated, lacking the final two unaccented syllables, and rhyme with each other. Foreign languages are allowable and titles as proper names is permissible.
| Dramatic Monologue
In literature, a work that consists of a one-way conversation by a character or persone, usually directed to a second person or to an imaginary audience. It involves a critical moment of a specific situation, with the speaker's words unintentionally providing a revelation of his character.
| Dramatic Poem
A composition of verse that portrays the story of life or character, involving conflict and emotions. |
Echo
Repetition of certain sounds, syllables, words in poetry, as in echo verse.
| Echo Verse
Verse in which the final words or syllables of a line or stanza are repeated as a response, often with an ironic effect.
| Eclogue
A pastoral poem (relating to shepards or rural country life), usually in the form of a dialogue between shepherds.
| Ekphrasis
The art of creating poetry based on viewing art or photographs.
| Elegiac
A dactylic hexameter couplet, with the second line having only an unaccented syllable in the third and sixth feet; also, involving elegy, mourning, or expressing sorrow for the dead.
| Elegy
A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person composed in elegiac couplets.
| Elision
Omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable.
| Ellipsis
The omission of a word or words necessary to complete a grammatical construction, but not necessary for understanding by the reader. The marks "..." may indicate an omission or pause.
| Emphasis
Special attention or effort directed toward something usually writin in italic or underlined.
| End Rhyme
A rhyme occurring in the terminating word or syllable of one line of poetry with that of another line, as opposed to internal rhyme.
| End-Stopped
Ending of a line or verse usually marked with a period, comma, or semicolon.
| Envelope
A poetic device in which a line, phrase, or stanza is repeated to enclose other material.
| Envoi, Envoy
A short final stanza of a poem
| Epic
An Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation.
examples: Beowulf, The Iliad and the Odyssey, and Aeneid
| Epigram
Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with either a humorous retort or a stinging punchline.
Used mainly as expressions of social criticism or political satire, the most common forms are written as a couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in the same meter.
| Epistrophe
A repetition of the ends of two or more successive poetic verses.
| Epitaph
A brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines.
| Epithalamium
A lyrical ode or song in the honor of a bride and bridegroom.
| Epitrite
A metrical foot consisting of three long syllables and one short syllable.
| Epode
A type of lyric poem characterized by couplets in which a long verse is followed by a shorter one, or the third and last part of an ode.
| Epyllion
A brief narrative work in classic poetry written in dactylic hexameter. One subject commonly included mythology laced with romance and vivid description in an elevated tone.
| Eulogy
A poem or speech written in tribute or praising usually about someone who has died.
| Euphemism
An act of substituting a mild or indirect term for one considered harsh or offensive.
| Euphony
A pleasing sound or pronunciation of letters and syllables which is pleasing to the ear for a poetic effect.
| Extended Metaphor
A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas. |
Fable
A tale of verse, often using animals or inanimate objects as characters, that illistrates or teaches a moral.
| Fabliau
A ribald or cynical tale in verse. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales contain some examples.
| Facetiae
Humorous or witty writings.
| Feminine Ending
An unstressed syllable at the end of a line. This is sometimes called light ending.
| Feminine Rhyme
A stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.
| Fescennine Verses
Poetry that is personal in nature, often lacking moral or sexual restraints.
| Figurative Language
Language in which the literal meaning of words have been ignored in order to imply or show a relationship between diverse things. See trope.
| Figure Of Speech
A mode or expression of words used out of their original context.
| Fit or Fytte
An term for the division of a poem. See canto, stanza.
| Foot
A rhythmic or metrical unit; the division in verse of a group of syllables, one of which is long or accented.
| Form
The metrical or stanzaic organization of poetry.
| Found Poem
A poem often created from prose found in non-poetic format.
| Fourteener
A fourteen syllable iambic line, or seven feet, often found in English poetry.
| Free Verse
A form that does not obey the metrical rules of versification. The free often refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme. Often writers will employ poetic devices such as assonance, alliteration, imagery, caesura, etc. |
Galliambus
A meter consisting of four iambic dipodies, the last of which is catalectic, or a line of four lesser ionic feet catalectic, varied by anaclasis.
| Georgic
A poem containing a rural or agricultural topic. This differs from pastoral poetry in that the georgic is didactic.
| Ghazal
A monorhymed Middle Eastern lyric poem. The first two lines rhyme with a corresponding rhyme in the second line of each succeeding couplet. The rhyme scheme is aa, ba, ca, da, etc.
| Gleeman
An old English minstrel who on occasion composed their own verse, but often recited poetry written by a scop.
| Gnome
An aphorism, a short statement of proverbial truth. Composers of verse of this nature are known as gnomic poets.
| Goliardic Poetry
Satiric verse usually consisting of a stanza of four 13-syllable lines in feminine rhyme, somtimes using a concluding hexameter. The satire was characteristically a defiance of authority, mostly directed against the Church.
| Grave
A mark [ ` ] indicating that the e in the English ending "ed" is to be pronounced for the sake of meter.
|
Haiku
Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons). Other popular forms of haiku are: Tanka, Cinquain, and Senryu.
| Half Rhyme
A near rhyme; rhyme occurs only on the first syllable of the rhyming word, as in sad and madley.
| Hemistich
An incomplete or imperfect line of verse, usually separated rhythmically from the rest of the line by a caesura.
| Hendecasyllable
A verse of 11 syllables.
| Heptameter
A line of verse consisting of seven metrical feet.
| Heroic Couplet
Two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter.
| Heroic Quatrain or Heroic Verse
So named because it is the form in which epic poetry of heroic exploits is generally written, its rhyme scheme is abab, composed in ten-syllable iambic verse in English, hexameter in Greek and Latin, ottava rima in Italian.
| Hexameter
A line of verse consisting of six metrical feet.
| Homonym
One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as n. wind (moving air) and v. wind (to wrap or entwine).
| Hovering Accent
In scansion, a stress which is thought of as being equally distributed over two adjacent syllables, a concept proposed to cover an accent not in alignment with the expected metrical ictus.
| Hymn
A song of praise or joy usually to God or a deity.
| Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse."
| Hypercatalectic
Having an extra syllable or syllables at the end of a complete line of verse.
| Hypermetrical
A line which contains one or more syllables in addition to those found in a standard metrical unit or line of verse.
|
Iamb or Iambus, Iambic
Consisting of two syllables, a short or unaccented syllable followed by a long or accented syllable, the iamb is the most common metrical foot.
| Ictus
The rhythmical or metrical stress placed on a syllable. An ictus is ussually represented by [´].
| Idyll, Idyl
A short poem containing imagery of a happy country life. Another name is pastoral.
| Imagery, Image
Elements in literature used to evoke mental images of the visual sense, and somtimes of sensation and emotion as well.
| Improvisatore
In verse, an improviser, usually extemporaneously.
| Internal Rhyme
Often called middle or leonine rhyme, a rhyme occurring in mid-line.
| Ionic
A metrical foot of four syllables, either two long syllables followed by two short syllables, called greater ionic, or two short syllables followed by two long syllables called lesser ionic.
Jingle
A short catchy song used in advertisment to entice a customer to buy a product.
Jongleur
A wandering minstrel who was hired to sing compositions of the troubadours and trouvères or the Chansons De Geste.
Kenning
A figurative phrase similar to an epithet, but which involves a multi-noun replacement for a single noun. It was mostly used in Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry.
| Kyrielle
A Kyrielle is a French form of rhyming poetry written in quatrains (a stanza consisting of 4 lines), and each quatrain contains a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the amount of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum.
