Elements of Poetry;)

Petrarchan sonnet

(puh TRAHR kun) a fourteen line sonnet consisting of two parts: the octave, eight lines with the rhyme scheme abbaabba, and the sestet, six lines usually with the rhyme scheme cdecde

the octave often poses a question or dilemma that the sestet answers or resolves, beginning with a turn, also known as a volta

also referred to as an Italian sonnet

Example:

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind!

But as for me, alas, I may no more;

The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,

I am of them that furthest come behind.

Yet may I by no means my wearied mind

Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore

Fainting I follow; I leave off therefore,

Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.

Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,

As well as I, may spend his time in vain.

And graven with diamonds in letters plain,

There is written her fair neck round about,

“Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,

And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

(“Whoso List to Hunt,” Thomas Wyatt)

plaintive poetry verse that expresses grief or sadness

[see also elegy, eulogy]

poet laureate

(POH et LORE ee it) a title of distinction given to the official poet of a nation or kingdom

poetaster

(POH it ass turr) a label applied to a poet with little skill or literary regard from his or her peers

[see also epigone]

poetic diction the specific word choice and style used in poetry, particularly that which is not used in prose; often suggests ornamental, figurative, and, sometimes, archaic language

[see also poeticism]

poeticism

(poh ET eh sizm) diction, usually archaic, that is generally used only for poetry

Examples:

“o’er,” “doth,” and “bestride”

[see also archaism, poetic diction]

poetry a literary work written in verse form in which rhythmic language and syntax, as well as literary and sound devices, are used for effect; from “making” or “creating” (Greek)

poulter’s measure a rhyming couplet consisting of an iambic hexameter (alexandrine) and an iambic heptameter (fourteener); frequently used in morality plays and 16th century poetry

Example:

So feeble is the thread that doth the burden stay

Of my poor life, in heavy plight that falleth in decay,

(Sir Thomas Wyatt)

prose poetry a work distinguished as prose but having the conventions of poetry, such as ornate, rhythmic language and the incorporation of rhyme and other sound devices

notable writers of this type include T.S. Eliot, Amy Lowell, and Oscar Wilde

prosody

(PRAHZ uh dee) the analysis and study of versification (including elements such as form, meter, and rhyme)

[see also scansion]

pyrrhic

(PEER ik) a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables; a pyrrhic foot is extremely rare in English poetry

also referred to as a dibrach

Example:

“Ĭ hăve beĕn proúd ănd sáid, ‘Mў lóve, mў ówn.’”

[the first two syllables from Elizabeth Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese contain a pyrrhic foot, followed by four iambic feet]

quantitative verse the categorization of meter according to syllable length rather than on stresses; used frequently in Latin and Greek poetry but rarely in English poetry

quatrain

(KWAH trane) a stanza containing four lines

also referred to as a tetrastich (TEH truh stik)

refrain

(ree FRAYN) lines that recur throughout a poem or lyrics of a song

Example:

“She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary, / I would that I were dead.’”

[every stanza but the last in Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘s “Mariana” concludes with the preceding two-line refrain]

[see also envelope]

repetend

(rep ih TEND or REP ih tend) a syllable, word, or line of verse that is repeated at irregular intervals throughout a poem

[see also refrain]

reverdie

(rev er DEE) a poem that celebrates the arrival of spring

rhyme royal

(RIME roi AL) a seven line poem written in iambic pentameter that has the rhyme scheme ababbcc

also referred to as a Chaucerian stanza

Example:

The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,

That was the king Priamus sone of Troye,

In lovinge, how his aventures fellen

Fro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye,

My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye.

Thesiphone, thou help me for tendyte

Thise woful vers, that wepen as I wryte!

(Troilus and Criselde, Chaucer)

rhythm a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; the “beat” of a work, often expressed as cadence (KAY dens), the rising and falling of the rhythm

rising rhythm when unstressed syllables are linked with stressed syllables that follow rather than precede them

rondel

(RON dull) a verse form similar to the French rondeau

composed of thirteen to fourteen lines, with a two-line refrain that opens the rondel and reappears as lines seven and eight (the rhyme scheme is usually ABba abAB abbaA)

not to be confused with the roundel

Example:

Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;

Their beauty shakes me who was once serene;

Straight through my heart the wound is quick and keen.

Only your word will heal the injury

To my hurt heart, while yet the wound is clean -

Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;

Their beauty shakes me who was once serene.

