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Verse

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This term has two major meanings. It refers to any single line of poetry or any composition written in separate lines of more or less regular rhythm in contrast to prose.

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Paraphrase

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The restatement in one's own words of what one understands a poem to say or suggest. Similar to a summary, although not as brief or simple.

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Summary

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A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of a work. Similar to a paraphrase, but less detailed.

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Subject

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The main topic of a work, whatever the work is "about."

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Theme

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The central thought of the poem (A generally recurring subject or idea noticeably evident in a literary work. Not all subjects in a work can be considered this, only the central one(s).)

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Lyric Poem

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A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Often written in first person, it traditionally has a songlike immediacy and emotional force.

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Narrative Poem

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A poem that tells a story. Ballads and epics are two common forms of this.

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Dramatic Monologue

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A poem written as a speech made by a character at some decisive moment. The speaker is usually addressing a silent listener.

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Didactic Poem

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A poem intended to teach a moral lesson or impart a body of knowledge.

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Diction

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Word choice or vocabulary; refers to the class of words that an author chooses as appropriate for a particular work

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Lyric

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A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. It is sometimes written in first person but not always.

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Carpe Diem

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Latin for "Seize the Day"

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Types of Imagery

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Visual (see), Auditory (hear), Olfactory (smell), Taste (eat), Tactile (touch)

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Pied

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Patchy or splotched

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Dappled

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Spotted

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Stipple

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To draw or paint dots

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Haiku

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A Japanese verse form that has three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. More on page 769

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Poetic Diction

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Strictly speaking, this word means any language deemed suitable for verse, but the term generally refers to elevated language intended for poetry rather than common use.

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Allusion

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A brief, sometimes indirect, reference to a person, place, or thing. This word implies a common body of knowledge between reader and writer and act as a literary shorthand to enrich the meaning of a text.

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Vulgate

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The lowest level of diction, the language of the common people. Simply refers to unschooled, everyday speech. The term comes from Latin word meaning "mob" or "common people"

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Colloquial English

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The casual or informal but correct language of ordinary native speakers. Conversational in tone, it may include contractions, slang, and shifts in grammar, vocabulary and diction.

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Formal English

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The heightened, impersonal language of educated persons, usually only written, although possibly spoken on dignified occasions.

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Dialect

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A particular variety of language spoken by an identifiable regional group or social class.

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Simile

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A comparison of two things indicated by some connective, usually like, as, or than, or a verb such as resembles. This term usually compares two things that initially seem unlike but are shown to have a significant resemblance.

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Metaphor

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A statement that one thing is something else, which, in literal sense, it is not. This term creates a close association between the two entities and underscores some important similarity between them.

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Personification

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The endowing of a thing, an animal, or an abstract term with human characteristics. This dramatizes the nonhuman world in tangibly human terms.

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Apostrophe

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A direct address to someone or something. In the term, a speaker may address an inanimate object, a dead or absent person, an abstract thing, or a spirit.

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Overstatement

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Also called hyperbole. Exaggeration used to emphasize a point.

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Understatement

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An ironic figure of speech that deliberately describes something in a way that is less than the the case.

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Metonymy

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Figure of speech in which the name of a thing is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.

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Synecdoche

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The use of a significant part of a thing to stand for the whole of it, or vice versa.

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Paradox

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A statement that at first strikes one as self-contradictory, but that on reflection reveals some deeper sense; is often achieved by a play on words.

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Alliteration

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The repetition of a consonant sounds in a line of verse or prose. Can be used at the beginning of words or internally on stressed syllables.

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Assonance

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The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rime. This may occur initially or internally.

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Cacophony

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A harsh, discordant sound often mirroring the meaning of the context in which it is used.

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Euphony

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The harmonious effect when the sounds of the words connect with the meaning in a way pleasing to the ear and mind.

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Onomatopoeia

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An attempt to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates the sound associated with it.

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Haiku

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In Japanese, means beginning verse

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Villanelle

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Consists of 19 lines, 5 tercets, and 1 quatrain. The 1st and 3rd lines are repeated in a particular pattern.

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Form

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In a general sense, this is the means by which a literary work expresses its content. In poetry, this is usually used to describe the design of a poem.

