Glossary of Poetic Terms

53 Pages·2010·0.63 MB·English

UNESPAR – Universida de Estadual do Paraná

Liberal Arts / Letras Português e Inglês

English and North A merican Literatures

Professor Alessandra Quadros Zamboni
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A however, long and short vowels referred to duration, i.e., how long they were held
ABECEDARIAN POEM (ay-bee-see-DARE-ee-un) in utterance.
An alphabetic acrostic poem; a poem having verses beginning with (See also Cadence, Ictus, Modulation, Rhythm, Sprung Rhythm, Wrenched Accent)
the successive letters of the alphabet. (Compare Caesura, Slack)
Sidelight: Although now often considered a learning exercise for
children, abecedarii were associated with divinity in ancient cultures. ACCENTUAL VERSE
(Compare Serpentine Verses) Verse in which the metrical system is based on the count or pattern of accented
syllables, which establish the rhythm. The accents must be normal speech stresses
AB OVO (ab OH-voh) rather than those suggested by the metrical pattern. The total number of syllables
See under In Medias Res may vary.
Sidelight: Most modern English poetry is a combination of accentual and syllabic
ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE (a-ka-day-MEE frwah-SEHZ) verse.
See under Poet Laureate (Contrast Quantitive Verse )

ACATALECTIC ACEPHALY (ay-SEF-uh-lee)
A term describing a line of verse which is metrically complete, i.e., The omission of a syllable at the beginning of a line of verse. Such a line is
not shortened by the omission of the ending syllable of the final foot. described as acephalous.
Acatalexis is the opposite of catalexis. Sidelight: An acephalous line might be an intentional variance by the poet or a
(Compare Hypercatalectic) matter of the scanning interpretation.
(Compare Catalectic)
ACCENT (Contrast Anacrusis)
The rhythmically significant stress in the articulation of words, giving
some syllables more relative prominence than others. In words of ACROSTIC POEM
two or more syllables, one syllable is almost invariably stressed A poem in which certain letters of the lines, usually the first letters, form a word or
more strongly than the other syllables. In words of one syllable, the message relating to the subject. Of ancient origin, examples of acrostic poems
degree of stress normally depends on their grammatical function; date back as far as the 4th century.
nouns, verbs, and adjectives are usually given more stress than Sidelight: Strictly speaking, an acrostic uses the initial letters of the lines to
articles or prepositions. The words in a line of poetry are usually form the word or message, as in the argument to Jonson's Volpone. If the medial
arranged so the accents occur at regular intervals, with the meter letters are used it is a mesostich; if the final letters, a telestich. The term acrostic,
defined by the placement of the accents within the foot. Accent however, is commonly used for all three. When both the initial and final letters are
should not be construed as emphasis. used it is called a double acrostic.
Sidelight: Two degrees of accent are natural to many multi- (Compare Abecedarian Poem, Serpentine Verses)
syllabic English words, designated as primary and secondary.
Sidelight: When a syllable is accented, it tends to be raised in ADONIC
pitch and lengthened. Any or a combination of stress/pitch/length A verse consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee or trochee. It is believed to be
can be a metrical accent. so named because of its use in songs during the Adonia, an ancient festival in
Sidelight: A semantic shift in accent can alter meaning. In the honor of Adonis.
statement, "Give me the book," for example, the meaning can be Sidelight: The festival of Adonia was celebrated by women, who spent two days
altered depending on whether the word "me" or the word "book," alternating between lamentations and feasting.
receives the more prominent stress. In metrical verse, the meter (See also Sapphic Verse)
might help determine the poet's intent, but not always.
Sidelight: In English, when the full accent falls on a vowel, as in ADYNATON (uh-DYE-nuh-tahn)
PO-tion, that vowel is called a long vowel; when it falls on an A type of hyperbole in which the exaggeration is magnified so greatly that it refers
articulation or consonant, as in POR-tion, the preceding vowel is a to an impossibility, e.g., "I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles."
short vowel. In the classical Greek and Latin quantitive verse,
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Sidelight: An adynaton can be expressed negatively, also: "Not all extended metaphor in that the literal equivalent of an allegory's figurative
the water in Lake Superior could satisfy his thirst." comparison is not usually expressed.
Sidelight: The term, allegoresis, means the interpretation of a work on the part
AEOLIC ODE of a reader; since, by definition, the interpretation of an allegory is an essential
See Horatian Ode factor, the two terms function together in a complementary fashion.
Sidelight: Probably the best-known allegory in English literature is Edmund
AFFLATUS (uh-FLAY-tus) Spenser's, The Faerie Queene.
A creative inspiration, as that of a poet; a divine imparting of (Compare Aphorism, Apologue, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Fable, Gnome, Proverb)
knowledge, thus it is often called divine afflatus. (See also Allusion, Metaphor, Personification)
(See also Helicon, Muse, Numen)
ALLITERATION
ALBA Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually
See Aubade consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within
a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly," or the line
ALCAIC VERSE from Shelley's, "The Cloud:"
A Greek lyrical meter, said to be invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
from about 600 B.C. Written in tetrameter, the greater Alcaic Sidelight: Alliteration has a gratifying effect on the sound, gives a reinforcement
consists of a spondee or iamb followed by an iamb plus a long to stresses, and can also serve as a subtle connection or emphasis of key words in
syllable and two dactyls. The lesser Alcaic, also in tetrameter, the line, but alliterated words should not "call attention" to themselves by strained
consists of two dactylic feet followed by two iambic feet. usage.
Sidelight: Though seldom appearing in English poetry, Alcaic verse (See also Euphony, Modulation, Resonance)
was used by Tennyson in his ode to Milton. (Compare Assonance, Consonance, Rhyme, Sigmatism)

