This is a glossary of poetry. This is a glossary of poetry terms.

Basic composition

* Accent **

Vedic accent The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit, or Vedic accent for brevity, is traditionally divided by Sanskrit grammarians into three qualities, ''udātta'' उदात्त "raised" (acute accent, high pitch), ''anudātta'' अनुदात्त "not ...

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (1 ...

: the patterning of rhythm in poetry, or natural speech, without a distinct meter. *

Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Art ...

: a unit into which a poem is divided. ** Line break: the termination of the line of a poem and the beginning of a new line. *

Metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...

(or meter): the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Metres are influenced by

syllables A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...

and their 'weight'. * Metrical foot (aka poetic foot): the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of poetry. ** Arsis and thesis * Prosody: the principles of metrical structure in poetry. * Syllable weight and stress:

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar quan ...

refers to the duration of a syllable, which can be defined by the length of a vowel; whereas stress refers to a syllable uttered in a higher pitch—or with greater emphasis—than others. ** Stressed or long syllable ( Ancient Greek: ''longum''; notation: Long-foot-meter

): a heavy syllable ** Unstressed or short syllable (Ancient Greek: ''brevis''; notation: '' Short-foot-meter

''): a light syllable *

Stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have eit ...

: a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem. (cf. '' verse'' in music.) * Verse: formally, a single metrical line. (Not to be confused with musical verse.) ** ''Gāthā'' ** Verse paragraph: a group of verse lines that make up a single rhetorical unit

Other parts

Anceps In languages with quantitative poetic metres, such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, and classical Persian, an anceps (plural ''ancipitia'' or ''(syllabae) ancipites'') is a position in a metrical pattern which can be filled by either a l ...

: a position in a metrical pattern that can be filled by either a long or a short syllable. *

Caesura 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. ...

: a stop or pause in a metrical line, typically marked by punctuation. *

Canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...

: a long subsection of a long narrative poem such as an epic. * End rhyme (aka tail rhyme): a rhyme occurring in the terminating word or syllable of one line in a poem with that of another line, as opposed to internal rhyme. * End-stopping line *

Enjambment In poetry, enjambment ( or ; from the French ''enjamber'') is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped. The orig ...

: incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation. * Epigraph: a quotation from another literary work that is placed under the title at the beginning of a poem or section of a poem. *

Hemistich A hemistich (; via Latin from Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin and Greek poetry, the hemistich is generally confined to ...

: a half of a line of verse. * Internal rhyme: a rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines. ** Off-centered rhyme: a rhyme that occurs in an unexpected place in a given line. *

Refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the v ...

: repeated lines in a poem. *

Strophe A strophe () is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varyi ...

: the first section of a choral ode

Metrical feet

A metrical foot (aka poetic foot) is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of poetry. *

Monosyllable In linguistics, a monosyllable is a word or utterance of only one syllable. It is most commonly studied in the fields of phonology and morphology and it has no semantic content. The word has originated from the Greek language. "Yes", "no", "jump", ...

*Disyllable: metrical foot consisting of 2 syllables. ** Iamb (aka iambus): short-long **

Trochee In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one ...

(aka choreus or choree): long-short **

Spondee A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'. Spondees in Ancient Greek ...

: long-long ** Pyrrhic (aka dibrach): short-short * Trisyllable: metrical foot consisting of 3 syllables. ** Dactyl: long-short-short **

Anapaest An anapaest (; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consist ...

(aka antidactylus): short-short-long. (Example: “

The Destruction of Sennacherib "The Destruction of Sennacherib" is a poem by Lord Byron first published in 1815 in his '' Hebrew Melodies'' (in which it was titled The Destruction of Semnacherib). The poem is based on the biblical account of the historical Assyrian siege of ...

” by

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

.) **

Amphibrach An amphibrach () is a metrical foot used in Latin and Greek prosody. It consists of a long syllable between two short syllables. The word comes from the Greek ἀμφίβραχυς, ''amphíbrakhys'', "short on both sides". In English accen ...

