Poetry Terminology Flashcards
What is a couplet?
A two line rhyme, or stanza.
What is a quatrain?
A four line rhyming stanza.
What is a sestet?
A six line rhyming stanza.
What is an octave?
An eight line rhyming stanza.
What is a caesura?
A pause near the middle of a line. Caesuras are often used to slow down the reading of a poem, and to emphasise a word or idea.
E.g. ‘Then, and only then, did I come close’ (‘The Manhunt’).
What is enjambment?
The continuation of a sentence beyond a line, or even across stanzas.
What is iambic pentameter?
A line containing ten syllables of (more accurately, five metrical feet of stressed and unstressed syllables).
E.g. ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ (‘Sonnet 43’).
What is a stanza?
A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem.
Stanzas are often used to show a change in tone, time, or thought.