ALEXANDRINE ALLITERATIVE VERSE
The standard line in French poetry, consisting of twelve syllables Poetry in which alliteration is a formal structural element in place of rhyme; it was
with a caesura after the sixth syllable. There are accents on the sixth prevalent in a number of old literatures prior to the 14th century, including Anglo-
and last syllables of the line, and usually a secondary stress within Saxon. In alliterative verse, the first half-line (hemistich) is united with the second
each half-line (hemistich). The English Alexandrine is written in half by alliterating stressed syllables; in the first half-line generally two (but
iambic hexameter, thus containing twelve syllables in six metrical sometimes three) syllables alliterate, while in the second half usually only one.
feet. Sometimes one alliterating sound is carried through successive lines:
Sidelight: The Alexandrine probably received its name from an old In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
French romance, Alexandre le Grand, written about 1180, in which I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
the measure was first used. In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Sidelight: The last line of the Spenserian stanza is an Alexandrine. Wente wide in this world wondres to here.
(See Poulter's Measure)
--The Vision of Piers Plowman, by William Langland, 1330?-1400?
ALLEGORY Sidelight: To facilitate maintaining the alliterative pattern, poets made frequent
A figurative illustration of truths or generalizations about human use of a specialized vocabulary, consisting of many synonymous words seldom
conduct or experience in a narrative or description by the use of encountered outside of alliterative verse.
symbolic fictional figures and actions which the reader can interpret Sidelight: By the 14th century, rhyme and meter displaced alliteration as a
as a resemblance to the subject's properties and circumstances. formal element, although alliterative verse continued to be written into the 16th
Sidelight: Though similar to both a series of symbols and an century and alliteration retains an important function as one of a poet's sound
extended metaphor, the meaning of an allegory is more direct and devices.
less subject to ambiguity than a symbol; it is distinguishable from an
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ALLUSION
An implied or indirect reference to something assumed to be known, ANACHRONISM (uh-NAK-ruh-nizm)
such as a historical event or personage, a well-known quotation The placement of an event, person, or thing out of its proper chronological
from literature, or a famous work of art, such as Keats' allusion to relationship, sometimes unintentional, but often deliberate as an exercise of poetic
Titian's painting of Bacchus in "Ode to a Nightingale." license.
Sidelight: An allusion can be used by the poet as a means of Sidelight: Anachronisms most frequently appear in imaginative portrayals with
imagery, since, like a symbol, it can suggest ideas by connotation. historical settings, such as a clock in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and a reference
Like allegories and parodies, its effectiveness depends upon the to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra.
reader's acquaintance with the reference alluded to. (Compare Hysteron Proteron, In Medias Res)