: short-long-short ** Cretic (aka amphimacer): long-short-long. (Example: modern-day uses can typically be found in expressions like "In a while, crocodile;" as well as in

slogans A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

and advertising.) ** Molossus: long-long-long ** Tribrach: short-short-short ** Bacchius: short-long-long ** Antibacchius: long-long-short *Tetrasyllable: metrical foot consisting of 4 syllables. ** Tetrabrach (aka proceleusmatic): short-short-short-short ** Dispondee: long-long-long-long ** Paeon: a metrical foot of 1 long syllable and 3 short syllables in any order. ***Primus paeon: long-short-short-short ***Secundus paeon: short-long-short-short ***Tertius paeon: short-short-long-short ***Quartus paeon: short-short-short-long **Epitrite: a metrical foot consisting of 3 long syllables and 1 short syllable. ***First epitrite: short-long-long-long *** Second epitrite: long-short-long-long *** Third epitrite: long-long-short-long *** Fourth epitrite: long-long-long-short ** Ionic: a metrical foot consisting of 2 short and 2 long syllables ***Minor ionic (aka double iamb): short-short-long-long ***Major ionic: long-long-short-short ***Diamb: short-long-short-long (i.e., two iambs) ***Ditrochee: long-short-long-short (i.e., two trochees) ***Antispast: short-long-long-short *** Choriamb: long-short-short-long (i.e., a trochee/choree alternating with an iamb) *

Hexasyllable {{Unreferenced, date=May 2021 The hexasyllable or hexasyllabic verse is a line of verse with six syllables. The orphan hexasyllable is a metric specificity of certain French epic poems. This kind of verse in the Garin de Monglane's Song in a 14th-c ...

: metrical foot consisting of 6 syllables. **

Double dactyl The double dactyl is a verse form invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal in 1951.Anthony Hecht and John Hollander, eds. ''Jiggery-Pokery, A Compendium of Double Dactyls'' (New York: Atheneum, 1967) Form Like the limerick, the double dactyl ...

Octosyllable The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie de ...

: metrical foot consisting of 8 syllables. *

Decasyllable Decasyllable ( Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual ve ...

: metrical foot consisting of 10 syllables. *

Hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, an ...

: metrical foot consisting of 11 syllables. *

Dodecasyllable Dodecasyllable verse ({{Lang-it, dodecasillabo) is a line of verse with twelve syllables. 12 syllable lines are used in a variety of poetic traditions. Jacob of Serugh (c. 451 – 29 November 521), a Miaphysite Bishop of Batnan da-Srugh, also c ...

: metrical foot consisting of 12 syllables.

Forms

Verse meters

In a poetic composition, a verse is formally a single metrical

line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Art ...

. *

Monometer In poetry, a monometer is a line of verse with just one metrical foot. Example Monometer can be exemplified by this portion of Robert Herrick's poem "Upon His Departure Hence": Thus I Passe by, And die: As one, Unknown, And gone. See also *Troc ...

: a line of verse with just 1 metrical foot. * Dimeter: a line of verse with 2 metrical feet. *

Trimeter In poetry, a trimeter (Greek for "three measure") is a metre of three metrical feet per line. Examples: : When here // the spring // we see, : Fresh green // upon // the tree. See also * Anapaest * Dactyl * Tristich * Triadic-line poetry Tria ...

: a line of verse with 3 metrical feet. *

Tetrameter In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot can vary, as follows: * ''Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, " The Destruction of Sennache ...

: a line of verse with 4 metrical feet. *

Hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It wa ...

: a line of verse with 6 metrical feet. *

Heptameter Heptameter is a type of meter where each line of verse contains seven metrical feet.Harmon, William, and Hugh Holman. ''A Handbook to Literature.'' Eleventh ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2009. 264. It was used frequently in Cl ...

: a line of verse with 7 metrical feet. * Octameter: a line of verse with 8 metrical feet. * Dactylic meter: any meter based on the dactyl as its primary rhythmic unit. **

Dactylic tetrameter Dactylic tetrameter is a metre in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four dactylic feet. "Tetrameter" simply means four poetic feet. Each foot has a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, the opposite of an anapest, some ...

Dactylic pentameter The dactylic pentameter is a verse-form which, in classical Greek and Latin poetry, follows a dactylic hexameter to make up an elegiac couplet. It consists of two halves, each consisting of two dactyls, for which spondees can be substituted in the ...

Dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable, ...

*** Golden line * Iambic meter: any meter based on the iamb as its primary rhythmic unit. **

Alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Rom ...

(iambic hexameter): a 12-syllable iambic line adapted from French heroic verse. Example: the last line of each stanza in “ The Convergence of the Twain” by

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

. ***

Czech alexandrine Czech alexandrine (in Czech ''český alexandrín'') is a verse form found in Czech poetry of the 20th century. It is a metre based on French alexandrine. The most important features of the pattern are number of syllables (twelve or thirteen) and a ...

