Poetry terms (copy)

accent

A syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors

allegory

a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one

alliteration

the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables

Allusion

A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history

Anapest

A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable

Anapestic meter

a meter in which a majority of the feet are anapests

Anaphora

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

Approximate rhyme

A term used for a words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes

Assonance

The repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words

Aubade

A poem about dawn a morning love song or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn

Ballad

A fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Cacophony

A harsh, discordant unpleasant sound choice and arrangements of sounds

Caesura

A speech pause occurring within a line

consonance

the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables

continuous form

the form of poem in which the lines follow each others without formal groupings the only breaks being dictated by units of meaning

Couplet

two successive lines, usually in the same meter linked by rhyme

Dactyl

A metrical foot consisting of one accent syllable followed by two unaccented syllable

Dactylic meter

A meter in which a majority of the feet are dactyls

Denotation

the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word

Didactic poetry

poetry having as a primary purpose to teach or preach

Dimeter

A metrical line containing two feet

double rhyme

a rhyme in which the repeated vowel is in the second last syllable of the words involved

Dramatic framework

The situation, whether actual or fictional, realistic or fanciful in which an author places his or her character an order to express a theme

Duple meter

A meter in which a majority of the feet contain two syllables

end Rhyme

rhyme that occur on the end of lines

end stopped line

a line that ends with natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

English sonnet

a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdefefgg its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinated quatrains and concluding couplets but it is often structured like the italian sonnet into octave and sestet the principal real in thought coming at the end of the eight line

Euphony

A smooth pleasant sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

expected rhythm

a rhythmic expectation set up by the basic meter of a poem

Extended figure

A figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem

Extra-metrical syllables

extra unaccented syllables added at the beginnings or endings of lines; these may be either a feature of the metrical form of a poem In iambic lines, they occur at the end of the line; in trochaic, at the beginning.

Feminine rhyme

A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third last syllable of the words involved (for example, ceiling-appealing, hurrying-scurrying)

Figurative language

Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

Figure of speech

Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly (and for the purposes of this book), a way of saying one thing and meaning another

Fixed form

Any form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, limerick, villanelle, and so on.

Folk ballad

A narrative poem designed to be sung, composed by an anonymous author, and transmitted orally for years or generations before being written down. It has usually undergone modification through the process of oral transmission.

Foot

The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables (the spondaic foot is a modification of this principle)

Form

The external pattern or shape of a poem, describable without
reference to its content, as continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form (and their varieties), free verse, and syllabic verse.

Free verse

Nonmetrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic forms. (page 188) Grammatical pause (also known as caesura) A pause introduced into the reading of a line by a mark of punctuation.

Heard rhythm

The actual rhythm of a metrical poem as we hear it when it is read naturally. The heard rhythm mostly conforms to but sometimes departs from or modifies the expected rhythm.

Hexameter

A metrical line containing six feet.

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable (for example, re-hearse

Iambic meter

A meter in which the majority of feet are iambs. The most common English meter.

Imagery

The representation through language of sense experience.

Internal rhyme

A rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words oc- cur(s) within the line.

Irony

A situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of in- congruity or discrepancy.

Verbal irony

A figure of speech in which what is meant is the opposite of what is said

Dramatic irony

A device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker (or by a speaker) in a literary work

situational irony

A situation in which there is an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that

Italian Sonnet

A sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde.

Limerick

A fixed form consisting of five lines of anapestic meter, the first two trimeter, the next two dimeter, the last line trimeter, rhyming aabba; used exclusively for humorous or nonsense verse.

Masculine rhyme

A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved (for example, dance-pants, scald-recalled)

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. It may take one of four forms: (1) that in which the literal term and the figurative term are both named; (2) that in which the literal term is named and the figurative term implied; (3) that in which the literal term is implied and the figurative term named; (4) that in which both the literal and the figurative terms are implied.

Meter

The regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which some significant aspect or de- tail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience. In this book the single term metonymy is used for what are sometimes distinguished as two separate figures: synecdoche (the use of the part for the whole) and metonymy (the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant).

Metrical variations

Departures from the basic metrical pattern (see anacrusis, substitution, extra-metrical syllables).

Monometer

A metrical line containing one foot.

Octave

(1) An eight-line stanza. (2) The first eight lines of a sonnet, especially one structured in the manner of an Italian sonnet.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (for example, boom, click, plop).

Onomatopoetic language

Language employing onomatopoeia.

Overstatement

A figure of speech in which exaggeration
is used in the service of truth.

Oxymoron

A compact paradox in which two successive words seemingly contradict each other.

Paradox

A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements.

Paradoxical situation

A situation containing apparently but not actually incompatible elements. The celebration of a fifth birthday anniversary by a twenty-year-old man is paradoxical but explainable if the man was born on February 29.

Paradoxical statement

A figure of speech in which an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true

Paraphrase

A restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible.

Pentameter

A metrical line containing five feet.

Personification

A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept.

Phonetic intensive

A word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggests its meaning. As differentiated from onomatopoetic words, the meanings of phonetic intensives do not refer explicitly to sounds.

Prose meaning

That part of a poem's total meaning that can be separated out and expressed through paraphrase

Prose poem

Usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse.

Quatrain

(1) A four-line stanza. (2) A four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme.

Refrain

A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form.

Rhetorical pause

A natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing or syntax.

Rhetorical poetry

Poetry using artificially eloquent language; that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience.

Rhetorical stress

In natural speech, as in prose and poetic writing, the stressing of words or syllables so as to emphasize meaning and sentence structure.

Rhythm

Any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound.

Rhyme

The repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words (for ex- ample, old-cold, vane-reign, court-report, order-recorder). The above definition applies to perfect rhyme and assumes that the accented vowel sounds involved are preceded by differing consonant sounds. If the preceding consonant sound is the same (for example, manse-romance, style-stile), or if there is no preceding consonant sound in either word (for example, aisle-isle, alter- altar), or if the same word is repeated in the rhyming position (for example, hill-hill), the words are called identical rhymes. Both perfect rhymes and identical rhymes are to be distinguished from approximate rhymes.

Rhyme scheme

Any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas.

Run-on line

A line which has no natural speech pause at its end, al- lowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line.

Sarcasm

Bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed

Satire

A kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the ostensible purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice.

Scansion

The process of measuring metrical verse, that is, of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern.

Sentimental poetry

Poetry that attempts to manipulate the reader's emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than the poem itself really warrants. (A sentimental novel or film is sometimes called, pejoratively, a "tear-jerker.")

Sestet

(1) A six-line stanza. (2) The last six lines of a sonnet structured on the Italian model.

Simile

A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made be-
tween two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems.

Sonnet

A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types-the Italian or the English.

Spondee

A metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally or almost equally accented (for example, true-blue).

Stanza

A group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem.

Stanzaic form

The form taken by a poem when it is written in a series of units having the same number of lines and usually other characteristics in common, such as metrical pattern or rhyme scheme.

Structure

The internal organization of a poem's content.

Substitution

In metrical verse, the replacement of the expected metrical foot by a different one (for example, a trochee occurring in an iambic line).

Syllabic verse

Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line.

Symbol

A figure of speech in which something (object, person, situation, or action) means more than what it is. A symbol, in other words, may be read both literally and metaphorically.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole

Synesthesia

Presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation.

Tercet

A three-line stanza exhibited in terza rima and villanelle as well as in other poetic forms.

Terza rima

An interlocking rhyme scheme with the pattern aba bcb cdc, etc