Some popular rhyming schemes for a Kyrielle are: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, with B being the repeated line, or abaB, cbcB, dbdB. Mixing up the rhyme scheme is possible for an unusual pattern of: axaZ, bxbZ, czcZ, dxdZ, etc. with Z being the repeated line. The rhyme pattern is completely up to the poet.
| Kyrielle Sonnet
A Kyrielle Sonnet consists of 14 lines (three rhyming quatrain stanzas and a non-rhyming couplet). Just like the traditional Kyrielle poem, the Kyrielle Sonnet also has a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the Kyrielle Sonnet consists of only eight syllables. French poetry forms have a tendency to link back to the beginning of the poem, so common practice is to use the first and last line of the first quatrain as the ending couplet. This would also re-enforce the refrain within the poem. Therefore, a good rhyming scheme for a Kyrielle Sonnet would be: AabB, ccbB, ddbB, AB -or- AbaB, cbcB, dbdB, AB. |
Lai, Lay
A lyric poem consisting of couplets of five-syllabled lines separated by single lines of two syllables. The number of lines and stanzas was not fixed and each stanza had only two rhymes, one rhyme for the couplets and the other for the two-syllabled lines.
| Lampoon
Abusive satire in verse or prose attacking an individual.
| Leonine Verse
Verse consisting of hexameters or of hexameters and pentameters in which the final syllable rhymes with one preceding the caesura, in the middle of the line.
| Light Verse
Numerous forms of verse such as clerihews, double dactyls, epigrams, limericks, nonsense poetry, occasional poetry, parodies, society verse, and verse with puns or riddles.
| Limerick
A Limerick is a rhymed humorous, nonsense poem of five lines. Rhyming scheme of: a-a-b-b-a and then the syllable structure is: 9-9-6-6-9 This is the most commonly heard first line of a limerick: "There once was a man from Nantucket".
| Line
A unit in the structure of a poem consisting of one or more metrical feet arranged as a rhythmical entity.
Macron
The horizontal mark ( ¯ ) used to indicate a stressed or long syllable in a foot of verse.
| Madrigal
A short lyric or pastoral poem containing a delicate thought. Most often it is a love lyric.
| Malapropism
Most often used for humurous effect, malapropism is a mistaken substitution of a word for another that sounds similar.
| Masculine Rhyme
A rhyme containing only one stressed or accented syllable.
| Measure
Often used as a synonym for metre, measure simply means foot.
| Metaphor
Used to suggest a relationship between an object or idea.
| Metre, Meter
A measure of rhythmic quantity organized into groups of syllables at regular intervals in a line of poetry. The unit of meter is the foot. Metrical lines are named for the constituent foot and for the number of feet in the line. - monometer (1 foot)
- dimeter (2 feet)
- trimeter (3 feet)
- tetrameter (4 feet)
- pentameter (5 feet)
- hexameter (6 feet)
- heptameter (7 feet)
- octameter (8 feet)
| Metrical Pause
Used to compensate for the omission of an unstressed syllable in a foot.
| Metrics
The branch of prosody concerned with meter.
| Metrist
A composer of verse.
| Minstrel
A performer who subsisted by reciting verse and singing while playing a harp. Some were traveling entertainers, while others were employed by nobles.
| Mixed Metaphor
A suggested relationship of objects or ideas that in some respect is false.
| Mock-Epic or Mock-Heroic
A satiric literary form that treats a commonplace subject with the elevated language and heroic style of the classical epic.
| Modulation
The harmonious use of language relating to the variations of stress and pitch.
| Molossus
A metrical foot consisting of three long syllables.
| Monometer
A line of verse containing a single metrical foot or dipody.
| Monorhyme
A poem where the end rhyme is the same in all lines.
| Monostich
A poem or epigram of a single metrical line.
| Monosyllable
A one syllable word.
| Mora, Morae
The minimal unit of rhythmic measurement in quantitive verse, equal to the time it takes to pronounce a short syllable. Two morae are equivalent to a long syllable.
| Mosaic Rhyme
The use of two or more words producing a multiple rhyme. This is often used for comic effect.