***

French alexandrine The French alexandrine (french: alexandrin) is a syllabic poetic metre of (nominally and typically) 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each. It was the dominant long line of Fren ...

***

Polish alexandrine Polish alexandrine (Polish: ''trzynastozgłoskowiec'') is a common metrical line in Polish poetry. It is similar to the French alexandrine. Each line is composed of thirteen syllables with a caesura after the seventh syllable. The main stresses ar ...

Fourteener In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any sing ...

(iambic heptameter): line consisting of 7 iambic feet (14 syllables) ** Galliambic verse **

Iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

: line consisting of 5 iambic feet (10 syllables) **

Iambic tetrameter Iambic tetrameter is a poetic meter in ancient Greek and Latin poetry; as the name of ''a rhythm'', iambic tetrameter consists of four metra, each metron being of the form , x – u – , , consisting of a spondee and an iamb, or two iambs. There ...

: line consisting of 4 iambic feet (8 syllables) * Trochaic meter: any meter based on the

trochee In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one ...

as its primary rhythmic unit. ** Trochaic tetrameter ** Trochaic octameter **

Trochaic septenarius In ancient Greek and Latin literature, the trochaic septenarius or trochaic tetrameter catalectic is one of two major forms of poetic metre based on the trochee as its dominant rhythmic unit, the other being much rarer trochaic octonarius. It is u ...

* Arabic poetic meters: ** Basīṭ ** Hazaj ** Kāmil ** Mutaqārib ** Madīd ** Rajaz ** Tawīl ** Wāfir *

Anapestic tetrameter Anapestic tetrameter is a poetic meter that has four anapestic metrical feet per line. Each foot has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. It is sometimes referred to as a "reverse dactyl", and shares the rapid, driving pace ...

(aka reverse dactyl): a poetic meter that has 4 anapestic metres per line. *

Common metre Common metre or common measure—abbreviated as C. M. or CM—is a poetic metre consisting of four lines that alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet per line), with each foot con ...

: a quatrain that rhymes "abab" and alternates 4-stress and 3-stress iambic lines. This is the meter used in hymns and ballads. * Indian poetic meters: ** Chhand ** Kannada meter ** Mandakranta ** Mātrika ** Ovi ** Triveni ** Sanskrit meter ** Tamil meter **

Vedic meter Vedic metre refers to the poetic metre in the Vedic literature. The study of Vedic metre, along with post-Vedic metre, is part of Chandas, one of the six Vedanga disciplines. Overview In addition to these seven, there are fourteen less frequent ...

*** Triṣṭubh: a Vedic meter of 44 syllables, or any hymn composed in this meter *

Long metre Long Metre or Long Measure, abbreviated as L.M. or LM, is a poetic metre consisting of four line stanzas, or quatrains, in iambic tetrameter with alternate rhyme pattern ''a-b-a-b''. The term is also used in the closely related area of hymn metres ...

(aka long measure): a poetic metre consisting of quatrains (4-line stanzas) in

iambic tetrameter Iambic tetrameter is a poetic meter in ancient Greek and Latin poetry; as the name of ''a rhythm'', iambic tetrameter consists of four metra, each metron being of the form , x – u – , , consisting of a spondee and an iamb, or two iambs. There ...

with the rhyme pattern "abab". * Persian metres *

Quantitative meter In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set ...

: the dominant metrical system in which the rhythm depends on the length of time it takes to utter a line rather than on the number of stresses. * Traditional Welsh

Types of verse

* Accentual verse **

Accentual-syllabic verse Accentual-syllabic verse is an extension of accentual verse which fixes both the number of stresses and syllables within a line or stanza. Accentual-syllabic verse is highly regular and therefore easily scannable. Usually, either one metrical foot, ...

* Acatalexis * Adonic *

Aeolic In linguistics, Aeolic Greek (), also known as Aeolian (), Lesbian or Lesbic dialect, is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia; in Thessaly; in the Aegean island of Lesbos; and in the Greek colonies of Aeolis in Anatol ...

Glyconic Glyconic (from Glycon, a Greek lyric poet) is a form of meter in classical Greek and Latin poetry. The glyconic line is the most basic form of Aeolic verse, and it is often combined with others. The basic shape (often abbreviated as gl) is as fol ...

: most basic form of aeolic verse. * Alcmanian *

Archilochian Archilochian or archilochean is a term used in the metrical analysis of Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The name is derived from Archilochus, whose poetry first uses the rhythms. In Greek verse In the analysis of Archaic and Classical Greek p ...

* Asclepiad * Choliamb *

Dochmiac Dochmiac ( grc, δοχμιακός, from δόχμιος 'across, aslant, oblique', or 'pertaining to a δοχμή or hand's-breath') is a poetic meter that is characteristically used in Greek tragedy, expressing extreme agitation or distress. They a ...

Doggerel Doggerel, or doggrel, is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is deri ...

: a bad verse, traditionally characterized by clichés, clumsiness, and irregular meter. *

Free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defini ...

and '' vers libre'': an open form of poetry that does not use consistent of meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern, therefore tending to follow the rhythm of

natural speech In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

. *

Knittelvers Knittelvers (also ''Knüttelvers'' or ''Knittel'') is a kind of Germanic verse meter which originated in Germany during the Middle Ages. In Knittelvers, consecutive lines rhyme pairwise (AABB) and each line has four stresses. "Strict" Knittelver ...

* Heroic verse **

Riding rhyme Riding rhyme is an early form of heroic verse. It has been described variously as a couplet rhyme, in five accents, and as a decasyllabic couplet. It is derived from the rhythm of the poetry in parts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales depicting the pil ...

: an early form of heroic verse derived from the rhythm of the poetry in parts of '' The Canterbury Tales'' depicting the pilgrims as they rode along. *

Leonine verse Leonine verse is a type of versification based on internal rhyme, and commonly used in Latin verse of the European Middle Ages. The invention of such conscious rhymes, foreign to Classical Latin poetry, is traditionally attributed to a probably a ...

McWhirtle {{Unreferenced, date=August 2008 A McWhirtle is a light verse form similar to a double dactyl, invented in 1989 by American poet Bruce Newling. McWhirtles share essentially the same form as double dactyls, but without the strict requirements, mak ...

* Neo-Miltonic syllabics *

Political verse Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

(aka decapentasyllabic verse): iambic verse of 15 syllables. * Saturnian *

Anuṣṭubh ( sa, अनुष्टुभ्, ) is a meter and a metrical unit, found in both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit poetry, but with significant differences. By origin, an anuṣṭubh stanza is a quatrain of four lines. Each line, called a ''pāda'' ...

: a quatrain with each line (called a ''pāda'', or 'foot') having 8 syllables. **

Shloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

* Triadic-line

Verse forms

(A capital letter in any rhyme schemes below indicates a line that is repeated verbatim.) *

Blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and ...

: non-rhyming

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

(10-syllable line). It is the predominant rhythm of traditional English dramatic and epic poetry, as it is considered the closest to English speech patterns. Examples: "

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, ...

" by John Milton and “ Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens. *

Chant royal The Chant Royal is a poetic form that is a variation of the ballad form and consists of five eleven-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme and a five-line envoi rhyming or a seven-line envoi (capital letters indicate lines repeated verbatim). To add ...

: five stanzas of "ababccddedE" followed by either "ddedE" or "ccddedE." *'a Gra' Reformata': ten stanzas of ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABAC. Following the rhyme scheme of the

Villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet re ...

, but with 5 extra couplets just after each

tercet A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Examples of tercet forms English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem. A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same r ...

. * Cinquain: "ababb". * Clerihew: "aabb". *

Enclosed rhyme Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme) is the rhyme scheme ABBA (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines rhyme). Enclosed-rhyme quatrains are used in introverted quatrains, as in the first two stanzas of Petrarchan ...

(aka enclosing rhyme): "abba". *

Ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

: "aa ba ca da ..." *

Kural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' ( ta, திருக்குறள், lit=sacred verses), or shortly the ''Kural'' ( ta, குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each. The tex ...

: Tamil verse form *

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

: "aabba". *

Monorhyme Monorhyme is a passage, stanza, or entire poem in which all lines have the same end rhyme. The term "monorhyme" describes the use of one ( mono) type of repetitious sound (rhyme). This is common in Arabic, Latin and Welsh work, such as ''The Book of ...

: an identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic. ("aaaaa...") * Rondelet: "AbAabbA". * Rubaiyat: "aaba". * Sapphics *

Seguidilla The seguidilla (; ; plural in both English and Spanish ''seguidillas''; diminutive of ''seguida'', which means "sequence" and is the name of a dance). Accessed May 2008. is an old Castilian folksong and dance form in quick triple time for two pe ...

: Spanish-origin poem with seven syllable-counted lines, rhyming the second & fourth, and the fifth & seventh lines ("abcbded") **

Petrarchan sonnet The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Develop ...

