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Poetry Glossary

Accentual-syllabic verse
Meter in which each line the number of stresses (accents) may vary, but the total number of
syllables within each line is fixed.
Accentual verse
Verse whose meter is determined by the number of stressed (accented) syllablesregardless
of the total number of syllablesin each line.
Allegory
An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry
figurative meaning.
Alliteration
The repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or
verse line.
Allusion
A brief, intentional reference to an event or something.
Ambiguity
A word, statement, or situation with two or more possible meanings is said to be ambiguous.
Anachronism
Someone or something placed in an inappropriate period of time.
Anapest
A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.
Anaphora
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses,
or lines to create a sonic effect.
Anthropomorphism
A form of personification in which human qualities are attributed to anything inhuman,
usually a god, animal, object, or concept.
Antithesis
Contrasting or combining two terms, phrases, or clauses with opposite meanings.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants; sometimes called vowel rhyme.
Aubade
A love poem or song welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn.
Ballad
A simple song which tells a story, usually through dialogue. Characterised by uncomplicated
language and melodic refrain.

Poetry Glossary
Blank verse
Unrhyming iambic pentameter, also called heroic verse.
Caesura
A stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical
boundary, such as a phrase or clause.
Choriamb
Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables enclosing two unstressed.
Conceit
An extended metaphor that runs throughout the poem and dominates its meaning.
Couplet
A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length.
Diegesis
When a writer tells or recounts a narrative to the reader.
Dissonance
A disruption of harmonic sounds or rhythms.
Dramatic monologue
A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader.
Elegy
Often a melancholy poem that laments its subjects death but ends in consolation.
Elision
The omission of unstressed syllables, usually to fit a metrical scheme.
Ellipsis
The omission of words whose absence does not impede the readers ability to understand the
expression.
Emotive language
Words and phrases that evoke an emotional response in the reader.
End-stopped
A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break.
Enjambment
The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal
punctuation.
Feminine rhyme
A rhyme that ends with a final unstressed syllable.
Foot
The basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter.

Poetry Glossary

Hyperbole
A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration.
Imagery
Elements of a poem that invoke any of the five senses to create a set of mental images.
Irony
As a literary device, irony implies a distance between what is said and what is meant.
Litotes
Figure of speech where a positive is stated by negating its opposite.
Masculine rhyme
A rhyme that ends with a final stressed syllable.
Metaphor
a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not
literally applicable.
Meter
The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself.
Mimesis
When the writer shows the reader or enacts what is happening rather than telling.
Narrative
A poem that tells a story.
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense.
Oxymoron
A figure of speech that brings together contradictory words for effect.
Palindrome
A word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward and forward.
Paradox
As a figure of speech, it is a seemingly self-contradictory phrase or concept that illuminates a
truth.
Pathetic fallacy
The assignment of human feelings to inanimate objects.
Persona
A dramatic character, distinguished from the poet, who is the speaker of a poem.

Poetry Glossary

Personification
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as
if it were a person.
Pun
Wordplay that uses homonyms (two different words that are spelled identically) to deliver
two or more meanings at the same time.
Refrain
A phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza.
Repetition
When words or phrases are used more than once to emphasis
Rhetorical question
figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked to make a point rather than to elicit an
answer.
Rhyme
The repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line.
Simile
A direct comparison to something.

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