Poetry Terms Flashcards
A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry and is an important part of poetic rhythm
Caesura
A narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter; a song that tells a story
Ballad
A five line stanza with varied meter and rhyme scheme possible of medieval origin, usually with a fixed number of syllables
Cinquian
Two lines of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit
Couplet
A poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length
Dramatic monologue
Any poem written in elegiac meter; any poem dealing with the subject matter of complaints about love, sustained formal lamentation, or somber meditations
Elegy
A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line
Enjambment
A long narrative poem that includes a vast setting and an epic hero that represents and determines the date of the nation by his/her success or failure
Epic poem
Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet
Free verse
A short poem written in a repeating stanzaic form, often designed to be set to music; does not have a plot and expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single poetic speaker
Lyric
A poem that tells a story by following a similar structure as that of a short story or novel; has a beginning, middle, and end and is creative and imaginative
Narrative poem
The first part of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet; a set of lines that rhyme according to ABBAABBA
Octave
A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently
Ode
A stanza of four lines often with ABAB rhyme scheme; three and a couplet make a Shakespearean sonnet
Quatrain
A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song that repeat at regular intervals
Refrain