: "abba abba cde cde" or "abba abba cdc cdc". *

Sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that en ...

: a complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of 6 stanzas of 6 lines each and a 3-line

envoi Envoi or envoy in poetry is used to describe: * A short stanza at the end of a poem such as a ballad, used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem. * A dedicatory poem about sending the book o ...

. * Shadorma: an allegedly Spanish six-line stanza, syllable-count restricted form, 3/5/3/3/7/5 ** Shakespearean sonnet: "abab cdcd efef gg". ** Simple 4-line: "abcb" ** Spenserian sonnet: "abab bcbc cdcd ee". **

Onegin stanza Onegin stanza ( Russian: онегинская строфа ''oneginskaya strofa''), sometimes "Pushkin sonnet'' refers to the verse form popularized (or invented) by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin through his 1825-1832 novel in verse ''Eugene ...

s: "" with lowercase letters representing assonant rhymes and the uppercase representing end-rhymes. *

Sprung rhythm Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. The British poet Gerard Manle ...

: a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of

. *

Tanaga The Tanaga is an indigenous Filipino poem, traditionally in the Tagalog language. Format The Tanaga consists of four lines with seven syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line --- that is to say a 7-7-7-7 Syllabic verse, with ...

: traditional Tagalog tanaga is "aaaa" *

Terza rima ''Terza rima'' (, also , ; ) is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets (three line stanzas) with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rh ...

: "aba bcb cdc ...", ending on "yzy z" or "yzy zz/"

Types of rhyming

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

is the repetition of

, typically found at the end of a verse line. *

Assonance Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in America ...

(aka vowel rhyme): the repetition of vowel sounds without repeating consonants. *

Broken rhyme Broken rhyme, also called split rhyme, is a form of rhyme. It is produced by dividing a word at the line break of a poem to make a rhyme with the end word of another line. Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem ''The Windhover'', for example, divides the wo ...

: a type of

enjambment In poetry, enjambment ( or ; from the French ''enjamber'') is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped. The orig ...

producing a rhyme by dividing a word at the line break of a poem to make a rhyme with the end word of another line *

Catalectic A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line. A line ...

** Acephalous line *

Chiasmus In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Greek , , "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of wo ...

: repetition of any group of verse elements (including rhyme and grammatical structure) in reverse order. *

Consonance In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpl ...

: the repetition of identical or similar

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

in neighboring words whose

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...

sounds are different **

Alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

: the repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or verse line. * Cross rhyme *

Holorime Holorime (or holorhyme) is a form of rhyme where two very similar sequences of sounds can form phrases composed of different words and with different meanings. For example, the two lines of Miles Kington's poem "A Lowlands Holiday Ends in Enjoyab ...

: identical pronunciation of different lines; in other words, when two entire lines have the same sound * Imperfect rhyme (aka half or near rhyme) *

Pararhyme Pararhyme is a half-rhyme in which there is vowel variation within the same consonant pattern. " Strange Meeting" (1918) is a poem by Wilfred Owen, a war poet who used pararhyme in his writing. Here is a part of the poem that shows pararhyme: :Too ...

Perfect rhyme Perfect rhyme—also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme—is a form of rhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions: *The stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent s ...

(aka full or exact rhyme) *

Syllabic Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...

Types of stanza

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have eit ...

is a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem. (cf. ''verse'' in music.) *

Alcaic The Alcaic stanza is a Greek lyrical meter, an Aeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC. The Alcaic stanza and the Sapphic stanza named for Alcaeus ...

: a 4-line stanza invented by the Classical Greek poet Alcaeus that uses a specific syllabic count per line and a predominantly dactylic meter. *

Ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

* Biolet * Burns * Chaubola * Cinquain *

Couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the t ...

: two successive rhyming lines ("aa"), usually of the same length (usually re-occurring as "aa bb cc dd ..."). **

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

Heroic couplet A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the '' Legend ...

: written in iambic pentameter. ** Poulter's measure: couplets in which a 12-syllable iambic line rhymes with a 14-syllable iambic line. *

Envoi Envoi or envoy in poetry is used to describe: * A short stanza at the end of a poem such as a ballad, used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem. * A dedicatory poem about sending the book o ...

(or envoy): the brief stanza that ends French poetic forms such as the ballade or

sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that en ...

. *

* Octave: an 8-line stanza or poem. *

Ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The otta ...

: an Italian stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, with a rhyme scheme of "abababcc." * Quatorzain *

Quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gre ...

