Poetic terms + Types of poems

Anaphora

repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis

Apostrophe

a direct address to an abstraction (such as time), a thing (a Grecian urn), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person 

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words

Blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter, the most commonly used verse form in English because it comes closest to natural patterns of speaking 

Caesura

a pause within a line of poetry, sometimes punctuated, sometimes not, often mirroring natural speech

Consonance

an instance in which identical final consonant sounds in nearby words follow different vowel sounds. Ex. “blade and blood,” “flash and flesh” 

End-stopped line

the line of poetry concludes with punctuation that marks a pause. The line is completely meaningful in itself.   

Enjambment

a poetic technique in which one line ends without pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning 

Free verse

a form of poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme 

Iambic pentameter

an iamb (the most common metrical foot in English poetry), is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Iambic pentameter is a rhythmic meter containing five iambs (ten syllables total following the unstressed/stressed pattern). 

Meter

a formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet (also called rhythm). A foot is distinguished by the number of syllables it contains and how stress is placed on the syllables.  

Rhyme

the repetition of the same or similar vowel or consonant sounds and constructions 

End rhyme

a rhyme at the end of two or more lines of poetry 

Internal rhyme

rhyme that occurs within a line

Near rhyme or slant rhyme

a rhyme that pairs sounds that are similar but not exactly the same 

Eye rhyme

a rhyme that only works because the words look the same. Example: maid and said 

Shift

a point in a poem that indicates a change in the speaker’s perspective

Stanza

lines in a poem that the poet has chosen to group together, usually separated from other lines by a space. Ex. couplet (two-line), tercet (three-line), quatrain (four-line), sestet (six-line), octet (eight-line) 

Ballad

a sung poem that recounts a dramatic story

Ekphrastic

a form of poetry that comments on a work of art in another genre, such as a painting or a piece of music

Elegy

a contemplative poem on death and mortality, often written for someone who has died

Lyric

a short poem expressing the personal feelings of a first-person speaker.  

Ode

a form of poetry used to meditate on or address a single object or condition.  

Pastoral

employs a romanticized description of leisurely farm or rural life.

Sonnet

a poetic form composed of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter that adheres to a particular rhyme scheme.

Petrarchan sonnet

also known as the Italian sonnet, its fourteen lines are divided into an octet (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines). The octet rhymes abba, abba; the sestet that follows can have a variety of rhyme schemes: cdcdcd, cdecde, cddcdd  

Shakespearean sonnet

also known as the English sonnet, its fourteen lines are composed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a couplet, and its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.  

Villanelle

a form of poetry in which five tercets (three-line stanzas) with rhyme scheme aba are followed by a quatrain with rhyme scheme abaa.