ALTAR POEM ANACLASIS
See Pattern Poetry In classical poetry, the exchange of place between short and long syllables in Ionic
feet to alter the rhythm.
ALTERNATE RHYME
See Cross Rhyme ANACREONTIC (uh-nah-kree-AHN-tik)
A term describing odes written in the style of the Greek poet, Anacreon, convivial
AMBIGUITY in tone or theme, relating to the praise of love and wine, as in Abraham Cowley's,
Applied to words and expressions, the state of being doubtful or Anacreontiques.
indistinct in meaning or capable of being understood in more than Sidelight: Francis Scott Key's 1814 poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was set
one way, in the context in which it is used. to the tune of a popular song of the day, "To Anacreon in Heaven," composed by
Sidelight: Ambiguity can result from careless or evasive choice of John Stafford Smith as a drinking song for London's Anacreontic Society. In 1931
words which bewilder the reader, but its deliberate use is often it was officially adopted by the U.S. Congress as the national anthem.
intended to unify the different interpretations into an expanded
enrichment of the meaning of the original expression. ANACRUSIS (an-a-KROO-sis)
(See also Denotation, Paronomasia, Pun) One or more unaccented syllables at the beginning of a line of verse that are
(Compare Connotation) regarded as preliminary to and not part of the metrical pattern.
(See also Procephalic)
AMPHIBRACH (AM-fuh-brak) (Compare Feminine Ending, Hypercatalectic)
In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of a long or accented (Contrast Acephaly)
syllable between two short or unaccented syllables, as con-DI-tion or
in-FECT-ed. ANADIPLOSIS (an-uh-duh-PLOH-sus)
Also called epanadiplosis, the repetition of a prominent (usually the final) word of
AMPHIGOURI a phrase, clause, line, or stanza at the beginning of the next, often with extended
A verse composition which, while apparently coherent, contains no or altered meaning, as in: "His hands were folded -- folded in prayer" or Keats'
sense or meaning, as in Nephelidia, a poem written by A. C. repetition of the word, "forlorn," linking the seventh and eighth stanzas of "Ode to
Swinburne as a parody of his own alliterative-predominant style, a Nightingale."
which begins: (Compare Anaphora, Chain Rhyme, Echo, Epistrophe, Epizeuxis,
From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through a notable Incremental Repetition, Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello
nimbus of nebulous noonshine, Verses)
Pallid and pink as the palm of the flag-flower that flickers with fear
of the flies as they float, ANAGOGE or ANAGOGY (AN-uh-go-jee)
(See also Macaronic Verse, Nonsense Poetry) The spiritual or mystical interpretation of a word or passage beyond the literal,
allegorical, or moral sense.
AMPHIMACER (am-FIM-uh-suhr)
See Cretic
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ANALECTS or ANALECTA ANISOMETRIC
Miscellaneous extracts collected from the works of authors. See under Stanza

ANALOGY ANTANACLASIS ( an-tuh-NAK-luh-sis)
An agreement or similarity in some particulars between things A figure of speech in which the same word is repeated in a different sense within a
otherwise different; sleep and death, for example, are analogous in clause or line, e.g., "While we live, let us live."
that they both share a lack of animation and a recumbent posture. Sidelight: Since the play on senses can be used to create homonymous puns,
Sidelight: Prevalent in literature, the use of an analogy carries the antanaclasis is related to paronomasia.
inference that if things agree in some respects, it's likely that they (See also Epanalepsis, Epizeuxis, Ploce, Polyptoton)
will agree in others.
(Compare Simile, Symbol) ANTHIMERIA (AN-thih-MEER-ee-uh)
See under Polyptoton
ANAPEST, ANAPESTIC
A metrical foot with two short or unaccented syllables followed by a ANTHOLOGY
long or accented syllable, as in inter-VENE or for a WHILE. William A collection of selected literary, artistic, or musical works or parts of works.
Cowper's, "Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk," is (See also Canon, Companion Poem, Cycle, Lyric Sequence, Sonnet Sequence)
a poem in which anapestic feet are predominately used, as in the
opening line: ANTIBACCHIUS (AN-ti-ba-KEE-us)
I am MON | -arch of ALL | I sur-VEY, In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables followed by a
short syllable.
Sidelight: In English poetry, with the exception of limericks,
anapestic verse is seldom used for whole poems, but can often be ANTICLIMAX
highly effective as a variation. The intentional use of elevated language to describe the trivial or commonplace, or
(See also Meter, Rhythm) a sudden transition from a significant thought to a trivial one in order to achieve a
humorous or satiric effect, as in Pope's, The Rape of the Lock:
ANAPHORA (uh-NAF-or-uh) Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Also called epanaphora, the repetition of the same word or Dost sometimes counsel take -- and sometimes tea.
expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, An anticlimax also occurs in a series in which the ideas or events ascend toward a
sentences, or lines for rhetorical or poetic effect, as in Lincoln's "We climactic conclusion but terminate instead in a thought of lesser importance.
cannot dedicate- we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow this Bathos is an anticlimax which is unintentional.
ground" or from Fitzgerald's, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: (See also Purple Patch)
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!
(See also Epistrophe, Symploce) ANTIMETABOLE (an-tye-muh-TAB-uh-lee)
(Compare Anadiplosis, Echo, Epizeuxis, Incremental Repetition, See Chiasmus
Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello Verses)
ANTIPHRASIS (an-TIF-ruh-sus)
ANASTROPHE (uh-NAS-truh-fee) The ironic or humorous use of words in a sense not in accord with their literal
A type of hyperbaton involving the inversion of the natural or usual meaning, as in "a giant of three feet four inches."
syntactical order of a pair of words for rhetorical or poetic effect, as (Compare Burlesque, Hudibrastic Verse, Oxymoron, Parody, Satire)
"hillocks green" for "green hillocks," or "high triumphs hold" for
"hold high triumphs" in Milton's, "L'Allegro," or from the same poem: ANTISPAST (AN-ti-spast)
Meadows trim, with daisies pied, In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables between two
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; short syllables.
(Compare Antistrophe, Chiasmus, Hypallage)
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ANTISTROPHE (an-TIS-troh-fee) APOCOPE (uh-PAH-kuh-pee)
The second division in the triadic structure of Pindaric verse, A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the end of a word, as in
corresponding metrically to the strophe; also, the stanza following or morn for morning.
alternating with and responding to the strophe in ancient lyric (Compare Aphaeresis, Syncope, Synaeresis, Synaloepha)
poetry; also, in rhetoric, the reversal of terms mutually dependent
on each other, as from "the captain of the crew" to "the crew of the APOLOGUE
captain." An allegorical narrative such as a fable, usually intended to convey a moral or a
(See also Epode) useful truth.
(Compare Anastrophe) (Compare Allegory, Aphorism, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Gnome, Proverb)

