Poetry Quiz

ballad

narrative poem (tells a story), usually with regular meter and rhyme. distinct from the epic in focus (traditional/folk or literary)

ballad meter

traditionally a four-line stanza or quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. The rhyme scheme is usually ABCB, sometimes ABAB. A refrain is common

blank verse

verse consisting of unrhymed, 5-stress lines, traditionally iambic pentameters

canto

subdivision of an epic or long narrative poem; similar to a chapter in a novel

couplet

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

dramatic monologue

a poem in which there is one imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience. in a successful example the person will not be confused with the poet.

elegy

a poem composed to mourn for an individual or to lament a tragic event. a type of lyric

epic

a long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society

free verse

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme

lyric

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker

limerick

a type of light verse, typically consisting of five anapestic lines, rhyming aabba

narrative

a work that tells a story or an account of an event or series of events

octave

a group of eight lines of verse

ode

a lyric poem of moderate length, employing elaborate stanza structure, formality in tone, and lofty sentiments and thoughts. public (ceremonial) or private. types: pinaric, horatian, irregular

quatrain

a group of four lines of verse

sestet

a group of six lines of verse

sestina

consists of six sextests and tercets, arranged with an intricate system of repetition of the last words of the first six lines. ends in an envoi, all six words appear in the final three lines

sonnet

fourteen line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employs one of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization. two main forms: petrarchan (italian) and shakespearean (english)

tercet

a group of three lines of verse

villanelle

nineteen line poem, two repeating rhymes and two refrains. five tercets followed by a quatrain. the first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines