GLOSSARY OF POETIC TERMS

ABECEDARIAN POEM (ay-bee-see-DARE-ee-un)

An alphabetic acrostic poem; a poem having verses beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet.

Sidelight: Although now often considered a learning exercise for children, abecedarii were associated with divinity in ancient cultures.

(Compare Serpentine Verses)

AB OVO (ab OH-voh)

See under In Medias Res

ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE (a-ka-day-MEE frwah-SEHZ)

See under Poet Laureate

ACATALECTIC

A term describing a line of verse which is metrically complete, i.e., not shortened by the omission of the ending syllable of the final foot. Acatalexis is the opposite of catalexis.

(Compare Hypercatalectic)

ACCENT

The rhythmically significant stress in the articulation of words, giving some syllables more relative prominence than others. In words of two or more syllables, one syllable is almost invariably stressed more strongly than the other syllables. In words of one syllable, the degree of stress normally depends on their grammatical function; nouns, verbs, and adjectives are usually given more stress than articles or prepositions. The words in a line of poetry are usually arranged so the accents occur at regular intervals, with the meter defined by the placement of the accents within the foot. Accent should not be construed as emphasis.

Sidelight: Two degrees of accent are natural to many multi-syllabic English words, designated as primary and secondary.

Sidelight: When a syllable is accented, it tends to be raised in pitch and lengthened. Any or a combination of stress/pitch/length can be a metrical accent.

Sidelight: A semantic shift in accent can alter meaning. In the statement, "give me the book," for example, the meaning can be altered depending on whether the word "me" or the word "book," receives the more prominent stress. In metrical verse, the meter might help determine the poet's intent, but not always.

Sidelight: In English, when the full accent falls on a vowel, as in PO-tion, that vowel is called a long vowel; when it falls on an articulation or consonant, as in POR-tion, the preceding vowel is a short vowel. In the classical Greek and Latin quantitive verse, however, long and short vowels referred to duration, i.e., how long they were held in utterance.

(See also Cadence, Ictus, Modulation, Rhythm, Sprung Rhythm, Wrenched Accent)
(Compare Caesura, Slack)

ACCENTUAL VERSE

Verse in which the metrical system is based on the count or pattern of accented syllables, which establish the rhythm. The accents must be normal speech stresses rather than those suggested by the metrical pattern. The total number of syllables may vary.

Sidelight: Most modern English poetry is a combination of accentual and syllabic verse.

(Contrast Quantitive Verse)

ACEPHALY (ay-SEF-uh-lee)

The omission of a syllable at the beginning of a line of verse. Such a line is described as acephalous.

Sidelight: An acephalous line might be an intentional variance by the poet or a matter of the scanning interpretation.

(Compare Catalectic)
(Contrast Anacrusis)

ACROSTIC POEM

A poem in which certain letters of the lines, usually the first letters, form a word or message relating to the subject. Of ancient origin, examples of acrostic poems date back as far as the 4th century.

Sidelight: Strictly speaking, an acrostic uses the initial letters of the lines to form the word or message, as in the argument to Jonson's Volpone. If the medial letters are used, it is a mesostich; if the final letters, a telestich. The term acrostic, however, is commonly used for all three. When both the initial and final letters are used, it is called a double acrostic.

(Compare Abecedarian Poem, Serpentine Verses)

ADONIC

A verse consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee or trochee. It is believed to be so named because of its use in songs during the Adonia, an ancient festival in honor of Adonis.

Sidelight: The festival of Adonia was celebrated by women, who spent two days alternating between lamentations and feasting.

(See also Sapphic Verse)

ADYNATON (uh-DYE-nuh-tahn)

A type of hyperbole in which the exaggeration is magnified so greatly that it refers to an impossibility, e.g., "I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles."

Sidelight: An adynaton can also be expressed negatively: "Not all the water in Lake Superior could satisfy his thirst."

AEOLIC ODE

See Horatian Ode

AFFLATUS (uh-FLAY-tus)

A creative inspiration, as that of a poet; a divine imparting of knowledge, thus it is often called divine afflatus.

