Poetry Terms

ballad meter (def)

ballad meter (def)

a four-line stanza rhymed abcd with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four.

ballad meter (ex)

O mother, mother make my bed.

O make it soft and narrow.

Since my love died for me today,

I’ll die for him tomorrow.

blank verse (def)

unrhymed iambic pentameter.

blank verse (ex)

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;

caesura (def)

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

caesura (ex)

Sing, o goddess || the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus

conceit (def)

an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things

conceit (ex)

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

consonance (def)

the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words

consonance (ex)

Your breath has time to straighten Your brain to bubble cool Deals one imperial thunderbolt That scalps your naked soul.”

couplet (def)

a two-line stanza, usually with end-rhymes the same

couplet (ex)

Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

devices of sound (def)

the techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry

includes rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

devices of sound (ex)

sun and dun, bread and head

didactic poem (def)

a poem which is intended primarily to teach a lesson

didactic poem (ex)

He who binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy; He who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in Eternity's sun rise.

dramatic poem (def)

a poem which employs a dramatic form or some element or elements of dramatic techniques as a means of achieving poetic ends

dramatic poem (ex)

It is terrible to survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth.

elegy (def)

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

elegy (ex)

A Son, a son is born at last: So exactly lim’d and fair, Full of good Spirits, Meen, and Air, As a long life promised, Yet, in less than six weeks dead …