NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Glossary of poetry terms

Below is the glossary of poetry terminology. A glossary is a list of terms with the definitions for those terms. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ...

Technical means

Accent in poetry refers to the stressed portion of a word. ... Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line or stanza regardless of the number of syllables that are present. ... Aleatory (or aleatoric) means pertaining to luck, and derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling dice. ... Alliteration is a stylistic device, or literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ... In poetry, anacrusis is the lead-in syllables that precede the first full measure, while, similarly, in music, it is the note or notes (even a phrase) which precede the first downbeat in a group. ... Aposiopesis (from Classical Greek, á¼€Ï€Î¿ÏƒÎ¹á½½Ï€Î·ÏƒÎ¹Ï‚, becoming silent) is the term for the rhetorical device by which the speaker or writer deliberately stops short and leaves something unexpressed, but yet obvious, to be supplied by the imagination, giving the impression that she is unwilling or unable to continue. ... link titleAssonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a short passage of verse or prose. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer. ... Chain rhyme is the linking together of stanzas by carrying a rhyme over from one stanza to the next. ... Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry. ... Dissonance has several meanings, all related to conflict or incongruity. ... Enjambement is the breaking of a linguistic unit (phrase, clause or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses. ... In verse, a foot is the basic unit of meter used to describe rhythm. ... Half rhyme, sometimes known as slant rhyme, sprung rhyme or less commonly eye rhyme, is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved. ... Eye rhyme is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme. ... This article is about kenning as a poetic notion. ... Look up onomatopoeia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ... // Rhythm (Greek ÏÏ…Î¸Î¼ÏŒÏ‚ = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ... Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. ... Stichomythia is a technique in drama or poetry, in which alternating lines, or half-lines, are given to alternating characters, voices, or entities. ... Syllabic verse is a poetic form having a fixed number of syllables per line or stanza regardless of the number of stresses that are present. ...

Tropes

In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. ... A simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. ... Irony is a literary or rhetorical device in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is understood. ... In rhetoric, metonymy (from Greek beyond/changed and , a suffix used to name figures of speech from name (OED)) (IPA //) is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated. ... Look up Synecdoche in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Synecdoche is a figure of speech that presents a kind of metaphor in which: A part of something is used for the whole, The whole is used for a part, The species is used for the genus, The genus is used for... For the Figure of speech, see Ellipsis (figure of speech). ...

Measures of verse

Types of metre

Below, "short/long" definitions of a syllable of classical languages correspond to "unstressed/stressed" of English language. In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... A classical language is a language with a literary tradition that can be judged as classical. According to George L. Hart: [To] qualify as a classical tradition, a language must fit several criteria: it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own not... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

An amphibrac is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... An anapaest or anapest, also called antidactylus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A dactyl (Gr. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ... A Molossus is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A pyrrhic is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... In poetry, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables. ... A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ...

Tetrasyllables

In Greek and Latin poetry, choriamb refers to a prosodic foot of four syllables, of the pattern long-short-short-long. ...

Types of line

An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ... In poetry, a monometer is a line of verse with just one metrical foot, exemplified by this portion of Robert Herricks Upon His Departure Hence: Thus I Passe by, And die: As one, Unknown, And gone. ... In poetry, a dimeter is a metrical line of verse with two feet. ... In poetry, a trimeter is a metre of three metrical feet per line - example: When here the spring we see, Fresh green upon the tree. ... In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet: And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea (Anapaest tetrameter) (Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib) You who are bent and bald and blind (Iambic tetrameter, except for the first foot which is a trochee) (W... In poetry, a pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet: Be what you can if thus your heart so deem, For more the man will less the foible seem. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Heptameter is one or more lines of verse containing seven metrical feet (usually fourteen or twenty-one syllables). ... Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet. ... Poulters measure is a meter consisting of alternate Alexandrines and Fourteeners (12 and 14 syllable lines, respectively), often used in the Elizabethan era. ...

