poetry terms Flashcards
Lyric poetry
A short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker’s personal emotions and feelings. Historically intended to be sung and accompany music
Ballad
A narrative poem composed of quatrains (iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter) rhyming ABAB or ABCB.
Ode
A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea.
Petrarchan sonnet
A sonnet (14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter) that divides into an octave (8) and sestet (6). There is a “volta,” or “turning” of the subject matter between the octave and sestet.
Shakespearean sonnet
A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, composed of three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
Iambic pentameter
Iamb (iambic): an unstressed stressed foot. The most natural and common kind of meter in English. It uses 5 feet creating a line of 10 syllables.
Volta
The “turning” point of a Petrarchan sonnet, usually occurring between the octave and the sestet.
Octave
The first eight lines of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, unified by rhythm, rhyme, and topic.
Sestet
A six-line stanza or unit of poetry.
Stanza
A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose; the meters and rhymes are usually repeating or systematic.
Quatrain
A four-line stanza or unit of poetry.
Couplet
A two-line stanza or unit of poetry.
Rhyme scheme
The pattern of rhyme, usually indicated by assigning a letter of the alphabet to each rhyme at the end of a line of poetry.
Internal rhyme
A rhyme that falls within a single line of poetry: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Near rhyme
A rhyme that doesn’t rhyme perfectly but might have the same vowel sounds (assonance) and/or similar consonant sounds like green and scream