| Muse
A source of inspiration. Also, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne were called the Muses. Each daughter was associated with an individual art or science.- Calliope: Muse of epic poetry
- Clio: Muse of history
- Erato: Muse of lyric and love poetry
- Euterpe: Muse of music, especially wind instruments
- Melpomene: Muse of tragedy
- Polymnia: Muse of sacred poetry
- Terpsichore: Muse of dance and choral song
- Thalia: Muse of comedy
- Urania: Muse of astronomy
|
Near Rhyme
A rhyme of similar sounds, but are not exact. Also known as approximate rhyme, off rhyme, slant rhyme, half rhyme, or imperfect rhyme.
| Neologism
A new word, phrase, or usage that has changed the sense of a word. Often a poet will create new words to help express an idea or image in a poem.
| Nonsense Poetry
Absurd, foolish or preposterous poetry, usually written in a catchy meter with strong rhymes. See light verse.
| Numen
A source or influence of a spiritual nature.
| Nursery Rhyme
A short childrens poem written in rhyming verse.
Octameter
A line of verse consisting of eight metrical feet.
| Octave
A stanza of eight lines.
| Octosyllable
A metrical line of eight syllables, such as iambic tetrameter. A verse consisting of eight-syllable lines.
| Ode
An elaborately composed verse that is enthusiastic in tone. It often has varying iambic line lengths with no fixed system of rhyme schemes. It often addresses a praised person or object.
| Odeon or Odeum
A small roofed theater in devoted to the presentation of musical and poetic works to the public often competing for prizes.
| Onomatopoeia
Words used in place of where a reader should hear sounds. Words such as pop, crackle, snap, whizz, buzz, zing, etc.
| Open Couplet
The second line is a run-on and requires the first line of the next couplet to aid in the completion of its meaning.
| Ottava Rima
A stanza of eight lines of heroic verse, with a abababcc rhyme scheme.
| Oxymoron
The joining of two words that seem to be contradictory (opposites), but offer a unique effect such as living deaths, freezing fires, deafening silence, and pretty ugly. |
Paean
A hymn of praise, or joy.
| Paeon
A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, one long and three short. Depending on the position of the long syllable, the paeon can be varied in four ways. The foot can be called a primus, secundus, tertius or quartus paeon.
| Pantoum
The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing quatrain, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA.
| Parody
A ludicrous imitation, used for comic effect or ridicule, of the style and content of another work.
| Paronomasia
A play on words in which the same word is used in different senses.
| Paronym
A word comming from or in relation to another word.
| Pasquinade
A lampoon or satirical writing.
| Pastoral Poetry
Poetry written about the lives of shepherds and country folk. This term has loosely come to include any poems with a rural aspect
| Pastourelle
Pastoral poetry associated with French writers of the 12th and 13th centuries.
| Pattern Poetry
Poetry written with words, letters, and lines to produce a visual image to help convey the idea or topic of the poem. See concrete poetry, shape poetry, or visual poetry.
| Pause
Intervals between syllables of verse.
| Pentameter
A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.
| Perfect Rhyme
Words that are identical in sound to the stressed syllable and consonants that follow. This is also called true rhyme and exact rhyme.
| Periphrasis
The substitution of an elaborate phrase for a simple word or expression.
| Persona
In literature, the person doing the talking. Most often in narration, persona is the "I".
| Personification
A form of metaphor where an inanimate object, animal, or idea is given human-like characteristics such as "Night swallowed the sun's last ray of light"
| Petrarchan Sonnet
An Italian sonnet form, an octave with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba and a sestet rhyming variously. The sestet usually rhymes cdecde or cdccdc. The octave introduces the problem, while the sestet provides the resolution.
| Play On Words
See pun.
| Poem
Written expression of emotion or ideas in an arrangement of words/verse, most often rhythmically.
| Poesy or Poesie
The art of writing poems. A poem or a group of poems.
| Poet
A person who works with words and uses them to discover and explore both the inner and outer world. A poet finds the quality hidden in experiences, great or trivial, terrible or wonderful, and tries to re-create and extend them onto paper, thus finding a greater understanding of them. Poems are a bridge between the world and poet in which the reader will walk to gain a wider or deeper view of what the poet sees.