(See also Helicon, Muse, Numen)

ALBA

See Aubade

ALCAIC VERSE

A Greek lyrical meter, said to be invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from about 600 BC. Written in tetrameter, the greater Alcaic consists of a spondee or iamb followed by an iamb plus a long syllable and two dactyls. The lesser Alcaic, also in tetrameter, consists of two dactylic feet followed by two iambic feet.

Sidelight: Though seldom appearing in English poetry, Alcaic verse was used by Tennyson in his ode, Milton.

ALEXANDRINE

The standard line in French poetry, consisting of twelve syllables with a caesura after the sixth syllable. There are accents on the sixth and last syllables of the line, and usually a secondary stress within each half-line (hemistich). The English Alexandrine is written in iambic hexameter, thus containing twelve syllables in six metrical feet.

Sidelight: The Alexandrine probably received its name from an old French romance, Alexandre le Grand, written about 1180, in which the measure was first used.

Sidelight: The last line of the Spenserian stanza is an Alexandrine.

(See Poulter's Measure)

ALLEGORY

A figurative illustration of truths or generalizations about human conduct or experience in a narrative or description by the use of symbolic fictional figures and actions which the reader can interpret as a resemblance to the subject's properties and circumstances.

Sidelight: Though similar to both a series of symbols and an extended metaphor, the meaning of an allegory is more direct and less subject to ambiguity than a symbol; it is distinguishable from an extended metaphor in that the literal equivalent of an allegory's figurative comparison is not usually expressed.

Sidelight: The term, allegoresis, means the interpretation of a work on the part of a reader; since, by definition, the interpretation of an allegory is an essential factor, the two terms function together in a complementary fashion.

Sidelight: Probably the best-known allegory in English literature is Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.

(Compare Aphorism, Apologue, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Fable, Gnome, Proverb)
(See also Allusion, Metaphor, Personification)

ALLITERATION

Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly," or the line from Shelley's "The Cloud":

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

Sidelight: Alliteration has a gratifying effect on the sound, gives a reinforcement to stresses, and can also serve as a subtle connection or emphasis of key words in the line, but alliterated words should not "call attention" to themselves by strained usage.

(See also Euphony, Modulation, Resonance)
(Compare Assonance, Consonance, Rhyme, Sigmatism)

ALLITERATIVE VERSE

Poetry in which alliteration is a formal structural element in place of rhyme; it was prevalent in a number of old literatures prior to the 14th century, including Anglo-Saxon. In alliterative verse, the first half-line (hemistich) is united with the second half by alliterating stressed syllables; in the first half-line generally two (but sometimes three) syllables alliterate, while in the second half usually only one. Sometimes one alliterating sound is carried through successive lines:

In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Wente wide in this world wondres to here.

        --The Vision of Piers Plowman, by William Langland, 1330?-1400?

Sidelight: To facilitate maintaining the alliterative pattern, poets made frequent use of a specialized vocabulary, consisting of many synonymous words seldom encountered outside of alliterative verse.

Sidelight: By the 14th century, rhyme and meter displaced alliteration as a formal element, although alliterative verse continued to be written into the 16th century and alliteration retains an important function as one of a poet's sound devices.

ALLUSION

An implied or indirect reference to something assumed to be known, such as a historical event or personage, a well-known quotation from literature, or a famous work of art, such as Keats' allusion to Titian's painting of Bacchus in "Ode to a Nightingale."

Sidelight: An allusion can be used by the poet as a means of imagery, since, like a symbol, it can suggest ideas by connotation. Like allegories and parodies, its effectiveness depends upon the reader's acquaintance with the reference alluded to.

ALTAR POEM

See Pattern Poetry

ALTERNATE RHYME

See Cross Rhyme

AMBIGUITY

Applied to words and expressions, the state of being doubtful or indistinct in meaning or capable of being understood in more than one way, in the context in which it is used.

Sidelight: Ambiguity can result from careless or evasive choice of words which bewilder the reader, but its deliberate use is often intended to unify the different interpretations into an expanded enrichment of the meaning of the original expression.

(See also Denotation, Paronomasia, Pun)
(Compare Connotation)

AMPHIBRACH (AM-fuh-brak)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of a long or accented syllable between two short or unaccented syllables, as con-DI-tion or in-FECT-ed.