Verse forms

Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... The aisling (Irish aislinn), pronounced ashling, or vision poem is a poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry. ... An acrostic (from the late Greek akrÃ³stichon, from Ã¡kros, extreme, and stÃchos, verse) is a poem or other text written in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. ... A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. ... Rhyme royal is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. ... Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. ... A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. ... The chant royal is a poetic form that consists of five eleven-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d-e-d-E and a five-line envoi rhyming d-d-e-d-E or a seven-line envoi c-c-d-d-e... Chastushka (Ñ‡Ð°ÑÑ‚ÑƒÌÑˆÐºÐ°), a type of traditional Russian poetry, is a single quatrain in trochaic tetrameter with an abab or abcb rhyme scheme. ... In poetry, a cinquain or quintain is a five line stanza, varied in rhyme and line, usually with the rhyme scheme ababb. ... A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of humorous verse, typically with the following properties: The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known persons name The verse is humorous and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it... A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. ... A dactyl is a poetic foot of the form >-- (ON-off-off). ... Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general terms is poetic drama. ... Elegy was originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), but is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme) is the rhyme scheme abba (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines rhyme). ... Englyn (plural englynion) is a traditional Welsh short poem form. ... In poetry, an envoi is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... It has been suggested that poetic epigram be merged into this article or section. ... An epyllion is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. ... Free verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be... In poetry (and as the lyrics in songs), the ghazal (Persian/Arabic: â€Ž, Hindi: , Turkish gazel) is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain. ... A grook (gruk in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem. ... Haiku ) is a mode of Japanese poetry, the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku ), the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. ... A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, particularly for epic and narrative poetry. ... Kimo is a post-Haiku poetic form , consisting of three lines of 10, 7, and 6 syllables. ... The kyrielle is a poetic form that originated in troubadour poetry. ... Light poetry, also called light verse, is poetry that is less serious than other poetry to which it could be compared. ... A limerick is a five-line, often humorous and ribald poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear and Ogden Nash. ... Lyric can have a number of meanings. ... A McWhirtle is a light verse form similar to a double dactyl, invented in 1989 by American poet Bruce Newling. ... A monostich is a poem which consists of a title and one line. ... It has been suggested that Narrative poem be merged into this article or section. ... Nonsense verse is a form of poetry, normally composed for humorous effect, which is intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange. ... It has been suggested that Sicilian octave be merged into this article or section. ... Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ... Onegin stanza refers to the verse form used by Alexander Pushkin in his interpersonal epic Eugene Onegin. ... It has been suggested that Sicilian octave be merged into this article or section. ... The pantoum is a rare form of poetry similar to a villanelle. ... A paradelle is a modern poetic form which was invented by United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins as a parody of the villanelle. ... The Pantun is a Malay poetic form. ... A quatrain is a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines. ... A quatorzain (from French quatorze, fourteen) is an anamorphic or abortive poem or sonnet. ... Popular West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg performing for the US Navy. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Rhyme royal is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. ... A Rondeau is a form of French poetry with 13 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this characteristic verse structure. ... The Rondelet is a brief French form of poetry. ... Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for the collection of Persian verses known more formally as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ... The Sapphic stanza is a poetic form spanning 4 lines. ... Senryū (川柳, literally river willow) is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 or fewer syllables in total. ... The sestina is a highly structured form of poetry, invented by the ProvenÃ§al troubadour Arnaut Daniel the late 12th century. ... Shichigon-zekku (ä¸ƒè¨€çµ¶å¥) is the Japanese term for a poetry verse form (often of Chinese origin) consisting of four phrases each seven Chinese characters (kanji - æ¼¢å—) in length. ... Sijo is a modern term for a Korean style of lyrical poetry, originally called tanga (literally, short song). The sijo strongly resembles Japanese haiku in having a strong foundation in nature in a short profound structure. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers For the Saab automobile, see Saab Sonett, for the Japanese communications company see So-net. ... A Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet. ... The Shakespearean sonnet, also called the Elizabethan or English sonnet, is a sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. ... Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers For the Saab automobile, see Saab Sonett, for the Japanese communications company see So-net. ... Onegin stanza refers to the verse form used by Alexander Pushkin in his interpersonal epic Eugene Onegin. ... The tanaga is a type of short Filipino poem, consisting four lines with nine syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line. ... The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. ... Waka (å’ŒæŒ) or Yamato uta is a genre of Japanese poetry. ... The tanaga is a type of short Filipino poem, consisting four lines with nine syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line. ... Tagalog (pronunciation: ) is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ... A tercet is three lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem. ... Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. ... A terzanelle is a poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima. ... A triolet (IPA: , or ) is a poetic form. ... A triplet is a set of three items, and includes in particular: one of three babies in a multiple birth in lapidary, a preparation of opal as a gemstone, with a thin layer of opal backed with a dark material and covered with cap of clear quartz in optics a... A villanelle (or occasionally villonelle) is a traditional poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the late 1800s from the imitation of French models. ... The virelai ancien is a poetic form originating in France in the Middle Ages. ... The virelai nouveau is a poetic form that is both rare and difficult to use. ... Waka (å’ŒæŒ) or Yamato uta is a genre of Japanese poetry. ...

