Poetry Terms

102849288	alexandrine	in prosody, a line of verse having six iambic feet with caesura generally after the third.
102849289	alliteration	the repetition of similar sounds, usually initial consonant sounds.
102849290	allusion	an act of alluding, a casual or indirect reference
102849291	apostrophe	to directly address something inanimate
102849292	assonance	resemblance in sound; especially, in prosody, correspondence of accented vowels, but not of consonants
102849293	ballad	a story told in verse and usually meant to be sung.
102849294	ballad stanza	a type of four line stanza, the first and third lines have four stressed words or syllables; the second and fourth lines have three stresses.
102849295	blank verse	verse written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
102849296	caesura	a break occurring in the middle of a line
102849297	canto	a section or division of a long poem
102849298	carpe diem tradition	tradition dating back to classical Greek and Latin poetry, and particularly popular among English cavalier poets, to "seize the day" and take risks.
102849299	classicism	a movement or tendency of art, literature, or music that reflects the principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome.
102849300	conceit	a kind of metaphor that makes a comparison between two startlingly different things
102849301	connotation	all the emotions and associations that a word or phrase may arouse
102849302	consonance	the repetition of similar consonant sounds in a group of words
102849303	couplet	two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme
102849304	heroic couplet	an iambic pentameter couplet
102849305	closed couplet	a couplet in which the two lines form a complete unit of thought
102849306	diction	a writer's choice of words particularly for clarity, effectiveness, and precision
102849307	dissonance	a harsh or disagreeable combination of sounds, discord
102849308	elegy	a poem of mourning, usually over a death
102849309	epic	a long narrative poem telling about the deeds of a great hero and reflecting the values of a society from which it originated
102849310	epigram	a short, witty pointed statement, often a couplet or quatrain
102849311	epitaph	an inscription on a gravestone, or a short poem written in memory of someone who died
102849312	figurative language	language that is not intended to be interpreted literally
102849313	hyperbole	figure of speech using exaggeration or overstatement for special effect
102849314	metaphor	figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar
102849315	metonymy	figure of speech which something is very closely associated with a thing is used to stand for or suggest the thing itself
102849316	oxymoron	figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms
102849317	personification	figure of speech when something nonhuman is given human qualities
102849318	simile	comparison made between two things through the use of a specific comparison such as like or as
102849319	synecdoche	a figure of speech that substitutes a part for a whole
102849320	foot	the basic unit of meter, pattern of repeated stress and unstress
102849321	feet	meter is determined in units of feet
102849322	iamb	one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
102849323	trochee	one stressed syllable followed an unstressed syllable
102849324	dactyl	one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllable
102849325	anapest	two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable
102849326	free verse	verse that has either no metrical pattern or an irregular pattern
102849327	iambic pentameter	poetic line consisting of five verse feet with each foot an iamb -that is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
102849328	imagery	words or phrases that create pictures or images in the reader's mind
102849329	incremental repetition	the repetition of a previous line or lines but with a slight variation each time that advances the narrative stanza by stanza
102849330	internal rhyme	the repetition of sound in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem
102849331	lyric	a poem expressing the ideas or feelings of the poet, rather than telling a story.
102849332	meter	a generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry
102849333	mock epic	a comic literary form that treats a trivial subject in the grand, heroic style of the epic
102849334	octave	8 line poem or stanza
102849335	ode	a complex and often lengthy lyric poem written in a dignified formal style on a some lofty or serious subject
102849336	onomatopoeia	the use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its meaning
102849337	parallelism	the use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning
102849338	Pastoral	a type of poem that deals in an idealized way with shepherds and rustic life
102849339	pathos	the quality in a work of literature or art that arouses the reader's feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion for the character
102849340	Psalm	a song or lyric poem in praise of God
102849341	quatrain	a stanza or poem of 4 lines
102849342	refrain	A word, phrase, line group, or group of lines repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of each stanza
102849343	rhyme	the repetition of a sound in 2 or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem
102849344	end rhyme	If the rhyme occurs at the end of the lines
102849345	internal	rhyme occurs with in a line
102849346	slant	rhyme in which only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical
102849347	rhyme scheme	pattern of rhymes in a poem
102849348	rhythm	the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables into a pattern.
102849349	Romanticism	a movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music and art in western culture during most of the 19th century beginning as a revolt to classicism
102849350	Scansion	the analysis of verse in terms of meter
102849351	Sestest	six line poem or stanza
102849352	Sonnet	a fourteen line lyric poem usually written in rhyme iambic pentameter
102849353	sprung rhythm	a term created by the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins to designate a variable kind of poetic meter in which a stressed syllable may be combined with any number of unstressed syllables
102849354	symbolism	a literary movement that arose in France in the last half of the 19th century and that greatly influenced many English writers particularly poets of the 20th century
102849355	terza rima	an Italian verse form consisting of a series of three line stanzas in which the middle line of each stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the following stanza
102849356	theme	the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express in a literary work
102849357	villanelle	an intricate verse form of French origin consisting of several three line stanza and a concluding four line stanza