Poetry

Terminology

 * 1) Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds in words such as "rough and ready."
 * 2) Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds without repetition of consonants. "M__y__ words l__i__ke s__i__lent rain drops fell ..." - Paul Simon
 * 3) Ballad: a poem in verse that tells a story.
 * 4) Blank Verse: unrhymed form of poetry. Each line normally consists of 10 syllables in which every other syllable, beginning with the second, is stressed.
 * 5) Canto: a main division of a long poem.
 * 6) Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds. Although it is similar to alliteration, consonance is not limited to the first letter of words: "... and high __s__chool girl__s__ with clear __s__kin __s__mile__s__..." - Janis Ian
 * 7) Couplet: two lines of verse the same length that usually rhyme.
 * 8) End rhyme: rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry.
 * 9) Enjambment: the running over of a sentence or thought from one line to another.
 * 10) Foot: the smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line.
 * 11) Iambic: an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable
 * 12) Anapestic: two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable
 * 13) Trochaic: a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable
 * 14) Dactylic: a stressed followed by two unstressed syllables
 * 15) Spondaic: two stressed syllables
 * 16) Pyrrhic: two stressed syllables
 * 17) Free Verse: poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.
 * 18) Heroic Couplet: consists of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought.
 * 19) Internal rhyme: occurs when the rhyming words appear in the same line of poetry: "You break my __eyes__ with a book at __buys__ sweet cake."
 * 20) Lyric: short verse that is intended to express the emotions of the author; quite often, these lyrics are set to music.
 * 21) Meter: patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
 * 22) Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning, as in //clang//, //buzz//, and //twang//.
 * 23) Refrain: repetition of a line or phrase of a poet at regular intervals, especially at the end of each stanza.
 * 24) Repetition: the repeating of a word, a phrase, or an idea for emphasis or for rhythmic effect within a poem or prose. "His laugh, his dare, his shrug / sag ghostlike ..."
 * 25) Rhyme: the similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words.
 * 26) Rhythm: the ordered or free occurrences of sound in poetry. Ordered or regular rhythm is called meter. Free occurrence of sound is called free verse.
 * 27) Sonnet: a poem consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter. There are two popular forms of the sonnet, the Italian (or Petrarchan) and the Shakespearean (or English).
 * 28) Italian has two parts: an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), usually rhyming abbaabba, cdecde.
 * 29) English consists of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
 * 30) Stanza: a division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains.
 * 31) Couplet: two-line stanza
 * 32) Triplet: three-line stanza
 * 33) Quatrain: four-line stanza
 * 34) Quintet: five-line stanza
 * 35) Sestet: six line stanza
 * 36) Septet: seven-line stanza
 * 37) Octave: eight-line stanza
 * 38) Synecdoche: using part of something to represent the whole: "All hands on deck." (Hands is being used to represent the whole person.)
 * 39) Verse: a metric line of poetry. It is named according to the kind and number of feet composing it.
 * 40) Monometer: one foot
 * 41) Dimeter: two feet
 * 42) Trimeter: three feet
 * 43) Tetrameter: four feet
 * 44) Pentameter: five meet
 * 45) Hexameter: six feet
 * 46) Heptameter: seven feet
 * 47) Octometer: eight feet

Definitions from: __Write for College__ (1997) by Sebranek, Meyer, and Kemper

Types of Poems (We Will Study)

 * Sonnet
 * Autobiographical
 * Image
 * Haiku
 * Voice
 * Free Verse
 * Music

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