Introduction To Poetry Terms

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Poetry

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s the most misunderstood form of writing. It is also arguably the purest form of writing. Poetry is a sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of beauty and expressing this through words. It is art. Like art it is very difficult to define because it is an expression of what the poet thinks and feels and may take any form the poet chooses for this expression

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Line

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Is the basic unit of poetry.

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Grammar

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the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed

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Syllables

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an uninterrupted segment of speech consisting of a center of relatively great sonority with or without one or more accompanying sounds of relatively less sonority

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Meter

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Is a set of syllables

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Stanzas

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A group of lines

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Line

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Is the sentences in Poetry

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Rhyme Scheme

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The way in which the poem rhymes as ABBB or ABAA etc.

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Couplet

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A two lined poem

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Triplet

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A three lined poem

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Quatrain

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a four lined stanza

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Cinquain

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a five lined stanza

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Rhyme

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is when the endings of the words sound the same. Read the poem with me out loud.

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Repitition

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is the repeating of a specific sound word phrase

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Figurative Language

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Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else

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Poetry

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A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form.

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Poet- the author of the poem.

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Speaker- the person who tells the poem.

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Form- the appearance of the words on the page.

Line- a group of words together on one line of the poem

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Stanza- a group of lines arranged together

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Couplet- two lined stanza
Triplet(Tercet)- 3 lined stanza
Quatrain-4 lined stanza
Quintet- 5 lined stanza

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Sestet (Sextet)- 6 lined stanza
Septet- 7 lined stanza
(Oct)ave- 8 lined stanza

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Rhythm- the beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem.

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Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, and refrain.

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Meter- a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

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Unstressed- weak syllables
Stressed- strong syllables

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Monometer- one foot in a line
Dimeter- two feet on a line
Trimeter- three feet on a line
Tetrameter- four feet on a line

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Pentameter- five feet on a line
Hexameter- six feet on a line
Heptameter- seven feet on a line.
Octameter- eight feet on a line.

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Blank Verse- written in lines of iambic pentameter, but does NOT use end rhyme

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ss

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Acrostic

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Is a poem where the 1st letter of each line form a word when read them looking downward.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of the initial constant. There should be at least 2 repetitions in a row

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Imagery

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The use of vivid description, usually rich in sensory words, to create images in the readers mind.

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Hyperbole

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Over exaggerated expression.
I could could sleep for a year
I'm so hungry I can eat a horse.

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Paradox

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A statement that contradicts itself

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Euphemism

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The substitution of an offensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.