 | Term | Definition |
| |
octameter |
a metrical line containing eight feet |
| |
onomatopoeia |
the use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound |
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personification |
a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object, or a concept |
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paradox |
a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements |
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rhetorical poetry |
poetry using artificially eloquent language, language too high-flown for its occasion |
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rhetorical pause |
a natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing or syntax |
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sarcasm |
bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed |
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run-on line |
a line which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line |
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quatrain |
a four-line stanza |
| |
paraphrase |
a restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible |
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oxymoron |
a compact paradox, one in which two successive words apparently contradict each other |
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overstatement |
a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth |
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pentameter |
a metrical line containing five feet |
| |
rime |
the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words |
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refrain |
a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form |
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prose |
non-metrical language; the opposite of verse |
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rime scheme |
any fixed pattern or rimes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas |
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octave |
an eight-line stanza |
| |
prose poem |
usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse |
| |
rhythm |
any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound |
