Poetry Exam Words

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Simile

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A comparison of two things, indicted by some connective, usually like, as, than, or a verb such as resembles. It usually compares two things that initially seem unlike but are shown to have a significant resemblance. "Cool as a cucumber" and "My love is like a red, red rose" are examples.

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Metaphor

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A statement that one thing is something else, which, in a literal sense, it is not. By asserting that a thing is something else, it creates a close association between the two entities and usually underscores some important similarity between them. An example is "Richard is a pig."

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Personification

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A figure of speech in which a thing, an animal, or an abstract term is endowed with human characteristics. It allows an author to dramatize the nonhuman world in tangibly human terms.

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Conceit

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A poetic device using elaborate comparisons, such as equating a loved one with the graces and beauties of the world. Most notably used by the Italian poet Petrarch in praise of his beloved Laura, it comes from the Italian word that means "concept" or "idea."

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Carpe Diem

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Latin for "seize the day." Originally said in Horace's famous "Odes 1 (11)," this phrase has been applied to characterize much lyric poetry concerned with human mortality and the passing of time.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of two or more consonant sounds in successive words in a line of verse or prose. It can be used at the beginning of words ("cool cats" - initial) or internally on stressed syllables ("in kitchen cups concupiscent curds" - which combines initial and internal). It was a central feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry and is still used by contemporary writers.

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Assonance

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The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rhyme. Like alliteration, it may occur initially ("all the awful auguries") or internally ("White lilacs"). It may be used to focus attention on key words or concepts. It also helps make a phrase or line more memorable.

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Onomatopoeia

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A literary device that attempts to represent a thing or action by the word that imitates the sound associated with it (e.g., crash, bang, pitter-patter).

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Portmanteau

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An artificial word that combines parts of other words to express some combination of their qualities. Sometimes they prove so useful that they become part of the standard language. For example, smog from smoke and fog; or brunch from breakfast and lunch.

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Prosody

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The study of metrical structures in poetry.

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Scansion

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A practice used to describe rhythmic patterns in a poem by separating the metrical feet, counting the syllables, marking the accents, and indicating the pauses. It can be very useful in analyzing the sound of a poem and how it should be read aloud.

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Sonnet

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From an Italian word that means "little song." A traditional and widely used verse form, especially popular for love poetry. It is a fixed form of fourteen lines, traditionally written in iambic pentameter, usually made up of an octave (the first eight lines) and a concluding sestet (six lines). There are, however, several variations, most conspicuously the Shakespearean, or English, which consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet. Most of them turn, or shift in tone or focus, after the first eight lines, although the placement may vary.

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Octave

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A stanza of eight lines. It is a term usually used when speaking of sonnets to indicate the first eight-line section of the poem, as distinct from the sestet (the final six lines). Some poets also use them as separate stanzas as in W.B. Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium," which employs the ottava rima ("eighth rhyme") stanza--abababcc.

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Sestet

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A poem or stanza of six lines. It is a term usually used when speaking of sonnets, to indicate the final six-line section of the poem, as distinct from the octave (the first eight lines).

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Shakespearean (English) Sonnet

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It has a rhyme scheme organized into three quatrains with a final couplet: abab cdcd efef gg. The poem may turn, that is, shift in mood or tone, between any of the quatrains (although it usually occurs on the ninth line).

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Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet

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It follows the rhyme pattern for the first eight lines (the octave): abba, abba; the final six lines (the sestet) may follow any pattern of rhymes, as long as it does not end in a couplet. The poem traditionally turns, or shifts in mood or tone, after the octave.

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Villanelle

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A fixed form developed by French courtly poets of the Middle Ages in imitation of Italian folk song. It consists of six rhymed stanzas in which two lines are repeated in a prescribed manner.

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vers libre

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French phrase also known as free verse. It describes poetry that organizes its lines without meter. It may be rhymed (as in some poems by H.D.), but it usually is not. There is no one means of organizing it, and different authors have used irreconcilable systems. What unites the two approaches is a freedom from metrical regularity.

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Dramatic Monologue

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A poem written as a speech made by a character at some decisive moment. The speaker is usually addressing a silent listener as in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" or Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."

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Lyric

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A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Often written in the first person, this kind of poetry traditionally has a songlike immediacy and emotional force.

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Meter

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A recurrent, regular, rhythmic pattern in verse. When stresses recur at fixed intervals, the result is this. Traditionally, it has been the basic organizational device of world poetry. There are many existing, each identified by the different patterns of recurring sounds. In English most common ones involve the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

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Iambic Pentameter

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The most common meter in English verse--five iambic feet per line. Many fixed forms, such as the sonnet and heroic couplets, are written in this. The unrhymed form is called blank verse.

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Trochaic

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A metrical foot in which a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable as in the words sum-mer and chor-us. This meter is often associated with songs, chants, and magic spells in English.

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Anapestic

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A metrical foot in verse in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable, as in "on a boat" or "in a slump."

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Dactylic

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A metrical foot of verse in which one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables (bat-ter-y or par-a-mour). This meter is less common to English than it was to classical Greek and Latin verse. Longfellow's Evangeline is the most famous English-language long poem.

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Tetrameter

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A verse meter consisting of four metrical feet, or four primary stresses, per line.

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Hexameter

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A verse meter consisting of six metrical feet, or six primary stresses, per line.

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Rising Meter

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A meter whose movement rises from an unstressed syllable (or syllables) to a stressed syllable (for-get, De-troit). Iambic and anapestic are examples of this.

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Falling Meter

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Trochaic and dactylic meters are called this because their first syllable is accented, followed by one or more unaccented syllables. A foot of this falls in its level of stress, as in the words co-medy or aw-ful.

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Rhyme Scheme

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Any recurrent pattern of rhyme within an individual poem or fixed form. It is usually described by using small letters to represent each end rhyme--a for the first rhyme, b for the second, and so on. One of a stanza of common meter or hymn meter, for example, would be noted as abab.

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Exact Rhyme

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A full rhyme in which the sounds following the initial letters of the words are identical in sound, as in follow and hollow, go and slow, disband and this hand.

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Slant Rhyme

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A rhyme in which the final consonant sounds are the same but the vowel sounds are different, as in letter and litter, bone and bean. It may also be called near rhyme, off rhyme, or imperfect rhyme.

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Masculine Rhyme

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Either a rhyme of one syllable words (as in fox and socks) or--in polysyllabic words--a rhyme on the stressed final syllables con-trive and sur-vive.

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Feminine Rhyme

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A rhyme of two or more syllables with a stress on a syllable other than the last, as in tur-tle and fer-tile.

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Run-On Line (Enjambed)

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A line of verse that does not end in punctuation, but carries on grammatically to the next line. Such lines are read aloud with only a slight pause at the end.

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End-Stopped Line

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A line of verse that ends in a full pause, usually indicated by a mark of punctuation.

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Caesura

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A pause within a line of verse. Traditionally, they appear near the middle of a line, but their placement may be varied to create expressive rhythmic effects. It will usually occur at a mark of punctuation, but there can be one of these even if no punctuation is present.

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Stanza

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From the Italian, meaning "stopping-place" or "room." A recurring pattern of two or more lines of verse, poetry's equivalent to the paragraph in prose. The stanza is the basic organizational principle of most formal poetry.