Poetry Lit Terms

Alliteration

Repetition of sounds in a sequence of words - usually beginning or stressed consonants

Assonance

Repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds followed by different consonants

Blank verse

Unrhymed verse of iambic (heart beat) pentameter (Shakespeare writes using this)

Canophony

a mixture of harsh, unpleasant, discordant sounds

Cadence

A rhythmic sequence of flow of sounds in language

Caesura

A pause in a line of poetry - dictated not by meter but by natural speaking rhythm

Conceit

an extended metaphor, often used by metaphysical poets (Edward Taylor’s Spinning Wheel to Gods Grace)

Connotation

The associations evoked by a word beyond its literal meaning

Consonance

The repetition of a final consonant sounds or sounds following different vowel sounds (Wood/Made) creates “Near or imperfect rhyme”

Couplet

2 Successive lines or rhyming verse; creates poetic closure

Dirge

Funeral song or poem lamenting one persons death

Dissonance

Harsh, discordant sounds in any type of coriting

Dramatic Monologue

A lyric poem where the speaker addresses a silent listener

Elegy

A reflective Poem that laments(grieves) the loss of something

End-Stopped line

A line of poetry in which the grammatical pause coincides with the end of the line

Epic

Narrative poem written in an elevated style that recounts the adventures of a hero

Enjambment

lines that do not end with grammatical breaks (opposite of end-stopped lines)

Euphony

pleasing, harmonious sounds

Foot

a rhyme unit into which a line of metrical verse is divided (iambic, trochee)

Free Verse

Poetry that lacks a meter, does not rhyme, may have irregular line length

iamb

A metrical foot (da-DA)

Image/imagery

descriptive terms or figurative language used to produce mental impressions (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory)

In Medias Res

“in the middle of things” the technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the action

Lyric poem

A brief poem characterized by the thoughts/emotions of a single speaker (often contains the work i)(umbrella term)

Meter

The pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry (cadence)

Octave

Any 8-line stanza, but most frequently applied to the first 8 lines of an Italian sonnet

Ode

A relatively long, serious, and unusually meditative poem (“Ode to a Grecian Urn”)(Of mice and men)

Pentameter

A line or verse consisting of 5 metrical feet

Persong

The speaker, also the first person (“I”) in a poem

Quatrain

A stanza containing 4 lines

refrain

A line or lines that occur throughout a poem or song lyric (repetition)(like a courous)

Rhyme

rime

Perfect rhyme

true or full rhyme (ex: luck/duck)

End-rhyme

rhyme that occurs at the end of lines

Internal rhyme

rhyme that occurs in the middle of a line (ex: their graves are green, they may be seen)

Half-rhyme or imperfect rhyme or slant rhyme

words contain military sounds but do not rhyme exactly (ex: beard/board)

Masculine rhymee

one stressed syllable (core/lore)

Feminine rhyme

has either 2 (double rhyme) or 3 (triple rhyme) syllables (ex: shatter/splatter)

Scansion

The analysis, using symbols of petic meter

Sestet

a six-line poem or stanza; usually the second stanza of an Italian sonnet

Sonnet

English/Shakespearean - 14 line poem consisting of 3 quatrains and one couple (last line couple)

Italian/petrarchan sonnet

14 lines consisting of the octave and the sestet

Stanza

a grouped set of lines in a poem (paragraph)

Stress

The emphasis placed on a syllable

Trochee

A metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed

Tercet

a group of 3 lines of verse

Villanelle

French verse from - 19 lines in 5 tercets followed by one quatrain