Poetry lab terms (2)

Accentual-syllabic verse

Verse whose meter is determined by the number and alternation of its stressed and unstressed syllables, organized into feet.

Anapest

A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.

Blank verse

Unrhyming iambic pentameter, also called heroic verse.

Cadence

The patterning of rhythm in natural speech, or in poetry without a distinct meter

Caesura

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

Couplet

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

Dactyl

A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables

Dimeter

line of verse composed of two feet.

End-stopped

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. A line is considered end-stopped, too, if it contains a complete phrase.

Enjambment

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

Foot

the basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter

Free verse

Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech.

Heptameter

A meter made up of seven feet

Hexameter

A metrical line of six feet

Meter

The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.

Octave

An eight-line stanza or poem.

Pentameter

A meter made up of five feet

Quatrain

A four-line stanza, often with various rhyme schemes.

Refrain

A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza.

Rhyme (all types)

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

Sestet

A six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Shakespearean sonnet

The variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare used—comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Sonnet(general definition only)

A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme

Spondee

A metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables.

Stanza

A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem.

Syllabic verse

Poetry whose meter is determined by the total number of syllables per line, rather than the number of stresses.

Tercet

A poetic unit of three lines, rhymed or unrhymed.

Tetrameter

A line made up of four feet

Trimeter

A line made up of three feet

Trochee

A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable.

Verse

As a mass noun, poetry in general. As a regular noun, a line of poetry.

Volta

In a sonnet, the volta is the turn of thought or argument