Upon my word, I tell you faithfully

Through life and after death you are my queen;

For with my death the whole truth shall be seen.

Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;

Their beauty shakes me who was once serene;

Straight through my heart the wound is quick and keen.

(Rondel of Merciless Beauty, Geoffrey Chaucer)

roundel

(ROUN dull) a verse form similar to the French rondeau; created by Algernon Charles Swinburne

contains three stanzas, with four lines, 3 lines, and 4 lines each, including a refrain following the third and the tenth line (the refrain mimics some or all of the first line and rhymes with the second line) with the rhyme scheme abaR bab abaR

not to be confused with the rondel

Example:

A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere,

With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought,

That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear

A roundel is wrought.

Its jewel of music is carven of all or of aught -

Love, laughter, or mourning--remembrance of rapture or fear -

That fancy may fashion to hang in the ear of thought.

As a bird's quick song runs round, and the hearts in us hear

Pause answer to pause, and again the same strain caught,

So moves the device whence, round as a pearl or tear,

A roundel is wrought.

(A Century of Roundels, Algernon Charles Swinburne)

roundelay

(ROUN dih lay) a dancing song with a refrain

scansion

(SCAN shun) the analysis of poetic meter (scanning), typically using visual symbols denoting the accent of the syllable (diacritical marks)

unstressed syllables are indicated by the slightly curved diacritical mark (ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ)

stressed syllables are indicated by the accent grave (á, é, í, ó, ú)

[see also prosody]

septet

(sep TET) a stanza with seven lines

[see also rhyme royal]

sestet

(SES tet) a six-line stanza that follows the octave in a Petrarchan or Miltonic sonnet

usually begins with a turn (volta) in the first line

sestina

(sess TEE nah) a lyric poem of six six-lined (usually unrhymed) stanzas followed by a tercet (for a total of 39 lines); from “sixth” (Italian)

Example:

“Sestina” (Dante)

Shakespearean sonnet a fourteen line sonnet consisting of three quatrains with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef, followed by a couplet rhyming gg

also referred to as an English sonnet

Example:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand’ring bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his heighth be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

(“Sonnet 116,” Shakespeare)

shanty a maritime work song with the purpose of establishing a rhythm for the coordination of shipboard activities

also referred to as a sea shanty or chantey

Example:

I’ll sing you a song, a good song of the sea

With a way, hey, blow the man down

And trust that you’ll join in the chorus with me

Give me some time to blow the man down

(Anonymous)

short measure quatrain that has three stresses in the first, second, and fourth line and four stresses in the fourth line, usually with the rhyme scheme abab

also referred to as short meter

Skeltonics poems having short lines of verse with two or three stresses per line and an identical rhyme repeated over several consecutive lines

attributed to the style of poetry used by the Middle English poet John Skelton

slam poetry Competitive poetry event in which participants read original poetry and are judged by audience members

sonnet a lyric poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines, that typically follows a conventional rhyme scheme; from “little song” (Italian)

Examples:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

(“Sonnet 116,” Shakespeare)

[see also Petrarchan sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet]

sonnet cycle a series of sonnets written on a common theme, usually to a loved one

also referred to as a sonnet sequence

examples include Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, and Sir Philip Sidney’s “Astrophel and Stella”

Spenserian sonnet a fourteen line poem ending with a couplet and having the rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee

created by the English poet Sir Edmund Spenser

also referred to as a link sonnet

Example:

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize!

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eek my name be wiped out likewise.

Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name;

Where, when as death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

(Edmund Spenser)

Spenserian stanza a stanza form invented by the English poet Sir Edmund Spenser that contains eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding line of iambic hexameter (alexandrine) with the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc

Example:

Forth came that auncient Lord and aged Queene,

Arayd in antique robes downe to the ground,

And sad habiliments right well beseene;

A noble crew about them waited round

Of sage and sober Peres, all gravely gownd;

Whom farre before did march a goodly band

Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd,

But now they laurell braunches bore in hand;

Glad signe of victorie and peace in all their land.