: a 4-line poem or stanza * Quintain *

Rhyme royal Rhyme royal (or rime royal) is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced to English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer. The form enjoyed significant success in the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century. It has had a more subdued but continuin ...

: a stanza of seven 10-syllable lines, rhyming "ababbcc." * Sapphic * Sestain * Sestet: a 6-line stanza **

* Spenserian: consists of 9 lines in total—8 iambic-pentameter lines and a final

alexandrine Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French '' Rom ...

—with a rhyme scheme of "ababbcbcc." *

Tercet A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. Examples of tercet forms English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem. A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same r ...

(or triplet): a unit of three lines, rhymed ("aaa") or unrhymed, often repeating like the couplet. * Triolet: an 8-line stanza with only two rhymes, repeating the 1st line as the 4th and 7th lines, and the 2nd line as the 8th ("ABaAabAB"). *

: an Italian stanzaic form consisting of tercets with interwoven rhymes ("aba bcb ded efe...").

Genres

Genres by structure

* Fixed form (French: ''forme fixe''): the three 14th- and 15th-century French poetic forms: ** Ballade: three 8-line stanzas ("ababbcbC") and a 4-line

("bcbC"). The last line of the first stanza is repeated verbatim at the end of subsequent stanzas and the envoi. Example:

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

’s translation “

Ballade des Pendus The ''Ballade des pendus'', literally "ballad of the hanged", also known as ''Epitaphe Villon'' or ''Frères humains'', is the best-known poem by François Villon. It is commonly acknowledged, although not clearly established, that Villon wrote it ...

” by François Villon. ** Rondeau: a mainly octosyllabic poem consisting of between 10 and 15 lines and 3 stanzas. It has only 2 rhymes, with the opening words used twice as an un-rhyming

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the v ...

at the end of the 2nd and 3rd stanzas. **

Virelai A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three '' formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the l ...

* Found poem: a prose text or texts reshaped by a poet into quasi-metrical lines. *

Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or s ...

: a type of short poem, originally from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, consisting of three lines in a 5, 7, 5 syllable pattern. ** English-language haiku: an unrhymed

poem in the haiku style. * Lekythion: a sequence of seven alternating long and short syllables at the end of a verse. * Landay: a form of Afghani folk poetry that is composed as a couplet of 22 syllables. * Mukhammas * Pantoum: a Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets comprising a series of quatrains, with the 2nd and 4th lines of each quatrain repeated as the 1st and 3rd lines of the next. The 2nd and 4th lines of the final stanza repeat the 1st and 3rd lines of the first stanza. *

Pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

* Prose: a prose composition that is not broken into verse lines, instead expressing other traits such as symbols, metaphors, and figures of speech. * Rondel (or roundel): a poem of 11 to 14 lines consisting of 2 rhymes and the repetition of the first 2 lines in the middle of the poem and at its end. *

Sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

: a poem of 14 lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes; in English, they typically have 10 syllables per line. **

Caudate sonnet A caudate sonnet is an expanded version of the sonnet. It consists of 14 lines in standard sonnet forms followed by a coda (Latin ''cauda'' meaning "tail", from which the name is derived). The invention of the form is credited to Francesco Berni ...

Crown of sonnets A crown of sonnets or sonnet corona is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to one person, and/or concerned with a single theme. Each of the sonnets explores one aspect of the theme, and is linked to the preceding and succeeding sonnets by repe ...

(aka ''sonnet redoublé'') **

Curtal sonnet The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems. It is an eleven-line (or, more accurately, ten-and-a-half-line) sonnet, but rather than the first eleven lines of a standard sonnet it consists of pre ...

** Petrarchan (or Italian): traditionally follows the rhyme scheme "abba, abba, cdecde"; a common variation of the end is "cdcdcd", especially within the final 6 lines **

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

(or English): follows the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg, introducing a third quatrain (grouping of four lines), a final couplet, and a greater amount of variety with regard to rhyme than is usually found in its Italian predecessors. By convention, sonnets in English typically use iambic pentameter, while in the Romance languages, the hendecasyllable and Alexandrine are the most widely used meters. ** Sonnet sequence ** Spenserian sonnet *

Sijo ''Sijo'' () is a Korean traditional poetic form that emerged in the Goryeo period, flourished during the Joseon Dynasty, and is still written today. Bucolic, metaphysical, and cosmological themes are often explored. The three lines average 14� ...

