Poetry Terms
Terms defined in bold
type are specifically addressed in the South Carolina English
Language Arts Standards
Accent
The prominence or emphasis given to a syllable or word. In the word poetry,
the accent (or stress) falls on the first syllable.
Alliteration
The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words. Some
famous examples of alliteration are tongue twisters such as She sells
seashells by the seashore and Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers.
Anapest
A metrical foot of three syllables, two short (or unstressed) followed by one
long (or stressed), as in seventeen and to the moon. The anapest
is the reverse of the dactyl.
Apostrophe
Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or
abstract idea. The poem God's World by Edna
St. Vincent Millay begins with an apostrophe: "O World, I cannot
hold thee close enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!/Thy mists that roll and
rise!"
Assonance
The repetition or a pattern of similar sounds, especially vowel sounds, as in
the tongue twister "Moses supposes his toeses are roses."
Ballad
A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a
repeated refrain. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge is an example of a ballad.
Blank
verse
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare
wrote most of his plays
in blank verse.
Caesura
A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the
line. There is a caesura right after the question mark in the first line of this
sonnet by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."
Conceit
A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that
is seemingly very different. An example of a conceit can be found in
Shakespeare's sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and in Emily
Dickinson's poem "There is no frigate like a book."
Consonance
The repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words, as
in lost and past or confess and dismiss.
Couplet
In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a
complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.
Dactyl
A metrical foot of three syllables, one long (or stressed) followed by two short
(or unstressed), as in happily. The dactyl is the reverse of the anapest.
Elegy
A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and
thoughtful. An example of this type of poem is Thomas
Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
Enjambment
The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or
couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause. An example of
enjambment can be found in the first line of Joyce
Kilmer's poem Trees: "I think that I shall never see/A
poem as lovely as a tree." Enjambment comes from the French word for
"to straddle."
Epic
A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. Two of the most
famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer,
which tell about the Trojan
War and the adventures of Odysseus on his voyage home after the war.
Epigram
A very short, witty poem: "Sir, I admit your general rule,/That every poet
is a fool,/But you yourself may serve to show it,/That every fool is not a
poet." (Samuel
Taylor Coleridge)
Epithalamium
(or Epithalamion)
A poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.
Feminine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final unstressed syllable: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.
Figure
of speech
A verbal expression in which words or sounds are arranged in a particular way to
achieve a particular effect. Figures of speech are organized into different
categories, such as alliteration,
antithesis,
assonance,
hyperbole,
litotes,
metaphor,
metonymy,
onomatopoeia,
simile,
and synecdoche.
Foot
Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a
poem. For example, an iamb is a foot that has two syllables, one unstressed
followed by one stressed. An anapest has three syllables, two unstressed
followed by one stressed.
Free
verse (also vers libre)
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter.
Haiku
A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five
syllables. Haiku often reflect on some aspect of nature.
Heptameter
A line of poetry that has seven metrical feet.
Heroic
couplet
A stanza composed of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter.
Hexameter
A line of poetry that has six metrical feet.
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis. Many
everyday expressions are examples of hyperbole: tons of money, waiting
for ages, a flood of tears, etc. Hyperbole is the opposite of
litotes.
Iamb
A metrical foot of two syllables, one short (or unstressed) and one long (or
stressed). There are four iambs in the line "Come live/ with me/
and be/ my love," from a poem
by Christopher
Marlowe. (The stressed syllables are in bold.) The iamb is the
reverse of the trochee.
Iambic
pentameter
A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. (The prefix penta-
means "five," as in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five
sides. Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic pentameter,
there are five rhythmic units that are iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written
mostly in iambic pentameter, which is the most common type of meter in English
poetry. An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet is "But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow
breaks?" Another, from Richard III, is "A horse!/
A horse!/ My king/dom for/ a horse!" (The
stressed syllables are in bold.)
Idyll,
or Idyl
Either a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene, or a long
poem that tells a story about heroic deeds or extraordinary events set in the
distant past. Idylls of the King, by Alfred
Lord Tennyson, is about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
Table.
Limerick
A light, humorous poem of five usually anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme of aabba.
Litotes
A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some
examples of litotes: no small victory, not a bad idea, not
unhappy. Litotes, which is a form of understatement, is the opposite of
hyperbole.
Lyric
A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of
the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style.
Masculine rhyme
A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable: cat/hat, desire/fire,
observe/deserve.
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing
is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or
usual word that would be expected. Some examples of metaphors: the world's a
stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in debt, and a sea
of troubles.
Meter
The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of
accented (or stressed) syllables.
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another with which it is
closely associated. For example, in the expression The pen is mightier than
the sword, the word pen is used for "the written word," and
sword is used for "military power."
Narrative
Telling a story. Ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of narrative
poems.
Ode
A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise,
formal structure. John
Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a famous example of this type of
poem.
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of
onomatopoeic words are buzz, hiss, zing, clippety-clop,
cock-a-doodle-do, pop, splat, thump, and tick-tock.
Another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson's Come
Down, O Maid: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms,/And murmuring of
innumerable bees." The repeated "m/n" sounds reinforce the idea
of "murmuring" by imitating the hum of insects on a warm summer day.
Pentameter
A line of poetry that has five metrical feet.
Personification
A figure of speech in which nonhuman things or abstract ideas are given human
attributes: the sky is crying, dead leaves danced in the wind, blind
justice.
Poetry
A type of literature that is written in meter.
Quatrain
A stanza or poem of four lines.
Refrain
A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually
after every stanza.
Rhyme
The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words.
When the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable, it is said to be masculine: cat/hat,
desire/fire, observe/deserve. When the rhyme occurs in a final
unstressed syllable, it is said to be feminine: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.
Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is
shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with
an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one
sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.
Scansion
The analysis of a poem's meter. This is usually done by marking the stressed and
unstressed syllables in each line and then, based on the pattern of the
stresses, dividing the line into feet.
Simile
A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word
"like" or "as." An example of a simile using like
occurs in Langston
Hughes's poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred?/
Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?"
Sonnet
A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided
into two quatrains and a six-line "sestet," with the rhyme scheme abba
abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are
composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab
cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter.
Spondee
A metrical foot of two syllables, both of which are long (or stressed).
Stanza
Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem.
The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern
of meter and rhyme.
Stress
The prominence or emphasis given to particular syllables. Stressed syllables
usually stand out because they have long, rather than short, vowels, or because
they have a different pitch or are louder than other syllables.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole
is used to designate a part. For example, the phrase "all hands on
deck" means "all men on deck," not just their hands. The reverse
situation, in which the whole is used for a part, occurs in the sentence
"The U.S. beat Russia in the final game," where the U.S. and Russia
stand for "the U.S. team" and "the Russian team,"
respectively.
Tetrameter
A line of poetry that has four metrical feet.
Trochee
A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or
unstressed). An easy way to remember the trochee is to memorize the first line
of a lighthearted poem
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which demonstrates the use of various kinds of
metrical feet: "Trochee/ trips from/ long to/ short."
(The stressed syllables are in bold.) The trochee is the reverse of the iamb.
Verse
A single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose).
Versification
The system of rhyme and meter in poetry.