Poetry Terms

By: Courtney Lazar

• A rhetorical scheme involving repetition in reverse order

• i.e. “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”- John F. Kennedy

Anti-metabole

• Rhyming words that seem to rhyme when written down as text because parts of them are spelled identically, but are pronounced differently from each other

• i.e. slaughter and laughter

Eye Rhyme

•The use of the same words as a "rhymed" pair•i.e. All close they met again, before the dusk/ Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,/ All close they met, all eyes, before the dusk/ Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,/ Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk,/ Unknown of any, free from whispering tale.

Identical Rhyme •Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered

syllables bearing the accents.• i.e. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. –A Midsummer Night’s Dream (5.1.12-17)

Blank Verse

• Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit.

• i.e. Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. -William Shakespeare

Couplet

• Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter. The second line is usually end-stopped.

• i.e. O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream/My great example, as it is my theme! /Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull; /Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full. –John Denham

Heroic Couplet

• A three-line unit or stanza of poetry. It typically rhymes in an AAA or ABA pattern.

• i.e. My mother’s maids, when they did sew and spin, They sang sometimes a song of the field mouse, That for because their livelihood was but so thin –Sir Thomas Wyatt

Tercet

• A three-line stanza form with interlocking rhymes that move from one stanza to the next.

• i.e. Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is What if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies -Ode to the West Wind

Terza Rima

VillanelleA versatile genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatraini.e. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan ThomasQuatrain A stanza of four lines, often rhyming in an ABAB patterni.e. Leap Before You Look – first stanza by W.H. Auden

Lyric Expresses the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of a single poetic in an intensely personal, emotional, or subjective manner: musical qualityi.e. Italian Sonnet by James DeFord

OdeA long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverentlyi.e. Ode to Aphrodite by Sappho

Epigram- A statement, or any brief saying in prose or poetry, in which there is an apparent contradictioni.e. "Beauty when unadorned is most adorned."Epithet- A short, poetic nickname--often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase--attached to the normal namei.e. fleet-footed Achilles

Free Verse- Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feeti.e. I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loaf and invite my soul,I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.-Walt Whitman “Songs of Myself” first stanza

Prose Poems- Any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetryi.e. The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.The floods have lifted up, Oh Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.-Psalm 93

Aphorism

• A pithy observation that contains a general truth

• i.e. "Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom.” - Montaigne

Elegy

• A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead

• i.e. Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard by Thomas Gray

Pastoral

• Creates an image of peaceful and uncorrupted existence; describes the simplicity, charm, and serenity attributed to country life

• i.e. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Ballad

• A narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter

• i.e. Ballata 5 by Guido Cavalcanti

The Petrarchan sonnet has an eight line stanza followed by a six line stanza. The octave has two quatrains rhyming abba, while the sestet may be arranged cdecde, cdcdcd, or cdedce.

"London, 1802" by William WordsworthMilton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, / Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, / Have forfeited their ancient English dower / Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; / Oh! raise us up,

return to us again; / And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. / Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; / Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: / Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,/ So didst thou travel on life's common way,/ In cheerful godliness; and yet thy

heart /The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Italian Sonnet

Its rhyme scheme is a b a b b c b c c d c d e e Here, the "abab" pattern sets up distinct four-line groups, each of which develops a specific idea; however, the overlapping a, b, c, and d rhymes form the first 12 lines into a single unit with a separated final couplet.

"Sonnet LIV" Of this World's theatre in which we stay,/ My love like the Spectator idly sits,/ Beholding me, that all the pageants play,/ Disguising diversely my troubled wits./ Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,/And mask in mirth like to a Comedy;/ Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,/ I wail and make my woes a Tragedy./ Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,/ Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;/ But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry/

She laughs and hardens evermore her heart./ What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,/She is no woman, but a senseless stone.

Spenserian Sonnet

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

Uses three quatrains; each rhymed differently, with a final, independently rhymed couplet that makes an effective, unifying climax to the whole. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

"Sonnet XXIX" by William ShakespeareWhen in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,/ I all alone beweep my outcast state,/ And

trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,/ And look upon myself and curse my fate,/ Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,/ Featured like him, like him with friends

possessed,/ Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,/ With what I most enjoy contented least,/ Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,/ Haply I think on thee, and then my state,/ (Like to the lark at break of day arising/ From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,/ For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,/ That then I scorn to change my

state with kings.