* Stichic: a poem composed of lines of the same approximate meter and length, not broken into stanzas. *

: a poem whose meter is determined by the total number of syllables per line, rather than the number of stresses. * Tanka: a Japanese form of five lines with 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables—31 in all. *

: a French verse form consisting of five 3-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.

Genre by form/presentation

* Abecedarian: a poem in which the first letter of each line or stanza follows sequentially through the alphabet. *

Acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fr ...

: a poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically. Example: “ A Boat beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll. *

Concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse construction aggregate, aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after wa ...

(aka pattern): a written poem or verse whose lines are arranged as a shape/visual image, usually of the topic. * Slam *

Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

Spoken-word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics o ...

* Verbless poetry: a poem without verbs

Thematic genres

* Ars Poetica: a poem that explains the 'art of poetry', or a meditation on poetry using the form and techniques of a poem. *

Aubade An aubade is a morning love song (as opposed to a serenade, intended for performance in the evening), or a song or poem about lovers separating at dawn. It has also been defined as "a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or e ...

: a love poem welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

. Example: “

The Sun Rising The Sun Rising may refer to: * ''The Sun Rising'' (poem), a poem by John Donne published in 1633 * "The Sun Rising" (song), a 1989 single by The Beloved See also * Sunrise (disambiguation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun Rising, The ...

” by

John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathed ...

. *

Deep image Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary ...

Didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...

Dramatic monologue Dramatic monologue is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character. M.H. Abrams notes the following three features of the ''dramatic monologue'' as it applies to poetry: Types of dramatic monologue One of the m ...

Epithalamium An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form ...

(aka epithalamion): a nuptial poem in honour of the bride and bridegroom. *

Ecopoetry Ecopoetry is poetry with a strong ecological emphasis or message. Many poets, poems and books of poems have expressed ecological concerns; but only recently has the term ''ecopoetry'' gained use. There is now, in English-speaking poetry, a recogn ...

* Ekphrasis: a poem that vividly describes a scene or work of art. * Elliptical *

Epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

Folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology * Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or ...

** Folk ballad * Gnomic: a poems laced with

proverbs A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbia ...

aphorisms An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by trad ...

, or maxims. *

Hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn' ...

: a poem praising God or the divine (often sung). *

Lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somet ...

: any poem expressing deep grief, usually at a death or some other loss. **

Dirge A dirge ( la, dirige, naenia) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegie ...

** Elegy: a poem of lament, praise, and consolation, usually formal and sustained, over the death of a particular person. Example: "

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

" by Thomas Gray. *

Light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...

: whimsical poems **

Nonsense Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have ...

* Lyric **

Canzone Literally "song" in Italian, a '' canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a compositio ...

: a lyric poem originating in medieval Italy and France and usually consisting of hendecasyllabic lines with end-rhyme. **

Madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...

: a song or short lyric poem intended for multiple singers. ** Ode: a formal lyric poem that addresses, and typically celebrates, a person, place, thing, or idea. *** Horatian Ode *** Palinode: an ode that retracts or recants what the poet wrote in a previous poem. *** Pindaric Ode *** Sapphic ode **

Stev Stev is a form of Norwegian folk song consisting of four line lyric stanzas. The English version of the word is stave, meaning the stressed syllable in a metric verse. Various types There are various types of ''stev'': ''Gamlestev'' * gamlest ...

: a form of Norwegian folk song consisting of quatrain lyric stanzas. * Meditative *

Narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc.) ...

: a popular narrative song passed down orally. In English, it typically follows a form of rhymed ("abcb") quatrains alternating 4-stress and 3-stress lines. *** Folk ballad: unknown origin, recounting tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event. Examples: " Barbara Allen" and " John Henry" *** Literary ballad: poems adapting the conventions of folk ballads, beginning in the Renaissance. Examples: “

La Belle Dame sans Merci "La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy") is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called '' La Belle Dame sans Mercy' ...

” by John Keats and “

Annabel Lee "Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman.Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Squ ...

” by Edgar Allan Poe. ** Epic (or epos): an extended narrative poem, typically expressing heroic themes. *** Mock-epic: a poem that plays with the conventions of the epic to comment on a topic satirically. **

Epyllion A sleeping Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis">Theseus.html" ;"title="Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus">Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous e ...

: a brief narrative work written in

dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable, ...

, commonly dealing with mythological themes and characterized by vivid description and

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

. **

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

* Occasional: a poem written to describe or comment on a particular event. *

Panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

: a poem of great praise. *

Pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music ( pastorale) that depic ...

