Glossary of Poetic Terms P - Z Options

[Tinker]

Poetic Terms	Definitions are simplified and limited to their use within the scope of poetic study. I recommend the use of a good dictionary for more complete explanation
P	Also see Poetic Genre and Verse Forms P
panegyric	Greek choral lyric celebrating a person's achievements. same as encomium
para-rhyme or frame-rhyme	Consonance occurring front and back of the word. back/bike boat/bait
parable	A short narrative with a moral. The moral theme is usually left to interpretation rather than being explicitly being stated as in the fable.
paradox	A seemingly self contradictory concept that on reflection becomes some deeper meaning.
parallelism	Side by side comparisons in verse usually using similar frames.
Parody	Greek (a song sung beside…) Verse that is the satirical imitation or mimicking of another's distinctive, usually serious writing. The goal is for comic effect or ridicule. The structure of the poem is dependant upon the structure of the piece being imitated. It is usually regarded as a step up from burlesque.
pastoral	A poem centered on the beauty and simplicity of country life. This can be mythical with shepherds and nymphs in idealized country settings. Also called bucolic and Idyll poetry. The opposite of Georgic which centers on the work of country life.
pentameter	5 metric feet within a line.
penultimate	Second to last of a series, as in a series of stanzas or a series of syllables.
personification	Figure of speech that gives human characteristics to a thing, idea or animal. The nonhuman is dramatized in human terms.
phirach or pyrrhic	A metric foot made up of 2 unstressed syllables uu
pivot or volta	A change in direction of a thought or argument.
poem	A written or spoken composition using the line as a foundation.
podic	Folk meter, often found in anonymous nursery rhymes and ballads. It is rhymed verse in the rhythm of normal speech.
Portmanteau word	The artificial combination of parts of words to express their combined qualities. e.g. fog/smoke =smog
prayer	Verse meant to communicate with the divine, a higher power.
pregunta	Spanish "question"; Verse that is question-answer between 2 people. The Greeks called this form of verse, stichomythia.
Primer or Didactic or Skeltonics	A metered, rhymed, informative distich. Most often it is written in iambic dimeter, rhymed aa.
prose	The ordinary form of written or spoken discourse without poetic structure or devices.
prosody	The study of sound and rhythm in verse.
Prothalamium,Prothalamion	An ode celebrating marriage before the wedding, specifically for the bride.
Q	See Poetic Genre and Verse Forms Q
Quantitative verse	A measure of the line by dividing it into metric feet. The metric feet are made up of a combination of long and short syllables. In English, quantitative verse is sometimes difficult to discern and we transition to Accentual Syllabic Verse by default which warps the intent a bit. Or we will often attempt to reduce to the lowest common denominator and simply count syllables, still a little warped.
quatorzain	Any 14 line poem or stanza. A sonnet is always a quatorzain, a quatorzain need not always be a sonnet. (see Sonnet Comparison Chart)
quatrain	Any poem or stanza in 4 lines.
quintain, quintet or cinquain	Any poem or stanza in 5 lines.
R	Also see Poetic Genre and Verse Forms R
rann	In Celtic poetry, the 4 line stanza.
refrain or repeton	The repetition of a line, lines or part of a line at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.
rentrament	A word, phrase or line usually at the beginning of the poem that is repeated as a refrain within the poem.
repetend	A word, phrase or line that is repeated randomly.
repetition	The recurrence of a phrase or word used for emphasis
rhetoric	The art of persuasion through the manipulation of words
Rhopalics	A line in which each word progresses to include 1 more syllable than the preceding word.
rhyme	The echo of vowel and consonant sounds, in English rhyme occurs between stressed syllables.
rhyme scheme	Pattern of rhyme in a poem
rich rhyme	Ordinary rhyme beginning a step backward. The sounds start being matched before the last stressed vowel. All 3 sounds of the syllable are echoed in rich rhyme, as in foul/fowl as compared to ordinary rhyme growl/fowl. Rich rhyme, often called rime riche or identity rhyme is more commonly used in French prosody than in English.
riddle	Verse that hides the solution to the question it asks.
rime en kyrielle	When an entire line is uses as a refrain rather than just a phrase or word such as in the Pantoum or Villanelle.
running meter	Lines of equal length.
Russian Verse Form	Verse form from Russia.
S	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms S
Sapphics	Attributed to the Greek poet Sappho, 6 BC; the Sapphic line is a trochaic line with the central foot being a dactyl. In Greek quantitative verse, LsLsLssLsLs, in English accentual syllabic SuSuSuuSuSu. Prior to the renaissance this meter was known as a "lesser" Sapphic line and a Sapphic line was considered a combination of a lesser Sapphic line followed by an Adonic line.
satire	A verse that makes fun of , ridicules or humorously exposes flaws in a particular individual, society, government, or thing.
scansion	The process of measuring the metrical structure of a line.
Semitic Verse Forms	Verse forms of the Hebrews and Sumerians
Septenary or Fourteener	A line is written in 2 parts separated by caesura. It is patterned in iambic heptameter (7) and grew to popularity in 16th century English poetry. Most often the caesura occurs sometime after the 3rd foot.
Serpentine	Verse that begins and ends with the same word. Named for the image of a snake with its tail in its mouth. It is symbolic of eternity, without beginning or end.
septet	Any 7 line poem or stanza.
sestet	A six line stanza following the octave in a sonnet or other forms in which the group of 6 lines attempts to distinguish itself from other line groups. This is in contrast to the words sixain or sexain which are 6 line stanzas usually written in conjunction with other sixains or sexains as in the Sestina. You will often find sestet misused as synonymous with the sixain.
Shanty or Chantey	French chanter -sing, A sailor's work song, alternating solo and chorus.