ANTITHESIS APOSIOPESIS (ap-uh-sy-uh-PEE-sis)
A figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting Stopping short of a complete thought for effect, thus calling attention to it, usually
thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases, such as, "He by a sudden breaking off, as in, "He acted like--but I pretended not to notice,"
promised wealth and provided poverty," or "It was the best of times, leaving the unsaid portion to the reader's imagination.
it was the worst of times. . . , " or from Pope's, An Epistle to Dr. (See Ellipsis)
Arbuthnot:
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, APOSTROPHE (uh-PAHS-truh-fee)
Also, an antithesis is the second of two contrasting or opposing A figure of speech in which an address is made to an absent or deceased person or
constituents, following the thesis. a personified thing rhetorically, as in William Cowper's, "Verses Supposed to be
(Compare Oxymoron) Written by Alexander Selkirk:"
O solitude! Where are the charms
ANTONOMASIA (an-tuh-no-MAY-zhuh) That sages have seen in thy face?
The use of a name, epithet, or title in place of a proper name, as An apostrophe is also a punctuation mark used to indicate the omission of letter(s)
Bard for Shakespeare. in an elision.
(Compare Cataphora, Metonymy) Sidelight: When the poet addresses a muse or a god for inspiration, it is called
an invocation.
ANTONYM (Compare Prosopopeia)
One of two or more words that have opposite meanings.
(Compare Homonym, Paronym, Synonym) APPROXIMATE RHYME
See Near Rhyme
APHAERESIS or APHERESIS (uh-FEHR-uh-sus)
A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the ARCADIA
beginning of a word, as 'twas for it was. A region or scene characterized by idyllic quiet and simplicity, often chosen as a
(Compare Apocope, Syncope, Synaeresis, Synaloepha) setting for pastoral poetry, from Arcadia, a picturesque region in ancient Greece.
(See also Aphesis) (See also Bucolic, Eclogue, Idyll, Madrigal)

APHESIS (AFF-uh-sus) ARCHAISM (AHR-kee-izm)
A form of aphaeresis in which the syllable omitted is short and The intentional use of a word or expression no longer in general use, for example,
unaccented, as in 'round for around. thou mayst is an archaism meaning, "you may." Archaisms can evoke the sense of
a bygone era.
APHORISM Sidelight: Spenser's The Faerie Queene contains a number of archaisms.
A brief statement containing an important truth or fundamental Syntactic inversions such as the hyperbaton can also provide an archaic effect.
principle.
(Compare Allegory, Apologue, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Fable,
Gnome, Proverb)
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ARGUMENT AVANT-GARDE
The subject matter or central theme of a work of literature or a The innovating artists or writers who promote the use of new or experimental
summary of the work, often used as a prologue to a drama, epic, or concepts or techniques.
narrative, as in Jonson's Volpone. (See Imagism, Impressionism, Objectivism, Realism, Symbolism)

ARS POETICA B
A treatise by the Roman poet, Horace (65BC-8BC), setting forth
principles of poetic composition. The term is also applied to other BACCHIUS ( ba-KEE-us)
authoritative works dealing with the art of poetry. In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of a short syllable followed by two
long syllables.
ARSIS
The accented part of a poetic foot; the point where an ictus is put. BALLAD
Sidelight: In musical terminology, the arsis is the upbeat, the A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The
unaccented part of a measure; due to an early confusion which was story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but frequently
later recognized but never reversed, the meaning of the term is the deals with folk-lore or popular legends. The plot is the dominant element, dealing
opposite when used in reference to the poetic foot. with a single crucial episode, narrated impersonally, with frequent use of
(Contrast Thesis) repetition. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but
always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and,
ASSONANCE while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e.,
The relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of
sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus the second and fourth lines rhyming, an xbyb rhyme scheme.
a vowel rhyme, as in the words, date and fade. Sidelight: Many old-time ballads were written and performed by minstrels
Sidelight: The effective use of internal assonantal sounds is attached to noblemen's courts. Folk ballads are of unknown origin and are usually
displayed throughout Byron's, "She Walks in Beauty." lacking in artistic finish. Meant to be sung, but often studied as poetry, the texts
(See also Euphony, Near Rhyme, Resonance, Sound Devices) are independent of the melodies, which are often used for a number of different
(Compare Alliteration, Consonance, Modulation, Rhyme) ballads. Because they are handed down by oral tradition, folk ballads are subject
to variations and continual change. Other types of ballads include those
ASYNDETON (uh-SIN-duh-tahn) transferred from rural to urban settings, and literary ballads, combining the
The omission of conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words natures of epic and lyric poetry, which are written by known authors, often in the
and phrases, as in "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." style and form of the folk ballad, such as Keats', "La Belle Dame sans Merci" or
(Contrast Polysyndeton) Scott's, "Jock o' Hazeldean."
(See also Broadside Ballad, Lay, Tragedy)
AUBADE (OH-bahd) (Compare Chanson de Geste, Common Measure, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)
A song or poem with a motif of greeting the dawn, often involving
the parting of lovers, or a call for a beloved to arise, as in BALLADE (ba-LAHD)
Shakespeare's, "Song," from Cymbeline. Frequently represented in French poetry, a fixed form consisting of three seven or
Sidelight: The dawn song is also known as an alba (Provençal), eight-line stanzas using no more than three recurrent rhymes, with an identical
aube (Old French), and tagalied (German). refrain after each stanza and a closing envoi repeating the rhymes of the last four
(Compare Serenade) lines of the stanza. A variation containing six stanzas is called a double ballade.
Sidelight: The ballade was prominent in French literature from the 14th to the
AUBE 16th century and was favored by many poets, including Francois Villon, for
See Aubade example, in poems such as, "Des Dames du Temps Jadis." In the nineteenth
century it was popular with poets like Verlaine and Baudelaire. In English
literature, Chaucer wrote ballades and some late-nineteenth century poets also
used the form.
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(Compare Chant Royale) found in the well-known lines from Act IV, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's The Merchant
of Venice:
BALLAD METER The qua | lity | of mer | cy is | not strain'd,
See Ballad It drop | peth as | the gen | tle rain | from heaven
Upon | the place | beneath; | it is | twice blessed:
BARD It bles | seth him | that gives | and him | that takes;
An ancient composer, singer or declaimer of epic verse. Sidelight: Blank verse and free verse are often misunderstood or confused. A
Sidelight: Today the term is popularly applied to poets of good way to remember the difference is to think of the word blank as meaning
significant repute as a title of honor, with William Shakespeare being that the ends of the lines where rhymes would normally appear are "blank," i.e.,
known as "The Bard of Avon" and Robert Burns as "The Bard of devoid of rhyme; the free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns
Ayrshire." of traditional versification.
(See also Metrist, Poet, Sonneteer, Versifier, Wordsmith) (See also Verse Paragraph)
(Compare Minstrel, Troubadour)
BOUTS-RIMES (boo-REEM)
BAROQUE (buh-ROHK) An 18th century parlor game in which a list of rhyming words was drawn up and
An elaborate, extravagantly complex, sometimes grotesque, style of handed to the players, who had to make a poem from the list keeping the rhymes
artistic expression prevalent in the late 16th to early 18th centuries. in their original order.
The baroque influence on poetry was expressed by Euphuism in (See also Crambo)
England, Marinism in Italy, and Gongorism in Spain.
BRETON LAY
BATHOS See Lay
An unintentional shift from the sublime to the ridiculous which can
result from the use of overly elevated language to describe trivial BROADSIDE BALLAD
subject matter, or from an exaggerated attempt at pathos which A ballad written in doggerel, printed on a single piece of paper and sold for a
misfires to the point of being ludicrous. Bathos can be viewed as an penny or two on English street corners in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
unintentional anticlimax. The name of the tune to which they were to be sung was indicated on the sheet.
The subject matter of broadside ballads covered a wide range of current,
BEAST FABLE or BEAST EPIC historical, or simply curious events and also extended to moral exhortations and
See under Fable religious propaganda.
Sidelight: The rogue, Autolycus, in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, is a peddler
BINARY METER whose wares include broadside ballads.
A meter which has two syllables per foot, as in iambic, trochaic,
pyrrhic, and spondaic meters. Binary meters are sometimes referred BROKEN RHYME
to as duple or double meters. Also called split rhyme, a rhyme produced by dividing a word at the line break to
(Compare Ternary Meter) make a rhyme with the end word of another line. In Hopkins', "The Windhover,"
for example, he divided kingdom at the end of the first line to rhyme with the word
BLANK VERSE wing ending the fourth line.
Poetry written without rhymes, but which retains a set metrical
pattern, usually iambic pentameter (five iambic feet per line) in BUCOLIC
English verse. Since it is a very flexible form, the writer not being Derived from the Greek word for herdsman, an ancient term for a poem dealing
hampered in the expression of thought or syntactic structure by the with a pastoral subject.
need to rhyme, it is used extensively in narrative and dramatic (See also Arcadia, Eclogue, Idyll, Madrigal)
poetry. In lyric poetry, blank verse is adaptable to lengthy
descriptive and meditative poems. An example of blank verse is BURDEN
The central topic or principle idea, often repeated in a refrain.
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(See also Motif, Theme) I'm no | body! || Who are | you?
Sidelight: As a grammatical, rhythmic, and dramatic device, as well as an
BURLESQUE effective means of avoiding monotony, the caesura is a subtle but effective
A work which is intended to ridicule by the use of grotesque weapon in the skilled poet's arsenal.
exaggeration or by the treatment of a trifling subject with the Sidelight: Since caesura and pause are often used interchangeably, it is better
gravity due a matter of great importance. to use metrical pause for the type of "rest" which compensates for the omission of
(See also Hudibrastic Verse, Lampoon, Mock Epic, Parody, a syllable.
Pasquinade, Satire)
Sidelight: A caesura occurring at the end of a line is not marked in the scanning
(Compare Antiphrasis, Irony, Purple Patch)
process.

Sidelight: The classical caesura was a break caused by the ending of a word
C
within a foot.
CACOPHONY (cack-AH-fuh-nee or cack-AW-fuh-nee)
(See Diaeresis)
Discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letters or
(See also Alexandrine, Hemistich)
syllables which are grating to the ear, usually inadvertent, but
(Compare Accent, Cadence, Rhythm)
sometimes deliberately used in poetry for effect.

Sidelight: Sound devices are important to poetry. To create
CANON
sounds appropriate to the content, the poet may sometimes prefer
In a literary sense, the authoritative works of a particular writer; also, an accepted
to achieve a cacophonous effect instead of the more commonly
list of works perceived to represent a cultural, ideological, historical, or biblical
sought-for euphony. The use of words with the consonants b, k and
grouping.
p, to cite one example, produce harsher sounds than the soft f and v
Sidelight: Other literary groupings or collections include sonnet sequences, lyric
or the liquid l, m and n.
sequences, cycles, companion poems, and anthologies.
(See also Dissonance)

(Contrast Euphony)
CANTO

A major division of an extended narrative poem, such as an epic, as distinguished
CADENCE
from shorter divisions like stanzas.
The recurrent rhythmical pattern in lines of verse; also, the natural

tone or modulation of the voice determined by the alternation of
CANZONE (kan-ZO-nee)
accented or unaccented syllables.
An Italian lyric poem of varying stanzaic length, usually written in a mixture of
Sidelight: Cadence differs from meter in that it is not necessarily
hendecasyllables and heptasyllables with a concluding short stanza or envoi.
regular, but rather a more flexible concept of rhythm such as is
Sidelight: The word "canzone" is derived from the Latin cantio (a song) and
characteristic of free verse and prose poetry.
normally embraced subjects like love, heroic courage, or moral virtue. Milton's
(See also Accent, Ictus, Sprung Rhythm, Stress)
pastoral elegy, Lycidas, is an example in English poetry of a structure similar to
(Compare Caesura)
the canzone.

(Compare Ghazal, Melic Verse, Ode, Romance, Society Verse)
CAESURA (siz-YUR-uh)

A rhythmic break or pause in the flow of sound which is commonly
CARMINA FIGURATA (KAHR-muh-nuh fig-yuh-RAY-tuh) or
introduced in about the middle of a line of verse, but may be varied
CARMEN FIGURATUM
for different effects. Usually placed between syllables rhythmically
See Pattern Poetry
connected in order to aid the recital as well as to convey the