Eclogue An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics. Overview The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , ...

: a pastoral poem usually containing dialogue between

shepherds A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...

. ** Georgic * Recusatio: a poem (or part thereof) in which the poet claim that they are supposedly unable or disinclined to write the type of poem that they originally intended to, and instead writes in a different style.

Movements

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...

Flarf Flarf poetry was an ''avant-garde'' poetry movement of the early 21st century. The term ''Flarf'' was coined by the poet Gary Sullivan, who also wrote and published the earliest Flarf poems. Its first practitioners, working in loose collaboration o ...

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

* Beat: A movement that arose from San Francisco’s literary counterculture in the 1950s. Its poetry is primarily

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defini ...

, often

surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, and influenced by the

cadences In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (1 ...

of jazz music. * Black Mountain: A group of progressives in North Carolina associated with the experimental

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's education ...

in the 1940s and 1950s. Its poetic composition promoted a nontraditional style, following a

improvisational Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

, open-form approach, driven by the natural patterns of breath and the spoken word. *

Confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall in which the priest in some Christian churches sits to hear the confessions of penitents. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches, but simi ...

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

* Dark Room Collective * Fireside *

Fugitives A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

* Georgian *

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ...

Imagism Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism is someti ...

Metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

Négritude ''Négritude'' (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African ...

* New American * New Critic * New Formalist * New Historicist * New York School *

Objectivist Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement ...

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jam ...

* Romantic *

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

Other poetic devices

Allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

: a brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement; in other words, a

figure of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...

using indirect reference." * Anacrusis: brief introduction. * Anaphora: the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines to give emphasis. *

Apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

: an address to a dead or absent person, or personification as if that person were present. Example: " O Captain! My Captain!" by

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. * Blason: describes the physical attributes of a subject, usually female. *

Circumlocution Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning, or ambage) is the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical ...

: a roundabout wording. Example: In "

Kubla Khan ''Kubla Khan'' () is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to ''Kubla Khan'', the poem ...

" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge—“twice five miles of fertile ground” (i.e., 10 miles). * Epistrophe (aka epiphora): the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases or verses. *

Epizeuxis In rhetoric, epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, for vehemence or emphasis. A closely related rhetorical device is diacope, which involves word repetition that is broken ...

: the immediate repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis. *

Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

: a rhetorical

marked by implicit comparison, rather than direct or explicit comparison like in a

simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...

. In a metaphor, the ''

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wi ...

'' is the subject to which attributes are ascribed (i.e., the target); the ''vehicle'' is the subject from which the attributes are derived/borrowed (i.e., the source); and ''ground'' is the shared properties between the two.Cuddon, J. A. (1998) "Tenor and vehicle." In ''A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory'' (4th ed.). Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell. p. 904 ** Conceit: a typically unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor whose appeal is more intellectual than emotional. **

Extended metaphor An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact bet ...

(aka sustained metaphor): the exploitation of a single metaphor or

analogy Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject ( ...

at length through multiple linked tenors and vehicles throughout a poem. ***

Allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

: an extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning. Often, the meaning of an allegory is religious, moral, or historical in nature. Example: "

The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...

" by

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for '' The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen ...

. *

Periphrasis In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one inf ...

: the usage of multiple separate words to carry the meaning of prefixes, suffixes or verbs. * Objective correlative *

Simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...

: a figure of speech that directly/explicitly compares two things. ** Homeric simile (aka epic simile) * Syzygy: the combination of 2 metrical feet into a single unit, similar to an

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toge ...

Theory

* Descriptive poetics *

Historical poetics In film studies, historical poetics is a scholarly approach to studying film, which David Bordwell outlined in his book ''Making Meaning'' (1989).Ira Stig Bhaskar (2004), "Historical Poetics, Narrative, and Interpretation" in ''A Companion to Film T ...

Negative capability Negative capability is a phrase first used by Romantic poet John Keats in 1817 to explain the capacity of the greatest writers (particularly Shakespeare) to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads them into intellectual confusion a ...

Pathetic fallacy The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature that are not human. It is a kind of personification that occurs in poetic descriptions, when, for example, clouds seem sullen ...

Poetic diction Poetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the tim ...

* Poetic license * Porson's Law *

Resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual m ...

: the phenomenon of replacing a long syllable with 2 short syllables. * Robert Bridges's theory of elision *

Scansion Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are q ...

* Sievers's theory of Anglo-Saxon meter * Theopoetics * Weak position