AMPHIGOURI

A verse composition which, while apparently coherent, contains no sense or meaning, as in Nephelidia, a poem written by A. C. Swinburne as a parody of his own alliterative-predominant style, which begins:

From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through a notable nimbus of nebulous noonshine,
Pallid and pink as the palm of the flag-flower that flickers with fear of the flies as they float,

(See also Macaronic Verse, Nonsense Poetry)

AMPHIMACER (am-FIM-uh-suhr)

See Cretic

ANACHRONISM (uh-NAK-ruh-nizm)

The placement of an event, person, or thing out of its proper chronological relationship, sometimes unintentional, but often deliberate as an exercise of poetic license.

Sidelight: Anachronisms most frequently appear in imaginative portrayals with historical settings, such as a clock in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and a reference to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra.

(Compare Hysteron Proteron, In Medias Res)

ANACLASIS

In classical poetry, the exchange of place between short and long syllables in Ionic feet to alter the rhythm.

ANACREONTIC (uh-nah-kree-AHN-tik)

A term describing odes written in the style of the Greek poet, Anacreon, convivial in tone or theme, relating to the praise of love and wine, as in Abraham Cowley's Anacreontiques.

Sidelight: Francis Scott Key's 1814 poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was set to the tune of a popular song of the day, "To Anacreon in Heaven," composed by John Stafford Smith as a drinking song for London's Anacreontic Society. In 1931 it was officially adopted by the U.S. Congress as the national anthem.

ANACRUSIS (an-a-KROO-sis)

One or more unaccented syllables at the beginning of a line of verse that are regarded as preliminary to and not part of the metrical pattern.

(See also Procephalic)
(Compare Feminine Ending, Hypercatalectic)
(Contrast Acephaly)

ANADIPLOSIS (an-uh-duh-PLOH-sus)

Also called epanadiplosis, the repetition of a prominent (usually the final) word of a phrase, clause, line, or stanza at the beginning of the next, often with extended or altered meaning, as in: "his hands were folded -- folded in prayer," or Keats' repetition of the word, "forlorn," linking the seventh and eighth stanzas of "Ode to a Nightingale."

(Compare Anaphora, Chain Rhyme, Echo, Epistrophe, Epizeuxis,
                 Incremental Repetition, Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello Verses)

ANAGOGE or ANAGOGY (AN-uh-go-jee)

The spiritual or mystical interpretation of a word or passage beyond the literal, allegorical, or moral sense.

ANALECTS or ANALECTA

Miscellaneous extracts collected from the works of authors.

ANALOGY

An agreement or similarity in some particulars between things otherwise different; sleep and death, for example, are analogous in that they both share a lack of animation and a recumbent posture.

Sidelight: Prevalent in literature, the use of an analogy carries the inference that if things agree in some respects, it's likely that they will agree in others.

(Compare Simile, Symbol)

ANAPEST, ANAPESTIC

A metrical foot with two short or unaccented syllables followed by a long or accented syllable, as in inter-VENE or for a WHILE. William Cowper's "Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk," is a poem in which anapestic feet are predominately used, as in the opening line:
I am MON | -arch of ALL | I sur-VEY,

Sidelight: In English poetry, with the exception of limericks, anapestic verse is seldom used for whole poems, but can often be highly effective as a variation.

(See also Meter, Rhythm)

ANAPHORA (uh-NAF-or-uh)

Also called epanaphora, the repetition of the same word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines for rhetorical or poetic effect, as in Lincoln's "we cannot dedicate- we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow this ground" or from Fitzgerald's The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

(See also Epistrophe, Symploce)
(Compare Anadiplosis, Echo, Epizeuxis, Incremental Repetition,
                 Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello Verses)

ANASTROPHE (uh-NAS-truh-fee)

A type of hyperbaton involving the inversion of the natural or usual syntactical order of a pair of words for rhetorical or poetic effect, as "hillocks green" for "green hillocks," or "high triumphs hold" for "hold high triumphs" in Milton's "L'Allegro," or from the same poem:

Meadows trim, with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;

(Compare Antistrophe, Chiasmus, Hypallage)

ANISOMETRIC

See under Stanza

ANTANACLASIS ( an-tuh-NAK-luh-sis)

A figure of speech in which the same word is repeated in a different sense within a clause or line, e.g., "while we live, let us live."

Sidelight: Since the play on senses can be used to create homonymous puns, antanaclasis is related to paronomasia.

