| Term | Definition |
|---|
| ode | a long, lyrical poem, usually serious or meditative in nature, |
| elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. |
| caesura | a break or pause (usually for sense) in the middle of a verse line |
| lyric poem | highly musical verse that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker |
| epic poem | a long poem that tells the deeds of a great hero, such as the Odessy |
| narrative poem | a poem that tells a story. Usually includes characters, plot, theme, and conflict. |
| dramatic monologue | a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation |
| ballad | n. Any popular narrative poem, often with epic subject and usually in lyric form. |
| villanelle | a 19 line poem in which lines 1 and 3 of the opening stanza appear regularly throughout and the rhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abaa |
| idyll | a poem or prose work depicting rural or pastoral life; also, a carefree episode or experience. |
| pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds. |
| sonnet | a short poem with fourteen lines, usually ten-syllable rhyming lines, divided into two, three, or four sections |
| free verse | unrhymed verse without a consistent metrical pattern |
| cacophony | loud confusing disagreeable sounds |
| iambic pentameter | a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable |
| feminine rhyme | occurs when the rhyme ends on an unstressed syllable (i.e. "calling" and "falling") |
| alliteration | use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse |
| internal rhyme | rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry (i.e. "High and dry behind my stunning life...") |
| masculine rhyme | occurs when the rhyme ends on a stressed syllable (i.e. "today" and "sashay") |
| enjambment | The contiuation of meaning, without pause or break, form one line of poetry to the next. |
| light verse | a general category of poetry written to entertain, such as lyric poetry, epigrams, and limericks. It can also have a serious side, as in parody or satire |
| onomatopoeia | the formation of a word, as cuckoo or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. |
| rhyme scheme | a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem |
| euphony | any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sounds |
| assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." |
| consonance | the repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of a word, e.g., east, west, best, test, trust, burst |
| metaphor | a comparison without using like or as |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor |
| conceit | An elaborate metaphor or other figure of speech that compares two things that are startlingly different. |
| synecdoche | symbolism; the part signifies the whole, or the whole the part (all hands on board) |
| simile | a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with 'like' or 'as') |
| metonymy | symbolism; one thing is used as a substitute for another with which it is closely identified (the White House) |
| symbolism | the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. |
| litotes | understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary) |
| irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs |
| allusion | a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature |
| oxymoron | conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence') |
| paradox | a phrase or statement that seems contradictory but may be true (e.g., less is more) |
| petrarchan sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem consisting of two parts: the octave (or first eight lines)and the sestet (or last six lines) |
| Shakespearean sonnet | also called an English sonnet: a sonnet form that divides the poem into three units of four lines each and a final unit of two lines, usually abab cdcd efef gg |
| personification | representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature |
| trochaic foot | A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable. |
| dactylic foot | one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllable / U U |
| anapestic foot | a metrical foot in poetry that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed. |
| iambic foot | a metrical foot with an unstressed first syllable and a stressed second syllable |
| spondaic foot | A metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables. |
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