| satire | a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform |
| scansion | the process of measuring verse, of marking accented and unaccented syllables |
| sentimental poetry | poetry aimed primarily at stimulating the emotions rather than at communication experience honestly and freshly |
| sestet | a six line stanza. the last six lines of a sonnet structured on the Italian model |
| simile | a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike |
| sonnet | a fixed form of fourteen lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rime scheme conforming to or approximation one of two main types, Italian or English |
| spondee | a metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally accented |
| stanza | a group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the poem |
| structure | the internal organization of a poem's content |
| symbol | a figure of speech in which something means more than what it is |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used for thw whole |
| tetrameter | a metrical line containing four feet |
| theme | the central idea of a literary work |
| tone | a writer's or speaker's attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself |
| total meaning | the total experience communicated by a poem |
| trimeter | a meter in which a majority of the feet contain three syllables; anapestic and dactylic meter |
| triple meter | a metrical line containing three feet |
| triple rime | a rime in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the third last syllable of the words involved |
| trochee | a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable |
| trochaic meter | a meter in which the majority of feet are trochees |
| verse | metrical language; the opposite of prose |
| understatement | a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants |