GLOSSARY OF POETIC TERMS
from

Bob's Byway


N
 
NARRATIVE
The narration of an event or story, stressing details of plot, incident, and action. Along with dramatic and lyric verse, it is one of the three main groups of poetry
Sidelight: A narrative poem contains more detail than a ballad and is not intended to be sung.
(See also Epyllion, Fable, Fabliau, Lay, Tragedy)
(Compare Chanson de Geste, Epic, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)

NEAR RHYME
Also called approximate rhyme, slant rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme, or half rhyme, a rhyme in which the sounds are similar, but not exact, as in home and come or close and lose. Most near rhymes are types of consonance.
Sidelight: Due to changes in pronunciation, some near rhymes in modern English were perfect rhymes when they were originally written in Old English.
(See also Assonance)

NEOLOGISM (nee-AH-luh-jizm)
The use of new words or new meanings for old words not yet included in standard definitions, as in the recent application of the word cool to denote, very good, excellent or fashionable. Some disappear from usage; others like hip and feedback, for example, remain in the language.

(Compare Nonce Word, Portmanteau Word)

NONCE WORD
From the expression, for the nonce, a word coined or used for a special circumstance or occasion only,
Sidelight: Sometimes a nonce word gains acceptance in the general language, as gerrymander, which means to manipulate unfairly, such as to arbitrarily rearrange the boundaries of a political district to give one party an unfair advantage. This word was coined in 1812, when a voting district was formed with an irregular shape suggesting a resemblance to a salamander during the administration of Elbridge Gerry, then governor of Massachusetts. A word thus adopted into standard usage then ceases to be a nonce word.
(Compare Neologism, Portmanteau Word, Ricochet Words)

NONSENSE POETRY
Poetry which is absurd, foolish or preposterous, usually written in a catchy meter with strong rhymes. It often contains neologisms or portmanteau words, as in Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," and may employ unusual syntax as well.

(See also Amphigouri, Macaronic Verse)

NUMBERS
Metrical feet or verse in general.
Sidelight: The term derives from the quantitive verse of classic prosody, in which the count of morae indicated the mathematical proportions in meter.
NUMEN
A spiritual source or influence, often identified with a natural object, phenomenon, or place.

(See also Afflatus, Helicon, Muse)

NURSERY RHYME
A short poem for children written in rhyming verse and handed down in folklore.

(Compare Jingle)

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Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares!--
The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.

---William Wordsworth


Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

---Robert Frost