VOLTA

A sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion near the conclusion of a sonnet.

"London, 1802" by William WordsworthMilton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:/ England hath need of

thee: she is a fen/ Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,/ Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,/ Have forfeited their ancient English dower / Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;/ Oh! raise us up, return to us again;/ And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power./ Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;/

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:/ Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, / So didst thou travel on life's common way,/

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart/ The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

• Using opposite phrases in close conjunction• i.e. “One small step for a man, one giant leap

for mankind.”Antithesis

• A poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length; involves the revelation of the innermost thoughts

• i.e. All’s Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare -Helena’s Part

Dramatic Monologue

•Not limited to visual imagery; it also includes auditory, tactile, thermal, olfactory, taste, and movement.

•i.e. Above the quiet dock in midnight,/Tangled in the tall mast's corded height/Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away/Is but a child's balloon, forgotten after play.

Imagery

• An external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self

• i.e. Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal” who proposes to eat Irish children as means of economic advancement

Persona

•The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect.

•i.e. "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be."

Anaphora

• Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea

• i.e. “The pen is mightier than the sword."

Metonymy

• Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level

• i.e. “Without laws, we can have no freedom.”

Paradox• The use of a word in different senses or the

use of words similar in sound to achieve a specific effect, as humor or a dual meaning; punning

• i.e. •"Get that bird a glass of water--he’s perched!"

Paronomasia

Asyndeton• The elimination of

conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect

• i.e. “He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.”

Conceit• An extended

metaphor• i.e.

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne

Synecdoche• Figure of speech in

which a part is used for the whole or a whole is used for a part

• i.e. “White House” referring to the entire U.S. government

Asso

nanc

e

Litot

e

Syne

sthe

siaInvolves taking one type of sensory input and comingling it with another separate sense in an impossible way.

i.e. Blue note

An understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its oppositei.e. "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives.“ –Abigail Adams

Repeating identical or similar vowels in nearby words

i.e. “Hear the mellow wedding bells” -Edgar Allan Poe

• Type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in the intervening vowels

• i.e. Deep dark dread

Consonance

• Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound.

• i.e. Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers.

Alliteration

•A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry--an important part of poetic rhythm.

•i.e. “Know then thyself //, presume not God to scan;/ The proper study of Mankind // is Man.” –Alexander Pope

Caesura• A line ending in a full pause, often

indicated by appropriate punctuation such as a period or semicolon.

• i.e. “G-r-r-r--there go, my heart's abhorrence!/ Water your damned flowerpots, do.” –Robert Browning

End-Stopped

EnjambmentA line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next linei.e. The Haunted House by George Viereck

EuphonyA good soundi.e. Bells pealing

CacophonyA harsh soundi.e. A crow

Exact RhymeRhyming two words in which both the consonant sounds and vowel sounds match to create a rhyme.i.e. pain/pane, bough/bow, etc.

Internal Rhyme

• A word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line

• i.e. I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,/And out of the caverns of rain,/ Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,/I arise and unbuild it again. -Shelley

Cliché Rhyme

• Rhymes that are considered trite or predictable

• i.e. love and dove, trees and breeze, etc.

Iambic Rhyme

• A lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable

• i.e. "The cúrfew tólls the knéll of párting dáy.“ by Thomas Gray

Inexact Rhyme

• Rhymes created out of words with similar but not identical sounds

• i.e. Heart-smitten with emotion I sink down/My heart recovering with covered eyes;/ Wherever I had looked I had looked upon/ My permanent or impermanent images.” –William Butler Yeats

Act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

i.e. "Oh, Death, be not proud."

Apostrophe

Written in a specific or traditional pattern according to the required rhyme, meter, line length, line groupings, and number of lines within a genre of poetry.

i.e. haikus and sonnets

Closed Rhyme