Poetry Terms Ap Lit.

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Alexandrine

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a verse of iambic hexameter

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Allegory

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A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface

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Amphibrach

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A metrical footconsisting of a long or accented syllable between two short or unaccented syllables, as condition or infected.

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Amphimacer

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an unaccented or short syllable between two accented or long syllables

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Anacrusis

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One or more unaccented syllables at the beginning of a line of verse that are regarded as preliminary to and not part of the metrical pattern

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Anapest

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metrical foot with two short or unaccented syllables followed by a long or accented syllable

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Antithesis

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sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure

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Apostrophe

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an address is made to an absent person or a personified thing rhetorically

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Ballad

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narrative poem, often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain

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Blank Verse

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Poetry written without rhymes, but which retains a set metrical pattern, usually iambic pentameter

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Caesura

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A rhythmic break or pause in the flow of sound which is commonly introduced in about the middle of a line of verse,

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Conceit

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An elaborate metaphor, often strained or far-fetched, in which the subject is compared with a simpler analogue usually chosen from nature or a familiar context.

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Concrete

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The essence of concrete poetry lies in its appearance on the page rather than in the written text

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End Rhyme

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A rhyme occurring in the terminating word or syllable of one line of poetry with that of another line

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Dactyl

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A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented or of one long syllable followed by two short

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Diction

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The choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language in a literary work

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Dramatic Monologue

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A literary work which consists of a revealing one-way conversation by a character or persona, usually directed to a second person or to an imaginary audience

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End Stopped Line

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Denoting a line of verse in which a logical or rhetorical pause occurs at the end of the line, usually marked with a period, comma, or semicolon.

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Epic Simile

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An extended simile elaborated in great detail

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Feminie Rhyme

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A rhyme occurring on an unaccented final syllable, as in dining and shining or motion and ocean

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Free Verse

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freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme

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Ghazal

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A monorhymed Middle Eastern lyric poem in which the first two lines rhyme with a corresponding rhyme in the second line of each succeeding couplet, thus a rhyme scheme of aa, ba, ca,

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Haiku

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consists of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables.

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Heroic Couplet

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Two successive line. of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter,

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Iamb

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it consists of two syllables, a short or unaccented syllable followed by a long or accented syllable

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Imagery

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Figurative language (sometimes colloquial) used to evoke particular mental images

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Internal Rhyme

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rhyme occurring within the line

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Italian Sonnet

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A sonnet containing an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba and a sestet of various rhyme patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd

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Limerick

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A light humorous, nonsensical, or bawdy verse of five anapestic lines usually with the rhyme scheme aabba

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Liquids

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Articulated without friction and capable of being prolonged like a vowel

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Loose Sentence

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a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows

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Ghazal

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A monorhymed Middle Eastern lyric poem in which the first two lines rhyme with a corresponding rhyme in the second line of each succeeding couplet, thus a rhyme scheme of aa, ba, ca,

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Haiku

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consists of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables.

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Heroic Couplet

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Two successive line. of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter,

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Iamb

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it consists of two syllables, a short or unaccented syllable followed by a long or accented syllable

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Imagery

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Figurative language (sometimes colloquial) used to evoke particular mental images

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Internal Rhyme

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rhyme occurring within the line

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Italian Sonnet

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A sonnet containing an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba and a sestet of various rhyme patterns such as cdecde or cdcdcd

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Limerick

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A light humorous, nonsensical, or bawdy verse of five anapestic lines usually with the rhyme scheme aabba

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Liquids

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Articulated without friction and capable of being prolonged like a vowel

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Loose Sentence

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a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows

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Lyric Poem

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usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music

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Masculine Rhyme

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rhyme occurring in words of one syllable or in an accented final syllable, such as light and sight or arise and surprise

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Meter

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A measure of rhythmic quantity, the organized succession of groups of syllables at basically regular intervals in a line of poetry

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Metonymy

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involving the substitution of one noun for another of which it is an attribute or which is closely associated with

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Molossus

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In Greek and Latin verse, a metrical foot consisting of three long syllables.

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Narrative

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The narration of an event or story, stressing details of plot, incident and action

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Octave

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A stanza of eight lines

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Octosyllabic Couplet

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A stanza in which each of the two lines contains eight syllables

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Oral Tradition

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messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another

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Ottava Rima

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A stanza of eight lines of iambic pentameter rhymed a b a b a b c c.

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Pantoum

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composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next

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Parellism

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to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern

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Periodic Sentence

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a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its end

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Phonetic Intensive

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A word whose sound to some degree suggests its meaning

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Plosives

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peech sound produced by complete closure of the oral passage and subsequent release accompanied by a burst of air, as in the sound

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Pyrrhic

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A metrical foot having two short or unaccented syllables

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Quattrain

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A four line stanza

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Rhyme Royal

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A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme a b a b b c c

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Rhyme Scheme

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The pattern made by placing words which end in similar sounds at the ends of lines

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Rhythm

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specific kind of metrical pattern or flow

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Rondeau

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lyrical poem of French origin having 13 or sometimes 10 lines with two rhymes throughout and with the opening phrase repeated twice as a refrain

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Run-on-line

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A line which ends before grammatical and semantic unity has been achieved and where the sense therefore carries on to the next line without a pause

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Sapphic

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a stanza of three such verses followed by a verse consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee or trochee

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Sestet

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stanza containing six lines

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Sestina

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consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.

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Situational Irony

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results from recognizing the oddness or unfairness of a given situation

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Slant Rhyme

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is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved

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Spenserian Sonnet

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rhyme scheme is, abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

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Spondee

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a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables

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Stanza

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a unit within a larger poem

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Syllabic Verse

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is a poetic form having a fixed number of syllables per line or stanza regardless of the number of stresses that are present

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Terza Rima

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three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d

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Trochee

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a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one

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Verbal Irony

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irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers

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Villanelle

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The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. A villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercets and one concluding quatrain