(See also Epanalepsis, Epizeuxis, Ploce, Polyptoton)

ANTHIMERIA (AN-thih-MEER-ee-uh)

See under Polyptoton

ANTHOLOGY

A collection of selected literary, artistic, or musical works or parts of works.

(See also Canon, Companion Poem, Cycle, Lyric Sequence, Sonnet Sequence)

ANTIBACCHIUS (AN-ti-ba-KEE-us)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables followed by a short syllable.

ANTICLIMAX

The intentional use of elevated language to describe the trivial or commonplace, or a sudden transition from a significant thought to a trivial one in order to achieve a humorous or satiric effect, as in Pope's The Rape of the Lock:

Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take -- and sometimes tea.

An anticlimax also occurs in a series in which the ideas or events ascend toward a climactic conclusion but terminate instead in a thought of lesser importance. Bathos is an anticlimax which is unintentional.

(See also Purple Patch)

ANTIMETABOLE (an-tye-muh-TAB-uh-lee)

See Chiasmus

ANTIPHRASIS (an-TIF-ruh-sus)

The ironic or humorous use of words in a sense not in accord with their literal meaning, as "a giant of three feet four inches."

(Compare Burlesque, Hudibrastic Verse, Oxymoron, Parody, Satire)

ANTISPAST (AN-ti-spast)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables between two short syllables.

ANTISTROPHE (an-TIS-troh-fee)

The second division in the triadic structure of Pindaric verse, corresponding metrically to the strophe; also, the stanza following or alternating with and responding to the strophe in ancient lyric poetry; also, in rhetoric, the reversal of terms mutually dependent on each other, as from "the captain of the crew" to "the crew of the captain."

(See also Epode)
(Compare Anastrophe)

ANTITHESIS

A figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases, such as, "he promised wealth and provided poverty," or "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, " or from Pope's An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot:

Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,

Also, an antithesis is the second of two contrasting or opposing constituents, following the thesis.

(Compare Oxymoron)

ANTONOMASIA (an-tuh-no-MAY-zhuh)

The use of a name, epithet, or title in place of a proper name, as Bard for Shakespeare.

(Compare Cataphora, Metonymy)

ANTONYM

One of two or more words that have opposite meanings.

(Compare Homonym, Paronym, Synonym)

APHAERESIS or APHERESIS (uh-FEHR-uh-sus)

A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the beginning of a word, as 'twas for it was.

(Compare Apocope, Syncope, Synaeresis, Synaloepha)
(See also Aphesis)

APHESIS (AFF-uh-sus)

A form of aphaeresis in which the syllable omitted is short and unaccented, as in 'round for around.

APHORISM

A brief statement containing an important truth or fundamental principle.

(Compare Allegory, Apologue, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Fable, Gnome, Proverb)

APOCOPE (uh-PAH-kuh-pee)

A type of elision in which a letter or syllable is omitted at the end of a word, as in morn for morning.

(Compare Aphaeresis, Syncope, Synaeresis, Synaloepha)

APOLOGUE

An allegorical narrative such as a fable, usually intended to convey a moral or a useful truth.

(Compare Allegory, Aphorism, Didactic Poetry, Epigram, Gnome, Proverb)

APOSIOPESIS (ap-uh-sy-uh-PEE-sis)

Stopping short of a complete thought for effect, thus calling attention to it, usually by a sudden breaking off, as "he acted like--but I pretended not to notice," leaving the unsaid portion to the reader's imagination.

(See Ellipsis)

APOSTROPHE (uh-PAHS-truh-fee)

A figure of speech in which an address is made to an absent or deceased person or a personified thing rhetorically, as in William Cowper's "Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk":

O solitude! Where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?

An apostrophe is also a punctuation mark used to indicate the omission of letter(s) in an elision.

Sidelight: When the poet addresses a muse or a god for inspiration, it is called an invocation.

(Compare Prosopopeia)

APPROXIMATE RHYME

See Near Rhyme

ARCADIA

A region or scene characterized by idyllic quiet and simplicity, often chosen as a setting for pastoral poetry, from Arcadia, a picturesque region in ancient Greece.

(See also Bucolic, Eclogue, Idyll, Madrigal)

ARCHAISM (AHR-kee-izm)

The intentional use of a word or expression no longer in general use, for example, thou mayst is an archaism meaning you may. Archaisms can evoke the sense of a bygone era.

Sidelight: Spenser's The Faerie Queene contains a number of archaisms. Syntactic inversions such as the hyperbaton can also also provide an archaic effect.

ARGUMENT

The subject matter or central theme of a work of literature or a summary of the work, often used as a prologue to a drama, epic, or narrative, as in Jonson's Volpone.

ARS POETICA

A treatise by the Roman poet, Horace (65BC-8BC), setting forth principles of poetic composition. The term is also applied to other authoritative works dealing with the art of poetry.

ARSIS

The accented part of a poetic foot; the point where an ictus is put.

Sidelight: In musical terminology, the arsis is the upbeat, the unaccented part of a measure; due to an early confusion which was later recognized but never reversed, the meaning of the term is the opposite when used in reference to the poetic foot.

(Contrast Thesis)

ASSONANCE

The relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus a vowel rhyme, as in the words, date and fade.

Sidelight: The effective use of internal assonantal sounds is displayed throughout Byron's "She Walks in Beauty."

(See also Euphony, Near Rhyme, Resonance, Sound Devices)
(Compare Alliteration, Consonance, Modulation, Rhyme)

ASYNDETON (uh-SIN-duh-tahn)

The omission of conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words and phrases, as in "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

(Contrast Polysyndeton)

AUBADE (OH-bahd)

A song or poem with a motif of greeting the dawn, often involving the parting of lovers, or a call for a beloved to arise, as in Shakespeare's "Song," from Cymbeline.

Sidelight: The dawn song is also known as an alba (Provençal), aube (Old French), and tagalied (German).

(Compare Serenade)

AUBE

See Aubade

AVANT-GARDE

The innovating artists or writers who promote the use of new or experimental concepts or techniques.

(See Imagism, Impressionism, Objectivism, Realism, Symbolism)

A poet without love were a physical and metaphysical impossibility.

---Thomas Carlyle


Look, then, into thine heart, and write!

---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

B

BACCHIUS ( ba-KEE-us)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of a short syllable followed by two long syllables.

BALLAD

A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends. The plot is the dominant element, dealing with a single crucial episode, narrated impersonally, with frequent use of repetition. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming, an xbyb rhyme scheme.

Sidelight: Many old-time ballads were written and performed by minstrels attached to noblemen's courts. Folk ballads are of unknown origin and are usually lacking in artistic finish. Meant to be sung, but often studied as poetry, the texts are independent of the melodies, which are often used for a number of different ballads. Because they are handed down by oral tradition, folk ballads are subject to variations and continual change. Other types of ballads include those transferred from rural to urban settings, and literary ballads, combining the natures of epic and lyric poetry, which are written by known authors, often in the style and form of the folk ballad, such as Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci" or Scott's "Jock o' Hazeldean."

(See also Broadside Ballad, Lay, Tragedy)
(Compare Chanson de Geste, Common Measure, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)

BALLADE (ba-LAHD)

Frequently represented in French poetry, a fixed form consisting of three seven or eight-line stanzas using no more than three recurrent rhymes, with an identical refrain after each stanza and a closing envoi repeating the rhymes of the last four lines of the stanza. A variation containing six stanzas is called a double ballade.

Sidelight: The ballade was prominent in French literature from the 14th to the 16th century and was favored by many poets, including Francois Villon, for example, in poems such as "Des Dames du Temps Jadis." In the nineteenth century it was popular with poets like Verlaine and Baudelaire. In English literature, Chaucer wrote ballades and some late-nineteenth century English poets also used the form.

(Compare Chant Royale)

BALLAD METER

See Ballad

BARD

An ancient composer, singer or declaimer of epic verse, celebrating the deeds of gods and heroes.

Sidelight: Today the term is popularly applied to poets of significant repute as a title of honor, with William Shakespeare being known as "The Bard of Avon" and Robert Burns as "The Bard of Ayrshire."

(See also Metrist, Poet, Sonneteer, Versifier, Wordsmith)
(Compare Minstrel, Troubadour)

BAROQUE (buh-ROHK)

An elaborate, extravagantly complex, sometimes grotesque, style of artistic expression prevalent in the late 16th to early 18th centuries. The baroque influence on poetry was expressed by Euphuism in England, Marinism in Italy, and Gongorism in Spain.

