English Poetry Exam Terms

Diction

Word choice (for sound/rhythm)

Syntax

The way the sentence is structured

Irony

Words/sentences that are polar opposites

Enjambment

A line ending in the next line.

Caesura

A pause in middle of line

Petrarchan Sonnet

first 8 lines follow ABBAABBA (ABBA ABBA), last 6 lines follow CDCDCD

Shakespearean Sonnet

3 quatrains, concluding couplet (abab, cdcd, efef, gg)

Blank verse

Unrhymed Iambic pantameter (ten syllables, unstressed/stressed)

Terza Rima

three-line stanzas (tercets) with a rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc, final line or couplet that rhymes with second line of last tercet

Ballad

tells story in songlike manner. quatrain, abcb aabb, refrain

Villanelle

19-line poem, Five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a final quatrain (four-line stanza). Two refrains (1st line/last of 2nd&4th tercet) (repeated lines. ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

Sestina

39-line poem that relies on a specific pattern of word
repetition rather than rhyme. Six sestets (six-line stanzas) and a final tercet (three-line stanza)

Canzone

5 to 7 stanzas, 11 lines each. ends with shorter stanza

Meter

rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed lines

Rhyme

repetition of syllables

Trochaic feet

One stressed followed by unstressed

Dactylic feet

foot consisting of an accented syllable and 2 unaccented syllables

Anapestic feet

two unaccented syllables followed by accented syllable