| Poetaster
A trivial, or unskilled versifier.
| Poetic
Having the qualities associated with the art of poetry, and the capacities of those who practice it.
| Poeticule
A dabbler in poetry, or a poetaster.
| Poet Laureate
A poet honored for his/her artistic achievement.
| Poets' Corner
A portion of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey which contains the remains of many famous literary figures, and also displays memorials to others who are buried elsewhere.
| Polyphonic Prose
A type of free verse using alliteration and assonance, but often it looks like prose.
| Polyrhythmic Verse
A type of free verse characterized by a variety of rhythms, often non-integrated or contrasting.
| Polysyllable
A word consisting of three or more syllables.
| Portmanteau
A word created or made from parts of other words. Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky combines lithe and slimy into slithy, and the word smog, from smoke and fog.
| Poulter's Measure
A meter consisting of alternating twelve-syllable and fourteen-syllable lines.
| Proceleusmatic
A metrical foot consisting of four short syllables.
| Procephalic
Having an excess of one syllable in the first foot of a line of verse.
| Prose
Ordinary or plain everyday language used in speech or writing with no patterns or rhymes.
| Prosody
The systematic study of poetic meter.
| Prothalamium or Prothalamion
A song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom before their wedding.
| Pun
A play on words that sound similar for a humorous effect.
| Pyrrhic
A metrical foot consisting of two short or unaccented syllables. |
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Quantitive Verse
Verse which, rather than on the syllabic count or accent, is based on time, or a systematic succession of long and short syllables. The unit of measure in quantitive verse is the mora. See metre.
| Quatorzain
A fourteen line poem, or sonnet.
| Quatrain
A four line stanza, strict in tetrameter, varied often by substitution, and rhymed abab. See example.
| Quintet or Quintain
A five line stanza. |
Refrain
A repeated verse within a poem or song pertaining to a central topic.
| Rhapsody
The recitation of a short epic poem.
| Rhetoric
The skill in the eloquent use of language.
| Rhetorical Question
A question asked for effect, but not demanding an answer.
| Rhyme
A recurrence of similar ending sounds at the ends of a poetic line/verse such as 'run' and 'sun', or 'night' and 'light'.
| Rhyme Royal
A stanza of seven lines or a five-foot iambic verse, rhyming ababbcc.
| Rhyme Scheme
A pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a line or stanza.
| Rhymester
An inferior poet.
| Rhythm
The the rise and fall of stress (stressed and unstressed syllables); a metrical pattern or flow of sound in verse.
| Rondeau
A fixed form consisting of fifteen octo- or decasyllabic lines in three stanzas, with only two rhymes used throughout.
| Rondel
A variation of the rondeau in which the first two lines of the first stanza are repeated as the last two lines of the second and third stanzas. The rhyme scheme is abba abab abbaab.
| Rondelet
A short variation of the rondeau consisting of one 7-line stanza with two rhymes. The first line has four syllables and is repeated as a refrain forming the third and seventh lines. All other lines have eight syllables each.
| Rune
A Finnish or Old Norse poem.
| Run-On Lines
Lines in which the thought continues into the next line. The opposite of end-stopped. |
Sapphic Verse
After the odes of the Greek lyric poet, Sappho, a verse of eleven syllables in five feet, of which the first, fourth and fifth are trochees, the second a spondee, and the third a dactyl. The Sapphic strophe consists of three Sapphic verses followed by an Adonic.
| Scan
To mark off lines of poetry into rhythmic units, or feet, to provide a visual representation of their metrical structure.
| Scansion
The analysis of verse into metrical patterns.
| Senryu
Senryu (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions. They possess no references to the natural world and thus stand out from nature/seasonal haiku. See example.
| Septenarius
A Latin verse used only in comedy and consisting of seven feet.
| A stanza of seven lines
definition can go in this space along with some br tags and stuff.
| Serenade
Music sung (a lover's song) or performed in the open air at nights.
| Serpentine Verses
Verses ending with the same word with which they begin.
| Sestet
A poem or stanza containing six lines.
| Sestina
The sestina is a strict ordered form of poetry, dating back to twelfth century French troubadours. It consists of six six-line (sestets) stanzas followed by a three-line envoy. Rather than use a rhyme scheme, the six ending words of the first stanza are repeated as the ending words of the other five stanzas in a set pattern. The envoy uses two of the ending words per line, again in a set pattern. See example.
