accent: The vocal emphasis with which a syllable is spoken relative to the emphasis received by contiguous syllables.

accentual meter: More or less regular poetic rhythm; the measurable rhythmical patterns manifested in verse; or the "ideal" patterns which poetic rhythms approximate.

alliteration: Any repetition of the same sound(s) or syllable in two or more words of a line (or a line group), which produces a noticeable artistic effect.

amphibrach: A classical metrical foot consisting of a long syllable preceded and followed by a short one, rarely used in classical poetry either as an independent unit or in a continuous series.

anacrusis: (Gr. "the striking up of a tune"). One or more initial syllables which are not part of a regular metrical scheme.

anapest: (Gr. "beaten back," i.e., either a "reversed" dactyl or a verse begun with a "beat" of the foot.) A metrical unit in a quantitative verse, of two short syllables followed by a long one.

assonance: Sometimes called "vocalic rhyme," denotes vowel identity in the tonic syllables, sometimes supported by the same device in the succeeding unstressed syllables, of words whose consonants differ or if partly the same, avoid creating rhyme (grave/fate;votive/notice;glory/holy) and which (1) echo each other in the same line or in different portions of a poem, or which (2) appear at the end of successive or alternating lines.
ballad: The "folk," "popular," or "traditional" ballad is a short narrative song preserved and transmitted orally among illiterate or semiliterate people. (1)Ballads focus on a single crucial episode or situation. (2) Ballads are dramatic. (3)Ballads are impersonal.

ballad stanza: Independent poems of complex metrical pattern.

blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. The distinctive poetic form of our language; It is the medium of nearly all verse drama and of much narrative and reflective verse.

cadence: (1) The expressive melodic pattern (interrogatory, hortatory, etc.) preceding a pause or at the end of a sentence; (2) the rhythm of accentual phrase units; (3) a term used to describe the rhythmical flow of accentual free verse, Biblical poetry, and "poetic prose."

cacophony: The quality of being harsh sounding or dissonant; the opposite of euphony. May be used deliberately to reinforce meaning.

catalectic: (truncation) The omission of the last (generally unstressed) syllable or syllables in a line of conventional metrical structure. A line lacking one syllable of the normal number is called catalectic; one lacking two is called brachy catalectic.

acatalectic: (truncation) No syllable in a line of conventional metrical structure is lacking.

closed couplet: Two lines of verse, usually rhymed, composed of two lines of iambic pentameter -heroic couplet- syntax and thought are fitted neatly into the envelope of rhyme and meter. This form dominates the poetry of the neoclassical period.

closed form: A poem with obvious referential limits that form a complete frame of reference through structure, strategy, and content.

common meter: A type of stanza that is often used in hymns with lines one and three in iambic tetrameter, and lines two and four in iambic trimeter.

conceit: A trope that establishes a striking and elaborate parallel.

concrete poetry: A poem whose typographical arrangement and selection of typeface express a message complementary to or beyond the semantic meaning of the poem.

consonance: The close repetition of similar or identical consonants of words whose main vowels differ.

couplet: Two lines of verse, rhymed or unrhymed, that share the same base meter and which usually form a complete grammatical and logical structure.

dactyl: A foot of three syllables that is more common in Classical poetry than in modern poetry.

dimeter: A term that, according to Classical prosody, originally meant a measure of four feet, but which is interpreted by modern prosodists as a two foot line.

doggerel: Trivial light verse written in an uneven, irregular style usually containing obvious rhyme and rhythm.

elegy: A long formal poem mourning the dead.

elision: The omission of the final unstressed syllable in a regular line of verse.

end rhyme: A rhyme occurring at the end of lines.

end-stopped lines: A line ending that completes the line's syntax, meaning, and rhythm and thus stops the movement into the next line.

euphony: is a highly analytical style which ceaselessly dissects, catalogues, compares and contrasts; it aspires thereby to represent the polite discourse of urbane and elegant persons.

exact rhyme: a metrical rhetorical device based on the sound identities of words.

explication: formal, structural or textual analysis; examines poetry or any work of literature for a knowledge of each part and for the relation of these parts to the whole.

expressive variation: art is the manifestation of emotion now by expressive arrangements of line, form or color, now by a series of gestures, sound, or words governed by particular rhythmical cadence.

eye rhyme: a rhyme which gives to the eye(in spelling) the impression of perfect rhyme but to the ear(pronunciation) the effect of, at best, an approximation as in the near rhyme.(love-prove, flood brood)

falling meter: the rhyme of lines written predominantly in trochaic or dactylic feet. Is so called because the reader or hearer is presumed to feel, in each foot, a "descent" from a relatively stressed syllable to a relatively unstressed one.

feminine rhyme: when the stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one, the rhyme is feminine
art is intention is mimesis
but, realized, the resemblance ceases
[Poetry Handbook]

foot: A measurable patterned unit of poetic rhythm. The English foot is customarily defined by the orthodox as a measure of rhythm consisting of one accented syllable and one or more unaccented syllables.

free verse: in free verse the measure has been loosened to give more play to vocabulary and syntax. The bracket of the customary fool has been expanded so that mare syllables, words, or phrases can be admitted into its confines.

heptameter: a line of seven feel, metrically identical with the septenary and the fourteener. When divided into two parts, the heptameter becomes the familiar ballad meter or common measure of alternating four and three stress lines.

heroic couplet: iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs.

hexameter: The hexameter in antiquity is used in lyric, gnomic, elegiac, philosophical, and satirical poetry but is primary the meter of epic. The classical hexameter is a line of six feet of which the first four may be either dactylic or spondaic, the fifth is a dactyl and the sixth a spondee.

iamb: a metrical unit, in quantitative verse of a short syllable followed by a long syllable. The iambic rhythm was thought in antiquity to be the nearest to ordinary speech; it was in it's six foot form, the standard meter for dialogue in drama. and for iambic meter: The regular poetic rhythm. The measurable rhythmical patterns, a short syllable followed by a long syllable, manifested in verse.
iambic pentameter: It is a line of five measures, or a line consisting of two equal parts (two and a half and two and a half feel).

initial alliteration: Any repetition of the same sound(s) or syllable in two or more words of a line, which produces a noticeable artistic effect. The most common type of alliteration is that of initial sounds especially of consonants or consonant groups.

initial rhyme: repetition of the same sounds or syllables in 2 or more words at the beginning of a poetic line. (especially of consonants and consonant groups)

internal rhyme: the repetition of similar sounds on accented syllables within a verse, particularly in the syllables just before the caesura and the end if the verse.

limerick: a humorous anecdote in verse. its usual pattern is a stanza of 5 anapestic verses. the first 2 and last 3 accents and rhymed together. the third and fourth verses of 2 accents each and rhymed together.

lyric: a short poem expressing emotion about a single theme.

masculine rhyme: the repetition of similar sounds in the final accented syllable of 2 or more verses.

meter: the pattern of rhythm by which the position of accented syllables may be anticipated by the reader.

monometer: verse of one accent. Ex: "to be"

monosyllabic foot: a foot with 1 syllable accented, 1 unaccented. a foot being a measurable patterned unit of poetic rhythm contained 1 accented syllable (or 2, as in the spondee) and 1 or more unaccented syllables.

narrative poem: one that tells a story. the 2 basic types are the epic and the ballad.

objective correlative: the means by which a writer produces an emotion in the reader and at the same time retains a kind of control.

octameter: a line of verse consisting of 8 feet.

octave/octet: an eight line stanza.

pastoral poetry: genre concerned with lives of shepherds. an idealization of the shepherd's life. creates images of peaceful and uncorrupted existence. unblemished nature, unspoiled life, country innocent.

prosody: the study or science of versification, and every aspect of it. includes meter, rhythm, rhyme, stanza forms.

prose poem: a composition printed as prose, but distinguishable by elements common in poetry (elaborately contrived rhythms, figs. of speech, rhyme, internal rhyme, assonance, consonance, and sorting images.)

pyrrhic/dibrach: a metrical foot comprising 2 short syllables, often used for substitution.

quantitative meter: verse with a rhythm that is determined by the duration of sound in utterance. classical poetry.

quatrain: stanza consisting of 4 verses, or a poem with 4 lines only. rhyme schemes very unrhymed--aabb, abab, abcb, abba, aaba.

refrain: sentence or statement (consisting of one or more lines) repeated at intervals in poem, usually at the end of a stanza.

rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhymes used in a poem, usually marked by letters to indicate correspondences. the 4-line stanza, or quatrain, is usually written so that the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth; this rhyme scheme is noted as abab.

rising meter: (found rising action and rising rhythm, but not rising meter) rising rhythm is when the stress falls on the last syllable of a metrical foot, the rhythm is called a rising one.

roundel: a poem in the pattern of a roundeau but consisting of eleven lines. Like the roundeau and the roundel, the roundel uses only 2 rhymes and a twice-repeated refrain.

scansion: the metrical analysis of poetry; the division of a line of poetry into feet by indicating accents and counting syllables. scansion is a method of studying the mechanical elements by means of studying the mechanical elements by means of which the poet has secured rhythmical effects. scansion involves consideration of the foot, length of the line (meter), and rhyme scheme of a group of poetic verses.

sestet: the last 6 lines of an Italian sonnet; any poem or stanza of 6 six lines.

sonnet: a poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns( rhyme schemes). a sonnet usually expresses a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment. the sonnet(a word adapted from a Latin term for "sound") was developed in Italy early during the Renaissance and was introduced into England by Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey (Henry Howard) in the 16th century. the stanza has continued to flourish on both sides of the Atlantic ever since.

Italian sonnet: a poetic form, also called Petrarchan, consisting of 14 lines divided into an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines), usually rhyming abbaabba, cdecde (or cdcdcd). One of the best-known of all Italian sonnets is Keats' "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer".

Petrarchan sonnet: a ref. to Petrarch (1304-1374), an Italian scholar and poet. Petrarchan is specifically applied to a form of the sonnet divided into an octave and a sestet. a Petrarchan conceit is an exceptionally elaborated and exaggerated comparison. Petrarchism, a style introduced by the poet in his sonnets, is notable for its formal perfection, grammatical complexity, and elaborate figurative language.

Shakespearian sonnet: poem of 14 lines arranged in 3 quatrains and a couplet. this stanza was developed by earlier poets (Wyatt and Surrey) during the first half of the 16th century; it's referred to also as an English sonnet, but the Shakespearian sonnet is so named for its greatest practitioner, who wrote 154 such poems.

Spenserian sonnet: a stanzaic pattern of 8 lines in iambic hexameter. the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. this form derives its name from Ed. Spenser (1522-1599), the English poet who created this pattern for The Faerie Queene. others who have used this form include Burns, Shelley, Keats, and Byron.

spondee: a foot of two syllables, both of which are accented (long): "fourteen, blue-green". spondees in English are usually composed of 2 words of 1 syllable each.

stanza: lines of verse grouped together to compose a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem. it's distinguishing features are the number of feet or stresses in each line, and the rhyme scheme.

stress: emphasis laid on a syllable or word.

substitution: the use of a foot other than that normally required by the meter. the classical rule of equivalence makes two short syllables equal to 1 long.

syllabic verse: the determining feature is the number of syllables in the line, not the stress nor the quantity.

terza rima: literally means "third rhyme" (Italian). an Italian form of iambic verse consisting of stanzas of three lines, the middle line of each stanza rhyming with the first and last of the succeeding. Rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, and so on.

tetrameter: a four-foot line.

trimeter: a three-foot line.

triplet: three lines of verse which form a unit, especially when rhyming together.

trochee: a foot of two syllables, of which the first is long or stressed, the second short or unstressed. ex: daily.

troubadour: a medieval poet who composed lyrics and music, traveling from one court to another in France, northern Italy, and in Spain.

vers libre: French free verse. verses in which various metrical forms, or various rhythms, are combined, or the ordinary rules of prosody are ignored.

verse: a line in a poem, especially one with formal structure, also a synonym for stanza.

villanelle: one of the most adaptable of the French forms, it consists of 19 lines on two rhymes in six stanzas, the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets, and both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.