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Closed Form

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A generic term that describes poetry written in a pattern of meter, rime, lines, or stanzas. This adheres to a set structure.

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Open Form

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Verse that has no set scheme-no regular meter, time, or stanzaic pattern. This has also been called free verse.

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Blank Verse

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Contains five iambic feet per line (iambic pentameter) and is not rimed.

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Couplet

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A two-line stanza in poetry, usually rimed and with lines of equal length.

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Quatrain

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A stanza consisting of four lines, it is the most common stanza form used in English-language poetry.

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Epic

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A long narrative poem tracing the adventures of a popular hero. These are usually written in a consistent form and meter throughout.

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Epigram

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A very short, comic poem, often turning at the end with some sharp wit or unexpected stinger.

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Sonnet

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A fixed form of fourteen lines, traditionally written in iambic pentameter and rimed throughout.

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Italian Sonnet

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Also called Petrarchan sonnet, it rimes the octave (the first eight lines) a b b a a b b a; the sestet (the last six lines) may follow any time pattern, as long as it does not end in a couplet. The poem traditionally turns, or shifts in mood or tone, after the octave.

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English Sonnet

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Also called Shakespearean sonnet, it has the following rime scheme organized into three quatrains and a concluding couplet: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. The poem may turn- that is, shift in mood or tone- between any of the rime clusters.

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Prose Poetry

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Poetic language printed in prose paragraphs, but displaying the careful attention to sound, imagery, and figurative language characteristic of poetry.

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Free Verse

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From the French verse libre. This is poetry who lines follow no consistent meter. It may be rimed, but usually is not. In the last hundred years, this has become a common practice.

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Concrete Poetry

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A visual poetry composed exclusively for the page in which a picture or image is made of printed letters or words. This attempts to blur the line between language and visual objects, usually relying on puns and cleverness.

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Exact Rhyme

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Rhyme in which sounds following the initial letters of words are identical in sound, "said/bed; wealthily/stealthily"

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Slant Rhyme

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Final consonant sounds are the same but vowel sounds are different, "gone/thin"

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Consonance

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(a type of slant rhyme) words/phrases have the same beginning and ending consonant sounds but a different vowel, "chitter/chatter"

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Stress

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An emphasis, or accent, placed on a syllable in speech. The unstressed syllable in a line of verse is called the slack syllable.

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Rhythm

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The recurring pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem. A fixed rhythm in a poem is called meter.

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Scansion

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A practice used to describe rhythmic patterns in a poem by separating the metrical feet, counting the syllables, marking the accents, and indicating the cesuras.

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Cesura or caesura

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A light but definite pause within a line of verse. These often appear near the middle of a line, but their placement may be varied for rhythmic effect.

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Enjambment

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A line of verse that does not end in punctuation, but carries on to the next line.

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End-stopped line

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A line of verse that ends in a full pause, often indicated by a mark of punctuation.

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Foot

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The basic unit of measurement in metrical poetry. Each separate meter is identified by the pattern and order of stressed and unstressed syllables in its foot.

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Iamb

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A metrical foot in verse in which an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one. This is the most common meter used in English poetry.

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Iambic Pentameter

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The most common meter in English verse, five iambic feet per line. Many mixed forms, such as the sonnet and heroic couplets, employ this.

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Trochee

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A stressed, unstressed pattern of syllables Example: oompah

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Rime

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Two or more words that contain an identical or similar vowel sound, usually accented, with following consonant sounds (if any) identical as well (woo and stew). An exact rime is a full rime in which the sounds following the initial letters of the words are identical in a sound (follow or hollow).

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End Rime

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Rime that occurs at the ends of lines, rather than within them. This is the most common kind of rime in English-language poetry.

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Internal Rime

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Rime that occurs within a line of poetry, as opposed to end rime.

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Masculine Rime

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Either, a rime of one-syllable words (fox and socks) or- in polysyllabic words- a rime on the stressed final syllables (con-trive and sur-vive).

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Feminine Rhyme

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A rime of two or more syllables with stress on a syllable other than the last (tur-tle and fer-tile).

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Eye Rime

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A "false" rime in which the spelling of the words is alike, but the pronunciations differ (daughter and laughter).

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