First stanza,1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
Second stanza, 6 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 3
Third stanza, 3 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 5
Fourth stanza, 5 - 3 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 4
Fifth stanza, 4 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 6 - 2
Sixth stanza, 2 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 3 - 1
Concluding tercet:
middle of first line - 2, end of first line - 5
middle of second line - 4, end of second line - 3
middle if third line - 6, end of third line - 1
| Sight Rhyme
A rhyme consisting of words with similar spellings but different sounds. Also called eye rhyme
| Sijo
A short Korean poetry form consisting of three lines, each line having a total of 14-16 syllables in four groups ranging from 2 to 7 (but usually 3 or 4) syllables, with a natural pause at the end of the second group and a major pause after the fourth group. The third line often introduces a resolution, a touch of humor, or a turn of thought. Nature is often the subject matter of these poems like traditional haiku.
| Simile
A comparison between two unlike things using like or as, etc. such as "Your eyes are like sparkling diamonds".
| Skeltonics
Named for their creater, John Skelton, short verses of irregular meter with two or three stresses, sometimes in falling and sometimes in rising rhythm, and usually with rhymed couplets.
| Soliloquy
A dramatic or literary form of discourse of a person speaking to himself without addressing a listener.
| Song
A Song is an expression of a poet's personal emotions, meant to be sung. Lyrics in a song contain verses (lines that make up a song; sung poem) and a chorus (a repeating verse in a song (refrain).
| Sonnet
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme: abab cdcd efef gg, abba cddc effe gg, or abba abba cdcd cd. English ("Shakespearean") sonnets have 10 syllable lines, Italian ("Petrarchan") sonnets have 11 syllable lines, and French sonnets have 12 syllable lines. See example.
| Sonneteer
A composer of sonnets or an inferior poet.
| Spenserian Stanza
A stanza consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter and a final alexandrine, rhymed ababbcbcc, first used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.
| Spondee, Spondaic
A metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables.
| Stanza, Stanzaic
One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines of verse usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, or number of lines.
| Stanza Forms
Names describing the number of lines is an stanzaic unit, (2) couplet, (3) tercet, (4) quatrain, (5) quintet (6) sestet, (7) septet, (8) octave
| Stave
A set of verses; a stanza; a portion of a poem.
| Stich
A line or verse of poetry.
| Stress
Importance, significance, or emphasis placed on a word or syllables within a line of poetry.
| Strophe
The first of a pair of stanzas of alternating form on which the structure of a given poem is based.
| Style
The poet's individual creative process, through figurative language, sounds, and rhythmic patterns.
| Syllabic Verse
A type of verse distinguished by the syllable count.
| Syllable
A unit of spoken language consisting of a single impulse of the voice formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant alone.
| Symbol
An image or icon that represents something else by association.
| Symbolism
A common writing practice of representing things by means of symbols or symbolic meaning.
| Synaeresis or Syneresis
The drawing together into one syllable of two consecutive vowels or syllables.
| Synaloepha or Synalepha
Blending of a vowel at the end of one word is coalesced with one beginning the next word, especially to fit a poetic meter; for example, th'eight men instead of the eight men.
| Syncope
The shortening of a word by omission of a sound, letter, or syllable from the middle of the word; for example, ne'er for never.
| Synonym
A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.
| Syntax
Rules in which words or other elements of sentence structure are arranged to form grammatical sentences.