meaning more clearly, it is a pause dictated by the sense of the
CARPE DIEM (KAHR-peh DEE-em)
content or by natural speech patterns, rather than by metrics. It
Latin for "seize the day," a common motif in lyric verse throughout the history of
may coincide with conventional punctuation marks, but not
poetry, with the emphasis on making the most of current pleasures because life is
necessarily. A caesura within a line is indicated in scansion by the
short and time is flying, as in Robert Herrick's, "To the Virgins" or Edward
symbol (||), as in the first line of Emily Dickinson's, "I'm Nobody!
Fitzgerald's, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
Who Are You?:"
10
CATACHRESIS (kata-KREE-sis) Sidelight: Another type of chain rhyme, which is usually referred as rime
Misuse or abuse of words; the use of the wrong word for the enchainée, links consecutive lines, with the last word of one line rhyming with the
context, as atone for repent, ingenuous for ingenious, or a forced first word of the following line.
trope in which a word is used too far removed from its true (Compare Anadiplosis, Envelope Rhyme)
meaning, as "melancholy table" or Milton's "blind mouth" in Lycidas.
(See also Enallage, Malapropism, Mixed Metaphor, Oxymoron, CHAIN VERSE
Paradox, Solecism, Synesthesia) Similar to chain rhyme, but links words, phrases, or lines (instead of rhyme) by
repeating them in succeeding stanzas, as in the pantoum, but there are many
CATALECTIC, CATALEXIS variations.
A term applied to a line of verse which is metrically incomplete due (Compare Envelope, Rondeau)
to the omission of one or two of the ending unaccented syllables of
the final foot. CHANSON DE GESTE (shan-SAWN duh ZHEST))
Sidelight: In versification, poets sometimes use catalexis in lines Literally, a song of heroic deeds, it refers to a class of Old French epic poems of
of trochaic and dactylic verse to achieve a final accented syllable for the Middle Ages, such as the Chanson de Roland, believed to have been written by
a strong close or a rhyme, as did William Blake in the poem, "Tyger! the Norman poet, Turold.
Tyger!" (See Jongleur, Trouvere)
(Compare Acatalectic, Acephaly, Hypercatalectic) (See also Epic, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)
(Compare Ballad, Narrative, Tragedy)
CATALOG VERSE
A poem comprised of a list of persons, places, things, or abstract CHANT ROYALE
ideas which share a common denominator. An ancient form, it was An elaborate fixed form of ballade in Old French poetry, consisting of five stanzas
originally a type of didactic poetry. of eleven lines with a refrain at the end of each stanza, rhyming ababccddedE and
an envoi of five lines rhyming ddedE.
CATAPHORA Sidelight: The chant royale was originally used by 12th century troubadours and
The use of a grammatical substitute (like a pronoun) which has the trouveres. Its 60-line length provided increased range for elaboration of the
same reference as the next word or phrase, as in, "Before him John subject matter, which often dealt with satirical observations as well as elevated
saw a sea of smiling faces." topics.
(Compare Antonomasia, Metonymy)
CHAPBOOK
CAUDATE RHYME A small book or pamphlet containing ballads, poems, popular tales or tracts, etc.
See Tail Rhyme
CHAUCERIAN STANZA
CENTO See Rhyme Royal
Poetry made up of lines borrowed from a combination of established
authors, usually resulting in a change in meaning and a humorous CHIASMUS (kye-AZ-mus)
effect. An inverted parallelism; the reversal of the order of corresponding words or
(Compare Parody, Pastiche) phrases (with or without exact repetition) in successive clauses which are usually
parallel in syntax, as in Pope's, "A fop their passion, but their prize a sot," or
CHAIN RHYME Goldsmith's, "to stop too fearful, and too faint to go."
Also called interlocking rhyme, a rhyme scheme in which a rhyme in Sidelight: While the term, chiasmus, is usually used in reference to syntax and
a line of one stanza is used as a link to a rhyme in the next stanza, word order, it also includes the repetition in reverse of any element of a poem,
as in the aba bcb cdc, etc. of terza rima or the aaab cccb of "La Tour including sound patterns.
Eiffel."
Sidelight: An antimetabole (an-tye-muh-TAB-uh-lee) is a type of chiasmus in
which the words reversed involve a repetition of the same words, as in "do not live