Poetry Terms Flashcards
Elegy
Poem mourning the dead.
Epigram
Short, pointed poem.
Epitaph
An inscription on a gravestone.
Epithalamion
A poem celebrating a wedding.
Nocturne
A night scene.
Pastoral
A poem spoken by a shepherd, loosely in the countryside.
Valediction
A goodbye.
Reproach
Address in a way to express disapproval.
Lament
An expression of grief or sorrow.
Invocation
Asking a deity to be present among humans.
Prosody
The measure in which poetry is written (counted lines in units called feet)
Iambic
Unstressed, stressed metrical scheme.
Anapestic
2unstressed,stressed scheme
Trochaic
Stressed,unstressed scheme
Dactylic
Stressed,2 unstressed scheme
Spondaic
Stressed,stressed scheme
Pyrrhic
2unstressed scheme
Heroic couplet
Iambic pentameter couplet that is end stopped
Terza Rima
Pentameter tercet with interlinked rhymes.
Rime royal
7 line stanza in iambic pentameter.
Ottava Rima
8 line iambic pentameter.
Spenserian stanza
9 line form in iambic pentameter.
Sonnet
14 line poem.
Shakespearean sonnet
Consists of 3 quatrains and a couplet.
Spenserian sonnet
Same form as Shakespearean, but interlocking rhyme scheme.
Sestina
A pentameter poem consisting of 6 stanzas of 6 lines with repeated end words plus a 3 line coda.
Villanelle
A poem of 5 pentameter tercets rhyming aba, followed by a quatrain rhyming abaa.
Ode
Has no set form, defined by its content (exalted tone, lofty or sublime).
Agency
The subject is the agency of the verb.
Emjambent
Continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line.
Alliteration
Same letter or sound
Allegory
A poem that delivers a moral meaning.
Acrostic
A poem, where parts of it form words.
Ars poetica
A poem where Horace advises poets on the art of writing poetry.
Aubade
A dawn poem in which 1 of lovers is waked by the sun and speaks.