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Tail Rhyme
Also called caudate rhyme, a verse form in which rhyming lines, usually a couplet or triplet, are followed by a tail, a line of shorter length with a different rhyme; in a tail-rhyme stanza, the tails rhyme with each other.
| Tanka
Tanka is a classic form of Japanese poetry related to the haiku with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. (5, 7, 5, 7, 7). See example.
| Tenson or Tenzon
A medieval competition in verse on the subject of love or gallantry before a tribunal between rival troubadours (12th & 13th-century lyric poets).
| Tercet
A group of three lines of verse, often rhyming together or with another triplet. (Also see triplet)
| Terza Rima
A verse form Italian origin consisting of tercets of 10 or 11 syllables tercets, usually in iambic pentameter in English poetry, with a chain or interlocking rhyme scheme, as: aba, bcb, cdc, etc. The pattern concludes with a separate line added at the end of the poem (or each part) rhyming with the second line of the preceding tercet or with a rhyming couplet.
| Tetrameter
A line of verse consisting of four metrical feet.
| Theme
The central idea, topic, or subject of artistic representation.
| Thesis
The unaccented or short part of a metrical foot, especially in accentual verse.
| Tone
The poet's attitude or expression toward the subject. Tone can also refer to the overall mood of the poem itself, in the sense to influence the readers' emotional response.
| Tragedy
A medieval narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a great person; a drama most often written in verse and climaxing in death or disaster.
| Tribrach
A metrical foot having three short or unstressed syllables.
| Trimeter
A line of verse consisting of three metrical feet
| Triolet
A poem or stanza of eight lines with a rhyme scheme ABaAabAB, in which the fourth and seventh lines are the same as the first, and the eighth line is the same as the second.
| Triple Rhyme
A rhyme involving three syllables in which the words have the same sound, as in sanity and vanity.
| Triplet
A group of three lines of verse.
| Trisyllable
A three-syllable word such as humanity or glorious.
| Trochee, Trochaic
A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.
| Trope
A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor (irony).
| Troubadour
One of a class of 12th-century and 13th-century lyric poets in Southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, often of knightly rank, who composed songs about courtly love.
| Trouvere
One of a class of poet-musicians flourishing in northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, who composed chiefly narrative works, such as the chansons de geste, in langue d'oïl. |
Verse
A line of poetry that contains formal structure. It is also used as a synonym for stanza.
| Verse Paragraph
A grouping of lines in poetry that form a rhetorical unit similar to a prose paragraph. The lines do not need to be formally arranged in a stanza or strophe.
| Verset
A term mostly used to describe a short verse found in a sacred book.
| Versicle
A small verse spoken or sung by a public leader of worship, or as a responce from the people.
| Versification
In regard to metre and rythm, versification is the art of writing verses.
| Versifier
The writer of light or inferior verses.
| Villanelle
Consits of nineteen lines on two rhymes in six stanzas. The first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets, with both repeated at the end of the closing quatrain in the last couplet. See example.
| Virelay
Seldom used in English, virelay is a French form composed of stanzas of long lines rhyming with each other while short lines rhyme with one another. The short lines of each stanza provide the rhyme for the long lines of the next stanza, except for the last stanza. In the last stanza, the short lines take their rhymes from the short lines of the first, so that every two lines rhyme. The poem may be any length, but its pattern can be a structure of four quatrians. The first and third lines being long, and the second and fourth being short. abab, bcbc, cdcd, dada
| Visual Poetry
Poetry that has been arranged in such a way that the appearence elavates the signifigance of the poem. |
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Well-Versed
A state of being familiar with poetics contained in this glossary.
| Welsh-Forms
Stanzas that use the syllabic line. Unlike the English syllabic verse, Welsh-forms are governed by rules concerning the relationship between cesura and accent, and employ rhyme schemes subtler and richer than those in which we are familiar.
| Whimsy or Whimsey
A fantastic or fanciful creation of writing or art.
| Wordsmith
A skillful writer who works with words.
| Wrenched Accent
The forced change in the normal accent of a syllable or syllables to make a word conform to the prevailing metrical patern. |
Zeugma
A figure of speech in which a single word is used in the same grammatical and semantic relationship with two or more other words, usually a verb or adjective.
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