Versification

Poem

A composition written for performance by the human voice, where the words on the page serve as a verbal score for the reader.

Epic

A long narrative poem on a great and serious subject, frequently divided into several 'books' or sections.

Dramatic poetry

Poetry written in the voice of a character assumed by the poet, often in monologues or dialogues.

Lyric

Originally a song accompanied by a lyre, now refers to any fairly short poem in the voice of a single speaker.

Scansion

The art of analyzing stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry to determine its metrical feet.

Caesura

A natural pause in the speaking voice within a line of verse, often indicated by a double bar (||) in scansion.

Meter

A structured rhythm consisting of a recurrence of regular, approximately equal units of measure.

Rhythm

An essential component of language consisting of a sequence of syllables with varying levels of emphasis or stress.

Accentual meter

The oldest English metrical system organized by a specific number of strongly stressed syllables regardless of total syllable count.

Accentual-syllable meter

The most common metrical system in English poetry, structuring lines based on the foot, a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iambic

A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Trochaic

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

Anapestic

A metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

Dactylic

A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

Monometer

A poetic line consisting of one metrical foot.

Dimeter

A poetic line consisting of two metrical feet.

Trimeter

A poetic line consisting of three metrical feet.

Tetrameter

A poetic line consisting of four metrical feet.

Pentameter

A poetic line consisting of five metrical feet; the most popular line length in English poetry.

Quantitative meter

A system used in classical Greek and Latin poetry based on a syllable's quantity or duration in time.

Rhyme

The concurrence in two or more lines of the last stressed vowel and all speech sounds following it.

End rhymes

Rhymes that occur at the ends of poetic lines.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry.

Masculine rhyme

A rhyme consisting of a single stressed syllable.

Feminine rhyme

A rhyme consisting of two or more syllables- usually a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

Perfect rhyme

Rhymes where the correspondence of rhyming sounds is exact.

Off-rhyme

Also known as half, near, or slant rhyme; it changes the vowel sound and/or concluding consonants expected in a perfect rhyme.

Vowel rhyme

A form of off-rhyme where the words have only their vowel sounds in common.

Pararhyme

Rhymes where the stressed vowel sounds differ but are flanked by identical or similar consonants.

Forms

The larger patterns of poetry created by the combination of lines into structures such as stanzas.

Blank verse

A form consisting of unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Couplet

Two lines of verse typically linked by rhyme.

Tercet

A three-line stanza traditionally linked by a single rhyme.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza; the most common stanzaic form in English poetry.

Sonnet

Traditionally a poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme.

Irregular forms

Poetry that utilizes rhyme and meter but follows no fixed or repeating pattern.

Open forms/free verse

Poetry that makes little or no use of traditional rhyme and meter, relying instead on rhythms appropriate to the poet's voice.

Prose poetry

A composition that possesses the features of a lyric but is formatted on the page as prose.

Found poetry

A type of poetry that converts existing prose passages from non-poetic sources into a poem.

Shaped poetry

Poems where the words are arranged on the page to take the physical shape of an object.

Concrete poetry

A category of verbal exploration where the visual typographic structure is primary.

Sound poetry

An abstract form of performance poetry that focuses on the musical and performative nature of sounds.