poetry/prosody review

a

Poetry

Any composition written in verse

Verse

A collection of metrical lines of poetry. Used to define the difference between poetry and prose. Contains rhythm and pattern, and more often than not, rhyme

Prosody

Study or theory of pattern of rhythm and sound in poetry

Scansion

The act of scanning a line or verse to determine meter and rhythm

Fixed form

Poems that have a set number of lines, rhythms, and/or metrical arrangements per line.

Free verse/ Open form

Having no set meter but may or may not be rhymed.

Blank Verse

Has metrical form but no rhyme.

Line

A subdivision of a poem, specifically a group of words arranged into a row that ends for a reason other than the right-hand margin.

Stanza

Formal divisions of line in poem divided by spaces.

Speaker

Imaginary voice assumed by the writer of the poem. Not necessarily the author.

Enjambment

Technique of running over from one line to the next without stopping (no punctuation)

End-stopped

The opposite of an enjambment; a metrical line containing a complete phrase or sentence, or a poetic line ending with punctuation.

Rhyme

Repetition of sounds at the end of words

End rhyme

when the rhyming words come at the end of lines

Internal rhyme

Rhyming words appear in the same line

Slant rhyme

Near/half rhyme, has similar endings but do not truly rhyme (fish, dash)

Eye rhyme

rhyme that appears correct from spelling but does not rhyme from pronunciation (watch, match)

Rhyme scheme

A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. Indicated by using different letters of alphabet, starting with "a" for each new rhyme. Continues over whole poem; does not start over each stanza.

Meter

Rhythmic pattern of poem. Determined by its number and types of stresses and beats in each line of poetry.

iamb (iambic)

A foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Trochee (trochaic)

One stressed followed by an unstressed syllable

Anapest (anapestic)

Three syllables (unstressed, unstressed, stressed). Example: in-ter-CEDE, ba-ba-BOOM

Dactyl (Dactylic)

3 syllables (stressed, unstressed, unstressed) Ex: YES-ter-day

spondee (spondaic)

2 syllables (stressed, stressed) Ex: OH-NO

Pyrrhic

2 syllables (unstressed, unstressed) Ex: ...of a...

Monomter

one-foot lines

dimeter

two-foot lines

trimeter

three-foot lines

tetrameter

four-foot lines

pentameter

five-foot lines

hexameter

six-foot lines

heptameter

seven-foot lines

octameter

eight-foot lines

Catalectic (catalexis)

A metrically incomplete line of verse which lacks a syllable in its last or end foot.

Sonnet

- A 14-line lyric poem (first person poem about emotions) that typically have a single theme.
- Written in iambic pentameter.

volta

the shift or point of dramatic change in a poem that helps to reveal its theme

Petrarchan sonnet

- Divided into one-line octave and 6-line sestet
- Octave introduces problem, sestet answers
- 2-3 rhyming sounds

Rhyme pattern of Petrarchan sonnet

abba abba

Spenserian

- Divided into three quatrains and a couplet
- Overlapping of sounds of a, b, c, d form the first 12 lines into a single unit with a separated couplet.

Rhyme pattern of Spenserian sonnet

abab bcbc cdcd ee

Shakespearean sonnet

- Divided into three quatrains and a couplet
- Addresses love, time, agony, lust, absence, infidelity, friendship, jealousy, ideal/reality

caesura

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line.

auditor

the real or imagined person or people whom the speaker of a poem is addressing

alliteration

the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of multiple words in a line

metrical/poetic foot

a group of syllables that follow a particular pattern of stress

sestet

six line stanza

octave

eight-line stanza

quatrain

four line stanza

couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme