AP LIT POETRY TERMS

Form

the physical structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition.

Line

the words on a single line of a poem (sentences)

Stanza

a group of lines forming a basic recurring metrical unit in a poem (paragraphs)

Closed Poetry

 include predictable patterns in the structure of lines, stanzas, meter, and rhyme, which develop relationships among ideas in the poem. A rhyme scheme is the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse. They are often demarcated with letters. For example: two lines that rhyme at the end are indicated with AA; four lines with alternating rhymes would be indicated with ABAB.

End Rhyme

occurs when the final words or syllables at the end of lines rhyme.

Internal Rhyme

 occurs when words in the middle of a line rhyme with the words at the end of a line, or when words in the middle of two lines rhyme.

Blank verse

verse without rhyme but with a regular meter, usually iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter

 is five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables.

Meter

the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line

Open forms of poetry

may not follow expected or predictable patterns in the structure of their lines or stanzas, but they may still have structures that develop relationships between ideas in the poem.

 Free verse

-poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter and is considered an “open” form of poetry. 

Line breaks

the point where a poet chooses to end one line and begin another

Enjambment

Line breaks may occur mid-clause, a term that literally means “to straddle.”

End-stopped lines

lines that break on full-stop punctuation (a period or a semicolon), emphasize these silences and slow the poem down.

Caesura

 a stop or pause in a line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical

boundary, such as commas or dashes.

the sonnet

is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employs one of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic organization.

Two sonnet forms

 provide the models from which all other sonnets are

formed: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean.

The Shakespearean Sonnet

three quatrains ( four lines) and a couplet (two lines)

follow this rhyme  scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. 

The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous quatrains, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end. This couplet is often referred to as the “turn” or volta of the poem.