Short	Usually when you see the word Short before the title of a known verse form the metric line of the standard verse form has been cut by one metric foot. e.g. Short Couplet assumes a Couplet is iambic pentameter therefore the Short Couplet is iambic tetrameter etc.
simile	Comparison of one thing with another, Love is like a rose. A signal word is always used such as: like or as.
sixain or sexain	6 line stanzas usually written in conjunction with other sixains or sexains as in the Sestina.
sirvente	A satirical poem on politics, religion, etc. In medieval times it was the standard of the troubadours.
Skeltonics or Primer or Didactic	A metered, rhymed, informative distich. Most often it is written in iambic dimeter, rhymed aa.
slack syllable	An unstressed syllable.
slant rhyme or consonance, near rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme	Shared similar consonant sounds but different vowel sounds as in bleak and black or sometimes only the last consonant sound such as fame and room.
soliloquy or monologue	Old English verse, a single person's dramatic discourse.
Sonnet	Italian - sonnetto, "little song", is a lyrical meditation. The sonnet should sing. Even though there are many varieties of the sonnet, it is one of the most identifiable and popular of the verse forms because of its classic 14 line frame, lyrical meter and rhyme, and dramatic pivot or volta. Sonnet Comparison Chart
Spanish Verse Forms	Verse forms from Spain, including Catalan and Castilian and Galician.
spondee	A metric foot of 2 strong stressed syllables. S-S e.g. night-mare
sprung rhythm	Meter designed to imitate natural speech. It is an irregular system of prosody which often begins with a stressed syllable and emphatically stressed lines as in accentual verse with an occasional anapest thrown in for interest.
stanza	Italian meaning "stopping place" or "room" . A reoccurring uniform pattern of 2 or more lines of verse, the poetic equivalent to a paragraph in prose. A stanza does not stand alone. The stanza implies other more than one unit. A stanza is used synonymously with strophe, especially when the stanzas vary in length within the poem, as in free verse. Conversly, a strophe is not always uniform in structure and can stand alone.
stanzaic	Poem made up of same structured stanzas.
stich	A single line of verse written adjacent to other lines. When it stands alone it is a monostich.
stichic	Verse in which all lines having the same metrical form.
stichomythia	From Greek drama, when 2 characters speak in alternating lines, question and answer. Similar to the Spanish Pregunta.
stressed syllable	Emphasized or accented syllable
strophe	Greek meaning "turn" Originally the beginning section of a choral ode in a classical Greek drama where the chorus chanted a verse while turning from one side to another or toward the altar. Initially a unit of quantitative verse of identical metric structure, synonymous with stanza. Later in English the term was loosely extended to mean a structural division of a poem containing non uniform divisions or units of varying length, as in free verse. A strophe can stand alone or refer to a whole poem if there are no breaks. Conversely a stanza does not stand alone and implies more than one unit.
Syllabic Verse	Measuring the line by counting the number of syllables.
syllable	A unit of pronunciation uttered without interruption, It forms the whole or part of a word.
symbol	An image that represents something to be felt.
synecdoche	A part of something that represents the whole.
syntax	The way the basic components of a line are arranged.
T	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms T
tail rhyme	In a stanza of long lines, the last line is shorter and is rhymed with one other line within the stanza which is also shorter.
teleutons	End words
tercet	Any poem or stanza in 3 lines.
tetrameter	4 metric feet in a line.
Thai Verse Forms	Verse forms from Thailand.
theme	The poem's central idea.
tone	The emotion or attitude behind the poem.
tornado	The Occitan tornado is a dedication to a patron or friend added at the end of verse, usually as a 1/2 stanza in the same structural pattern of the previous stanzas. As opposed to the French envoy which is usually a summary of the poem's theme added to the end of the verse.
tribach	A metric foot of 3 unstressed syllables. uuu
trimeter	3 metric feet in a line
triple meter	A metric foot of 3 syllables such as anapests dactyls and amphibrachs
triplet	Any mono rhymed poem or stanza in 3 lines
trochee	Metric foot of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Su
troubadour	From the Middle Ages, Occitan verb "trobar" = to compose or invent. These trobadors from the south of France and northern Italy planted the seeds for many verse forms still used today such as the alba, canson, sestina, sonnet, sirventes etc. The troubadour should be distinguished as composer from the jongluer who was a minstrel who merely performed anothers composition.
U	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms U
unstressed syllable	The unaccented or not emphasized syllable
V	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms V
verse	Latin versum, "to turn" refers to either a single line of poetry or to an entire composition of poetry.
verset	Verse which is a surge of language in one breath.
Viet Verse Forms	Verse forms from Vietnam
virtual rhyme	Rhyme is the echoing of sound in the accented vowel in a word. However in English there are words with secondary accents such as in idolatry the accent or stress is on the 2nd syllable, however there is a lessor or secondary stress in the last syllable idolatry. Virtual rhyme is when the echoed sound is the secondary stressed sound - idolatry / sea. Virtual rhyme only occurs in English.
voice	The who behind the poem, the sound of the character.
volta or pivot	A change in direction of a thought or argument.
vulgate	Latin vulgus, "mob" or "common people" In poetry vulgate refers to the lowest denomination of language, the speech of the common man without refinement.
W	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms W
Welsh Verse Forms or Official Welsh Meters	Verse forms from Ancient Wales as codified in the 14th century by Einion Offeiriad and edited by Dafydd Ddu Athro.
Z	Also see Poetic Genres and Verse Forms X Y Z
zeugma or yoke	A figure of speech using one word to yoke two phrases. Two thoughts held together by one word.

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