This an overview of poetry terms

1. Poetry Making Rhyme & Meter By Mrs. W. Warren

5. Naturalism: a literary movement that arose during the late 1800s and early 1900s that emphasizes biological and socioeconomic determinism in fiction and drama. It portrays human beings as higher animals lacking free will, their lives determined by natural forces of heredity and environment and by basic drives over which they have no control and which they do not fully comprehend. Nom de plume: a fictitious name used by a writer who wishes to remain anonymous or who chooses not to use his or her real name professionally; also, a pen name. Octameter: a poetic line containing eight metrical feet. A long line that tends to break into two four-foot lines, the octameter is rare in English poetry. Octave: the first eight lines, or octet, of the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet. Usually the octave asks a question or states a generalization that is answered or resolved in the last six lines, the sestet, of the poem. An octave is also a stanza of eight lines. Ode: a long and elaborate LYRIC poem, usually dignified or exalted in TONE and often written to praise someone or something or to mark an important occasion. Onomatopoeia: the use of words whose sound imitates the sound of the thing being named. Examples: hum, buzz, clang, boom, hiss, crack, and twitter. Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression, giving the effect of a condensed paradox. Examples: wise fool, living death, cruel kindness, eloquent silence, and loving hate.. Parallelism: the technique of showing that words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures are comparable in content and importance by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. Parallelism is a common unifying device in poetry, especially in ancient poetry growing out of the oral tradition.

7. Requiem: a chant, dirge, or poem for the dead; from the Roman Catholic mass for the dead. Rhyme: the similarity of sound between two words ( cold/old)When the sounds of their accented syllables and all succeeding sounds are identical, words rhyme. The most common form of rhyme is rhyme at the end of lines of poetry, which is called end rhyme. The rhyming of two or more words in the same line of poetry is called internal rhyme, which most often occurs in the middle and at the end of the same line; also called middle rhyme and leonine rhyme. Rhythm: the patterned flow of sound in poetry and prose. In traditional English poetry, rhythm is based on the combination of accent and numbers of syllables, known as meter. Whether words are made up of harsh sounds or soft sounds also affects the rhythm of a line of poetry Scansion: Analyzing meter in lines of poetry by counting and marking the accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into metrical feet, and showing the major pauses, if any, within the line. Simile: a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to compare two essentially different objects, actions, or attributes that share some aspect of similarity. In contrast to a metaphor, in which a comparison is implied, a simile expresses a comparison directly. Sonnet: a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. The two most important type of sonnets are the Italian (Petrarchan) and the Shakespearean (English). The Italian sonnet is organized into two parts – an octave, consisting of the first eight lines and rhyming abbba, abba; and a sestet, the remaining six lines, which usually rhyme cde, cde. The octave establishes the Theme or poses a problem that is developed or resolved by the sestet. The rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet, abab, cdcd, efef, gg, is looser than that of the Italian sonnet, allowing for seven different rhymes instead of five. Stanza: a section or division of a poem; specifically, a grouping of lines into a recurring pattern determined by the number of lines, the meter of the lines, and the rhyme scheme.

10. Examples of Meter It is hard to find poems in iambic monometer. "Upon His Departure Hence" * / Thus I Pass by And die, As one Unknown, And gone; I'm made A shade, And laid I'th grave, There have My cave. Where tell I dwell, Farewell . - Robert Herrick Note: I’ve marked each unstressed syllable with an asterisk ( * ) John Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" is in iambic pentameter: * / * / * / * / * / A casement high and triple-arch'd there was, * / * / * / * / * / All garlanded with carven imag'ries William Blake's poem below is an example of trochaic dimeter with an instance of catalexis, which is what occurs in most trochaic lines where the last unstressed syllable is cut off. Here it would be diagrammed as: / * / (*). / * / (*) Little boy, / * / (*) Full of joy; / * / (*) Little girl, / * / (*) Sweet and small;

11. Examples of Meter Lord Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib” is an example of anapestic tetrameter * * / * * / * * / * * / For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, * * / * * / * * / * * / And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" contains dactylic dimeter with catalexis / * * / * * Cannon to right of them, / * * / * * Cannon to left of them, / * * / * * Cannon in front of them / * * / * (*) Volleyed and thundered Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool” is an example of spondee / / / / We real cool. We / / / left school. We / / Lurk late... The Pyrrhic For the pyrrhic, the pattern is / U U /--as in the "to the" in the following phrase: Today we went to the mountains-- * / * / * * / to DAY / we WENT / to the / / * MOUN tains / IMPORTANT NOTE: Spondees and pyrrhics are used exclusively as substitutes for iambics and trochees within individual lines; it is impossible to have a meter that is purely composed of spondees or pyrrhic