Periods, styles and movements

Categories: Poetry | Glossaries Surrealism in art, poetry, and literature utilizes numerous unique techniques and games to provide inspiration. ... The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College. ... The chansons de geste, Old French for songs of heroic deeds, are the epic poetry that appears at the dawn of French literature. ... Concrete poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. ... Cowboy poetry is a form of poetry that focuses on the culture, features and lifestyle of the West, both the Old West and its modern equivalents. ... Digital poetry refers to a wide range of approaches to poetry that all have in common prominent and crucial use of computers. ... See Epitaph Records for the record label An epitaph (literally: on the gravestone in ancient Greek) is text honoring the deceased, most commonly inscribed on a tombstone or plaque. ... Erasure poetry is created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and arranging the new text into lines and/or stanzas. ... Found poetry is the rearrangement of words or phrases taken randomly from other sources (example: clipped newspaper headlines, bits of advertising copy, handwritten cards wertwrwerwergreat, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight. ... Ezra Pound, one of the prime movers of Imagism. ... Libel is a verse genre primarily of the Renaissance, descended from the tradition of invective in classical Greek and Roman poetry. ... A limerick is a five-line, often humorous and ribald poem with a strict meter, popularized by Edward Lear and Ogden Nash. ... Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that does not attempt to tell a story, as do epic poetry and dramatic poetry, but is of a more personal nature instead. ... The Metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them. ... Medieval poetry was often preserved by mere happenstance. ... Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. ... The Movement was a term coined by J. D. Scott, literary editor of the Spectator, in 1954 to describe a group of writers including Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin, Donald Alfred Davie, D.J. Enright, John Wain, Elizabeth Jennings and Robert Conquest. ... It has been suggested that Narrative poem be merged into this article or section. ... William Carlos Williams, who was the only poet to be published as both an Objectivist and an Imagist The Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. ... The Parnassians were a group of 19th-century French poets, so called from their journal, the Parnasse contemporain, itself named after Mount Parnassus, home of the Muses in Greek mythology. ... Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. ... Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during performance before an audience. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centred around that city and which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetic avant-garde. ... Sound poetry is a form of literary or musical composition in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded at the expense of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; verse without words. By definition, sound poetry is intended primarily for performance. ... Scrypt (also known as script but mostly referred to as text) is a style of (or, the study or discussion of the style of) contemporary poetry popular on several hip-hop-oriented Internet message boards. ... A troubadour was a composer and performer of songs in particular styles during the Middle Ages in Europe. ... TrouvÃ¨re is the Northern French (langue doÃ¯l) version of troubador (langue doc), and refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadors but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France. ...

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