Poetic Meter (20 in 1 minute)

Meter

A recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of a set length.

Rhythm

Following a specific type of meter. A poem's musicality.

A poetic foot

Usually made up of two syllables and sometimes three.

Iamb (Iambic)

A single foot made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Opposite of Trochee. 2 syllables in a foot

Trochee (Trochaic)

A foot made up of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Opposite of Iambic. 2 syllables in a foot.

Anapest (Anapestic)

A foot made up of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. 3 syllables in the foot.

Monometer

One foot

Dimeter

Two feet

Trimeter

Three feet

Tetrameter

Four feet

Pentameter

Five feet

Catalexis (catalectic)

An incomplete foot at the end of a line.

Acatalexis (acatalectic)

A complete foot at the end of a line.

Enjambment

When the sentence continues on the next line without punctuation

Ballad

A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas

Haiku

A 3 line poem about nature with a 5-7-5 syllable count

Elegy

A poem that remembers a person who has died

Sonnet

A 14 line poem about beauty, time, or love

Villanelle

a 19 line poem describing obsessions or an intense subject matter.

Free Verse

A poem that does not have any structure

Internal Rhyme

A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line

End Rhyme

A word at the end of one line rhymes with a word at the end of another line

End stopped line

when a line of poetry ends with a period or definite punctuation mark, such as a colon