Poetic Terms

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pastoral

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type of peom depicting country life

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sonnet

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14 line poem written in iambic pentameter that has one of two basic structures

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ode

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lyric poem, usually long,serious subject with dignified language

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octave

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8 line poem

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narrative poem

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poem that tells a story and has a beginning, middle, and end and sometimes has characters

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lyric

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doesnt tell story but expresses personal feelings or thoughts of speaker

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haiku

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short, unrhymed poem developed in Japan

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free verse

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poetry that doesnt conform to a regualr meter or rhyme scheme, yet employes traditional poetic elements

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epic

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long narrative poem with heightened language that recounts deeds of a heroic figure

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elegy

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poem of mourning, usually about someone who died

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blank verse

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poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter

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petrarchan sonnet

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italian sonnet where the first 8 lines contain a question or problem with "abba" rhyme and last 6 lines answer with "cde,cde" rhyme scheme

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english sonnet

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elizabethan or shakepearean that contains 3 fourline quatrains and ends with a couplet "abab, cdcd, efef, gg"

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ballad

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poem or song that tells a story, typically tragic

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folk ballad

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composed by unknown singers and passed on orally from one generation to the next

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literary ballad

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written to imitate the sounds and subjects of folk ballads

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allegory

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a poem or story where characters, settings, ect. stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas

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scanning

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analysis of a poem to determine meter

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meter

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pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry

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foot

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metrical unit of poetry, always contains atleast 1 stressed syllable and 1 or more unstressed syllables

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iamb

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metrical foot that has 1 unstressed followed by a 1 stressed "~/"

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trochee

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metrical foot that starts with 1 stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable "/~"

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dactyl

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metrical foot with format of stressed, unstressed, unstressed "/~~"

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anapest

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metrical foot with format of unstressed, unstressed, stressed "~~/"

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spondee

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metrical foot where it has 2 stressed syllables "//"

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couplet

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2 consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

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quatrain

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4 lines of a poem that can be considered a unit

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sestet

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six lines of poetry, last lines of sonnets

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rhythm

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alteratiin of stressed and unstressed syllables in language

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rhyme

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repitition of vowel sounds

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internal rhyme

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rhyme within the same line of poetry

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end rhyme

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words at end of lines rhyme

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rhyme scheme

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pattern of rhymes within a poem, marked with letters i.e. "abab"

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cadence

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natural rhythmic rise and fall of a language as it is normally spoken

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caesura

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a pause or break within a line of poetry

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enjambment

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the running on of sense from the end of one line of a verse into the next without punctuation

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conceit

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elaborate metaphor or other figures of speech that compares 2 things that are very different

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refrain

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a word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated for effect

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onomatopeia

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use of words whose sounds imitates or suggests its meaning

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mood

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overall emotion created by a piece

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tone

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attitude a writer takes towarss the subject of a work, the characters, or the audience

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inversion

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reversal of the normal word order

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repetition

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repeating words, sounds, syllables, or other elements

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alliteration

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repitition of same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

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assonance

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repitition of same or similar followed by different consonant sounds

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connotation

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associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase

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allusion

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reference to someone or something that is well known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science or some other branch of culture

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imagery

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use of language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience

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hyperbole

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figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect

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figurative language

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words or phrases that describes one thi ng g in terms of something else and that is not intended to be taken literally

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personification

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figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

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simile

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figure of speech that makes an explicit comparisob between two unlike things , using a word such as like, as, tjan, or resembles

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metaphor

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figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between 2 unlike things without comparison words

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directly stated metaphor

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says exactly what it wants to get by

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implied metaphor

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suggested comparison that forces reader to infer authors intent

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extended metaphor

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comparison that is developed over a number of lines or with several examples