Poetry class - glossary

Glossary – freely adapted from
Accent – The vocal stress or emphasis placed on certain syllables in a line of verse.
Allegory – An allegory is a story operating on two levels simultaneously. The narrative acts as an extended metaphor with a primary or surface meaning that continually discloses a secondary or representational meaning.
Alliteration – The audible repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words.
Allusion – A passing or indirect reference to something implied but not stated.
Analogy – A resemblance between two different things, frequently expressed as a simile.
Anaphora – The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of a series of phrases, lines, or sentences.
Apostrophe – A figure of speech which consists of addressing an absent or dead person, thing, or an abstract idea as if it were alive or present.
Assonance – The audible repetition of vowel sounds within words encountered near each other.
Blank verse – Unrhymed (hence “blank”) iambic pentameter, the five-beat, ten syllable line.
Conceit – An elaborate figure of speech comparing two extremely dissimilar things. A complex and arresting metaphor, in context usually part of a larger pattern of imagery, which stimulates understanding by combining objects and concepts in unconventional ways.
Elegy – A poem of mortal loss and consolation.
Enjambment – The carryover of one line of poetry to the next without a grammatical break. A run-on or enjambed line is the alternative to an end-stopped line. The lineation bids the reader to pause at the end of each line even as the syntax pulls the reader forward. This creates a sensation of hovering expectation.
End-stopped line – A poetic line in which a natural grammatical pause (such as the end of a phrase, clause, or sentence) coincides with the end of a line.
Feminine rhyme – (also called double rhyme) A rhyme of two syllables, the first stressed and the second unstressed (trances/glances).
Foot – A group of syllables forming a metrical unit. The poetic foot is a measurable, conventional unit of rhythm. The most common feet in English versification are:
iamb: a pair of syllables with the stress on the second one as in the word adore.
trochee: a pair of syllables with the stress on the first one, as in the word árdŏr
dactyl: a triad consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones as in the word rádĭaňt
anapest: a triad consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one, as ĭn a blaze
spondee: Two equally stressed syllables, as in the word amén.
Free verse – A poetry of organic rhythms, of deliberate irregularity, improvisatory delight. Free verse is distinguished from meter by the lack of a structuring grid based on counting of linguistic units and/or position of linguistic features. Some of free verse’s primary features are nonmetrical structuring, heavy reliance on grammatical breaks, and absence of regular endrhyme..
Masculine rhyme - (also called single rhyme) A rhyme on a terminal syllable (Pan/man).
Iambic pentameter – A five-stress (or beat), ten syllable (decasyllabic) line.
Image – A mental representation of anything not actually present to the senses; a picture drawn by the fancy; broadly, a conception, an idea. A mental picture evoked through the use of figures of speech such as metaphor and simile; a representation in poetry of a sensation produced by sensuous experience.
Metaphor – A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. Language that implies a relationship between two things and so changes our apprehension of either or both. Dictionary definition: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another by way of suggesting a likeness between them. See simile.
Meter – Meter is a way of describing rhythmic patterning in poetry, of keeping time, of measuring poetic language. Pure accentual meter – This system measures only the number of stressed or accented syllable in each line. Example: nursery rhymes. Pure syllabic meter – This system measures only the number of syllables in each line. Quantitative meter – This system measures duration – the time it takes to pronounce a syllable – rather than contrasting stresses or accents. Accentual-syllabic meter – This system counts both the number of accents and the number of syllables in each line. Rhythm results from the interplay between them.
Metonymy – A figure of speech that replaces or substitutes the name of one thing with something else closely associated with it. For example, the pen is mightier than the sword.
Ode – A celebratory poem in an elevated language on an occasion of public importance or on a lofty universal theme.
Onomatopoeia – the formation and use of words which imitate sound, such as swish, bam, purr, quack, rustle etc.
Persona – The mask or character – the voice – created by the speaker or narrator in a literary work. These can be, for example, unidentified autobiographical speakers. Emily Dickinson called the speaker in her poems “a supposed person.”
Personification – The attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects, to animals or ideas.
Poetry – A magical, mysterious, inexplicable (though not incomprehensible) event in language.
Prose poem – A prose work that has poetic characteristics such as vivid imagery, cadence, concentrated expression, and non-literal language.
Quatrain – A four line stanza, probably the most common stanzaic form in the world.
Rhyme - Rhyme is a device based on the sound identities of words. It is repetition with a difference.
Exact rhyme - also called complete, full, perfect, true or whole rhyme. Such as odd/God, leaven/heaven. A rhyme that concludes a line is an end rhyme. A one syllable rhyme is masculine (oh/no), a two syllable rhyme is feminine (Plato/potato). A three syllable rhyme is called triple (wittily/prettily).
Slant Rhyme - also called approximate, half, imperfect, near, oblique or partial rhyme. Slant rhyme includes assonance (when the vowels of two stressed syllables sound similiar: love/have) and consonance (when the consonants sound alkiek but the vowels are different: love/leave). Rhyme helps to define and individuate a line of poetry even as it links it to another line or lines. It creates in the reader a sense of interaction between words and lines.
Rhythm- is sound in movement. It is related to the pulse, the heartbeat, the way we breathe, but it eludes definition. It rises and falls. Rhythm is the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that creates a feeling of fixity and flux, of surprise and inevitability. It is repetition with a difference. "Repetition in word and phrase and in idea is the very essence of poetry," Theodore Roethke said.
Simile – The explicit comparison of one thing to another, using the word as or like. Dictionary definition: a figure of speech by which one thing, action or relation is likened or explicitly compared, often with as or like, to something of different kind or quality. The function of the comparison is to reveal an unexpected likeness between two seemingly disparate things. Generally, simile is more explicit than metaphor and thus less evocative.
Stanza - The natureal unit of the lyric: a group or sequence of lines arranged in a pattern. A stanzaic pattern is traditionally defined by the meter and rhyme scheme, traditionally considered repeatable throught a work. A stanza may be any length.
Synaesthesia - a blending of sensations; the phenomenon of describing one se in terms of another ( seeing a voice, smelling a taste).


CHARM CHANT SPELL