(The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser)

spondee

(SPAHN dee) a metrical foot in poetry that consists of two stressed syllables (as in dáylíght or cárpoól)

the adjective form is spondaic (spahn DAY ik)

Example:

“Roúgh wínds dŏ sháke thĕ dárlĭng búds ŏf Máy,” (“Sonnet 18,” Shakespeare)

sprung rhythm a term coined by poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to label the metrical scansion of the irregular rhythm particularly used in English folk poetry

within this scansion, a foot may have from one to four syllables as opposed to the two or three in common rhythm

stanza a group of lines in a poem usually sharing some common characteristic (e.g., rhyme scheme, length, meter, theme); set off from other groups by a blank line

sometimes referred to as a stave

in odes, the stanza is sometimes referred to as a strophe

stichic

(STIK ik) poetry written in successive lines of verse that have the same meter and length but is not divided into stanzas

[see also verse paragraph]

systole

(SISS tole ee) the shortening of a syllable or vowel sound to accommodate meter or rhyme

Example:

“I would go to the mill / To fetch the grain for my next meal” [the ee sound is shortened to accommodate the rhyme of the shorter ih sound]

[see also diastole]

tail rhyme a line of verse that follows but does not rhyme with a preceding couplet or triplet but rather an earlier line

Example:

His steed was all a dapple grey

Whose gait was ambling, on the way,

Full easily and round

In land.

Behold, my lords, here is a fit!

If you’ll have any more of it,

You have but to command.

(Tale of Sir Thopas, Chaucer)

tanka

(TAHN kuh) an ancient Japanese poetic form having thirty one syllables—five syllables in lines one and three and seven syllables in lines two, four, and five

Example:

What are they to me,

Silver, or gold, or jewels?

How could they ever

Equal the greater treasure

That is a child? They can not.

(Okura)

tercet

(TURR sit) a stanza composed of three lines of verse

also referred to as a triplet

terza rima

(turt suh REE mah) a three-line stanza (tercet) with an interlocking rhyme scheme; that is, the final word of the second line of each tercet rhymes with the final words of the first and third lines of the succeeding tercet (aba bcb cdc ded etc.)

Example:

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red.

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed...

(“Ode to the West Wind,” Percy Shelley)

tetrameter

(tet TRAM uh turr) a line of verse consisting of four metrical feet

Example:

Thăt níght yoŭr greát gŭns únăwáres,

Shook all our coffins as we lay

And broke the chancel window-squares,

We thought it was the Judgment-day

(“Channel Firing,” Thomas Hardy)

touchstone a brief excerpt of a widely acclaimed poem used as a standard for comparison for other poetic works

trimeter

(TRIHM uh turr) a line of verse containing three metrical feet

Example:

“Óh tŏ bé ĭn Énglănd / Now that April’s there. . . .”

(“Home Thoughts, from Abroad,” Robert Browning)

triolet

(tree uh LAY or TRAHY uh let) an eight-line stanza with the rhyme scheme abaaabab and written in iambic tetrameter

triple meter a metrical foot consisting of three beats of unstress or stress; an anapest (ănăpést) or dactyl (tángĕrĭne)

tristich

(TRISS tik) a poem or stanza of three lines

[see also quatrain]

trochee

(TROH kay) a metrical foot in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (as in tróchĕe, líttlĕ)

the adjective form is trochaic (troh KAY ik)

Example:

“Dóublĕ, dóublĕ, tóil ănd tróublĕ,” (Macbeth, IV.i, Shakespeare)

turn a change in tone, mood, or focus in a poem, particularly in a sonnet (between the octave and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet and starting with the final couplet in a Shakespearean sonnet)

also referred to as a volta

ubi sunt

(ooh bee SOONT) a common motif in medieval Latin poetry that reminisces on those dead or gone and conveys a theme of the fleeting nature of life and beauty; from “where are” (Latin)

verse a term that refers to poetry in general, an individual poem, or an individual line of poetry

verse paragraph poetry written in continuous lines of verse that have irregular meter and length

[see also stichic]

versification

(vur sih fih KAY shun) the theory of meter, sound, and structure of poetry

villanelle

(vill uh NELL) a verse form that incorporates two rhymes and typically consists of five tercets and a quatrain

the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain; from “peasant” (French, Italian)

Example:

“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (Dylan Thomas)

virgule

(VUR gyool) the slant mark ( / ) used in the scansion of poetry to indicate the division of feet

weak ending replacing a normally stressed syllable with an unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse

[see also feminine ending]

wrenched accent a stress on a syllable not normally stressed in conversational speech to accommodate poetic meter

a variation is the recessive accent, which is the placement of stress on the first syllable of a two-syllable word that usually has a stress on the last syllable; often marked with an accent mark

Example:

“Or I with grief and éxtreme age shall perish” (Richard III, IV.iv, Shakespeare)