Poetry Terms

Dissonance (Cacophony)

a harsh, disagreeable combination of sounds

Elision

the omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry

Ode

a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.

Apostrophe

speaker directly addresses someone or something that isn't present in the poem. The speaker could be addressing an abstract concept like love, a person (dead or alive), a place, or even a thing, like the sun or the sea.

Inversion

reversal of normal word order

Consonance

repetition of consonant sounds in nearby words

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words (Vague)

Juxtaposition

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

Canto

Like a stanza but more fit for lyrical or ballad poetry (one of the sections into which certain long poems are divided)

Volta

This applies to sonnets. It occurs between the octave and the sestet in a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and before the couplet in a Shakespearean (English) sonnet.

Caesura

a pause that occurs within a line.

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

End Stopped

a pause at the end of a line with a definitive punctuation mark

Free Verse

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter.

Blank Verse

verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameter.

Quatrain

a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

Stanza

the "paragraph" of a poem. A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse

Couplet

two successive lines typically with the same rhyme pattern

Terminal Rhyme

perfect rhyme where the grammatical end of a line or thought coincides with the perfect rhyme

Internal Rhyme

rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end

Eye Rhyme

words creating visual likeness without sounding at all alike (as in "cough" and "though")

Alternate Rhyme

It is also known as ABAB rhyme scheme, it rhymes as "ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH."

Terza Rima

It uses tercets, three lines stanzas. Its interlocking pattern on end words follows: ABA BCB CDC DED and so on.

Slant Rhyme

Half rhyme or imperfect rhyme, sometimes called near-rhyme or lazy rhyme or slant rhyme, is a type of rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds. In most instances, either the vowel segments are different while the consonants are identical, or vice versa.

Iamb or Iambic

unstressed and stressed syllable

Meter

a sequence of several feet, where each foot has a number of syllables such as stressed/unstressed.

Foot

usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable

Narrative

this type of poetry tells a story. Epic is a type of this (Epic is usually about a mythical warrior and his/her journey).

Pastoral

One of the poetic favorites is pastoral poetry because it elicits such wonderful senses of peace and harmony.

Elegy

sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. The purpose of this kind of poem is to express feelings rather than tell a story.

Villanelle

a nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain. It uses a rhyme scheme of "A1bA2, abA1, abA2, abA1, abA2, abA1A2."

Ballad

this type of poem is frequently sung-or at least they are intended to be sung-and they are often about love. Often they will tell stories and tend to be of a mystical nature. Has a refrain (verse or phrase that is repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem, usually after the chorus or stanza) that repeats at various intervals throughout. It contains three stanzas with the rhyme scheme of "ABABBCBC" followed by "BCBC."

Shakespearean/English Sonnet

this contains 3 Sicilian quatrains (stanzas with 4 lines) and one heroic couplet (2 lines) at the end, with an "abab cdcd efef gg" rhyme scheme. The turn (Volta) comes at or near line 13, making the ending couplet quick and dramatic.

Petrarchan/Italian

this sonnet is split into two parts, an octave and a sestet. The octave is composed of two envelope quatrains rhyming "abba abba" (Italian octave). The sestet's rhyme pattern varies, though it is most often either "cde cde" (Italian sestet) or "cdc dcd" (Sicilian sestet). The turn (Volta) occurs at the end of the octave and is developed and closed in the sestet. Over the years, the Italian sonnet has been the most favored type of sonnet

Triplet

Also called a tercet, it is a three-line stanza; rhyme scheme can vary

Shift

significant change in the poem's direction, tone, language, or action

Enclosed Rhyme

uses rhyme scheme of "ABBA" (aka envelope rhyme)

Monorhyme

every line of a poem uses the same rhyme, "AAAAAA"

Lyric

short verse stressing emotions over story.

Epic

a long narrative poem in verse form that retells the heroic journey.

Euphony

pleasant, harmonious sound

Repetition

Repeated use of sounds, words, or ideas for effect and emphasis

Anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Epistrophe

the repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences

iambic pentameter

a line of poetry consisting of 5 feet of unstressed, stressed syllables for a total of 10 syllables per line

End-stopped

a poetic line that ends with a punctuation mark, creating a pause at the end.

sonnet

generic - 14 line poem

parallelism

the repetition of grammatical structures or phrases in a sequence to create rhythm and emphasize ideas.