- GALLIAMBUS
- In classical poetry, a lyric meter consisting of four iambic
dipodies, the last of which is catalectic,
dropping the final accent, or a line of four lesser Ionic feet
catalectic, varied by anaclasis.
- GENRE (ZHAHN-ruh)
- A category of artistic, musical or literary composition characterized
by a particular form, style
or content. Poetry, for example, is a literary genre and
lyric verse is a poetic genre.
Sidelight: The term, genre,
is frequently used interchangeably with "type" and "kind."
- GEORGIC (JAWR-jik)
- A poem dealing with a rural or agricultural topic, but differing from
pastoral poetry in that the primary intention of a georgic
is didactic. Virgil's
Georgics exemplifies the form.
Sidelight: The poet, James Thomson,
was called the "English Virgil" after his writing of The Seasons,
which is similar in content and form
to Virgil's Georgics.
- GHAZAL (ga-ZAL)
- A short monorhymed Middle Eastern
lyric poem in which the first two lines
rhyme with a corresponding rhyme in
the second line of each succeeding couplet, thus a
rhyme scheme of aa, ba, ca, etc. The ghazal usually deals with themes of
love in a melancholy mood.
(See also Canzone,
Ode, Melic Verse,
Romance, Society Verse)
- GLEEMAN
- An old English minstrel. Gleemen sometimes composed their
own verse, but often recited poetry written by a scop.
- GNOME
- An aphorism, a short statement of proverbial truth.
Composers of such verse are known as gnomic poets.
(Compare Allegory,
Apologue, Didactic Poetry,
Epigram, Fable,
Proverb)
- GOLIARDIC POETRY
- Satiric verse which flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries, usually
consisting of a stanza of four 13-syllable lines in
feminine rhyme, sometimes with a concluding
hexameter. The satire was characteristically a defiance of
authority, most particularly directed against the Church.
Sidelight: The unprincipled traits
of Geoffrey Chaucer's Friar and the Pardoner in The Canterbury Tales were probably influenced by the Goliardic
poet, Jean De Meun, in his portion of the 13th century extended allegorical poem, Roman de la Rose, in which the
friar Faus-Semblant reveals his hypocrisy though his own words.
- GONGORISM (GAHN-guh-rizm)
- Named for the 17th century Spanish poet, Luis de Gongora y Argote, a literary style characterized
by stilted obscurity and the use of affected devices
of embellishment.
(See also Baroque, Conceit, Euphuism,
Marinism,
Melic Verse)
- GRAMMATICAL RHYME
- See under Polyptoton
- GRAVE (grayv or grahv)
- In poetry, a mark ( ` ) indicating that the e in the English ending ed is to
be pronounced for the sake of meter.