Lang/Lit 2 Honors Unseth Poetry Verse Terms

has many of the most commonly used verse terms

Alliteration

The repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or verse line.

Aside

a direct address to the audience that other characters aren't privy to(not sharing secret/ private knowledge, only to audience)

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants; sometimes called vowel rhyme.

Ballad

A popular narrative song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.

Blank Verse

This 10-syllable line is the predominant rhythm of traditional English dramatic and epic poetry, as it is considered the closest to English speech.

Caesura

A stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as a phrase or clause.

Colloquial Language

The linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. (y’all/gonna)

Connotation

the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it(words/expressions)

Couplet

A pair of two successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length.

Tercet Couplet

A tercet is a set of three lines that may or may not rhyme

Quatrain Couplet

a four line stanza

Sestet Couplet

a six line stanza

Octave Couplet

a stanza with eight lines

Denotation

the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.

Dramatic Monologue

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.

End stopped line

A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break—such as a dash or closing parenthesis—or with punctuation such as a colon, a semicolon, or a period.

Enjambment

The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped.

Form

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

Free Verse

Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition.

Iambic Pentameter

A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

Lyric Poem

Lyric poetry refers to a short poem, often with song-like qualities, that expresses the speaker's personal emotions and feelings.

Meter

The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.

Mood

Describes how word choice, subject matter, and the author's tone convey an overall feeling that characterizes the emotional landscape of a poem for readers.

Narrative Poem

Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse.

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense (for example, “choo-choo,” “hiss,” or “buzz”).

Parallelism

a literary device based on repetition, a way for poets to emphasize certain information by repeating grammatically similar words and phrases.

Personification

A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person.

Refrain

A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza. (“jump back, honey, jump back“)

Repetition

Repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.

Rhyme

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The repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line.

Internal Rhyme

rhyme within a single line of verse,

when two or more words within a line or verse of a poem rhyme.

End Rhyme

a rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses

Slant Rhyme

a type of rhyme with words that have similar, but not identical sounds(worm/swarm)

Rhyme Scheme

the pattern of sounds that repeats at the end of a line or stanza

Rhythm

the beat and pace of a poem

Soliloquy

the act of talking to oneself, regardless of who can hear

Sonnet

a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization

Shakespearean/English Sonnet

composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Petrachean/Italian Sonnet

a sonnet composed of a group of eight lines (octave) with two rhymes abba abba, and a group of six lines (sestet) with two or three rhymes variously arranged, typically cde cde or cdc dcd

Spenserian Sonnet

a sonnet in which the lines are grouped into three interlocked quatrains and a couplet and the rhyme scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

Speaker

the voice of the poem, similar to a narrator in fiction

Stanza

A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem(a paragraph)

Terza Rima

a verse form composed of iambic tercets (three-line groupings)

Tone

The poet's attitude toward the poem's speaker, reader, and subject matter, as interpreted by the reader