Poetry Terms 3 Flashcards
Rhyme Scheme
The repeated rhyme pattern in a poem, indicated by letters (this poem has an “ABAB” rhyme scheme):
Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see.
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
Sestet
The last six lines of a sonnet.
Sestina
A highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet or envoy (three lines), for a total of thirty-nine lines.
Slant Rhyme
A “half-rhyme” that doesn’t rhyme perfectly, famously used by Emily Dickinson (here’s one of her poems with slant rhyme):
The Mind is Smooth–no Motion–
Contented as the Eye
Upon the Forehead of a Bust–
That knows – it cannot see.
Sonnet
A 14-line poem, usually with a fixed rhyme scheme.
Spondee
A poetic meter with two stressed syllables:
By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning…
Stanza
A unit of a poem, equivalent to a verse of a song or a paragraph of an essay.
Tercet
A three-line stanza in a poem:
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed…
Tetrameter
A line in a poem with four metrical “beats”:
BeCAUSE I COULD not STOP for DEATH…
And the SHEEN of their SPEARS was like STARS on the SEA…
Trimeter
A line in a poem with three “beats”:
The ONly NEWS I KNOW
Is BULLeTINS all DAY…
Trochee
A poetry meter with first a stressed syllable, then an unstressed syllable:
SHOULD you ASK me, WHENCE these STORies?
WHENCE these LEGends AND traDItions…
Verse
One line of poetry.
Villanelle
A poem with 19 lines: five tercets (5 X 3 = 15 lines) and one quatrain (four lines). Villanelles are often concerne with nature and love.
Collywobbles
A stomachache or feeling of nervousness (this has nothing to do with poetry; I just thought it was a great word).