BATHOS

An unintentional shift from the sublime to the ridiculous which can result from the use of overly elevated language to describe trivial subject matter, or from an exaggerated attempt at pathos which misfires to the point of being ludicrous. Bathos can be viewed as an unintentional anticlimax.

BEAST FABLE or BEAST EPIC

See under Fable

BINARY METER

A meter which has two syllables per foot, as in iambic, trochaic, pyrrhic, and spondaic meters. Binary meters are sometimes referred to as duple or double meters.

(Compare Ternary Meter)

BLANK VERSE

Poetry written without rhymes, but which retains a set metrical pattern, usually iambic pentameter (five iambic feet per line) in English verse. Since it is a very flexible form, the writer not being hampered in the expression of thought or syntactic structure by the need to rhyme, it is used extensively in narrative and dramatic poetry. In lyric poetry, blank verse is adaptable to lengthy descriptive and meditative poems. An example of blank verse is found in the well-known lines from Act 4, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice:

The qua | lity | of mer | cy is | not strain'd,
It drop | peth as | the gen | tle rain | from heaven
Upon | the place | beneath; | it is | twice blest:
It bles | seth him | that gives | and him | that takes;

Sidelight: Blank verse and free verse are often misunderstood or confused. A good way to remember the difference is to think of the word blank as meaning that the ends of the lines where rhymes would normally appear are "blank," i.e., devoid of rhyme; the free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of traditional versification.

(See also Verse Paragraph)

BOUTS-RIMES (boo-REEM)

An 18th century parlor game in which a list of rhyming words was drawn up and handed to the players, who had to make a poem from the list keeping the rhymes in their original order.

(See also Crambo)

BRETON LAY

See Lay

BROADSIDE BALLAD

A ballad written in doggerel, printed on a single sheet of paper and sold for a penny or two on English street corners in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The name of the tune to which they were to be sung was indicated on the sheet. The subject matter of broadside ballads covered a wide range of current, historical, or simply curious events and also extended to moral exhortations and religious propaganda.

Sidelight: The rogue, Autolycus, in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, is a peddler whose wares include broadside ballads.

BROKEN RHYME

Also called split rhyme, a rhyme produced by dividing a word at the line break to make a rhyme with the end word of another line. In Hopkins' "The Windhover," for example, he divided kingdom at the end of the first line to rhyme with the word wing ending the fourth line.

BUCOLIC

Derived from the Greek word for herdsman, an ancient term for a poem dealing with a pastoral subject.

(See also Arcadia, Eclogue, Idyll, Madrigal)

BURDEN

The central topic or principle idea, often repeated in a refrain.

(See also Motif, Theme)

BURLESQUE

A work which is intended to ridicule by the use of grotesque exaggeration or by the treatment of a trifling subject with the gravity due a matter of great importance.

(See also Hudibrastic Verse, Lampoon, Mock Epic, Parody, Pasquinade, Satire)
(Compare Antiphrasis, Irony, Purple Patch)

'T is the heart's current lends the cup its glow,
Whate'er the fountain whence the draught may flow.

---Oliver Wendell Holmes


Great thoughts come from the heart.

---Marquis of Vauvenargues

CACOPHONY (cack-AH-fuh-nee or cack-AW-fuh-nee)

Discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letters or syllables which are grating to the ear, usually inadvertent, but sometimes deliberately used in poetry for effect.

Sidelight: Sound devices are important to poetry. To create sounds appropriate to the content, the poet may sometimes prefer to achieve a cacophonous effect instead of the more commonly sought-for euphony. The use of words with the consonants b, k and p, to cite one example, produce harsher sounds than the soft f and v or the liquid l, m and n.

(See also Dissonance)
(Contrast Euphony)

CADENCE

The progressive rhythmical pattern in lines of verse; also, the natural tone or modulation of the voice determined by the alternation of accented or unaccented syllables.

Sidelight: Cadence differs from meter in that it is not necessarily regular, but rather a more flexible concept of rhythm such as is characteristic of free verse and prose poetry.

(See also Accent, Ictus, Sprung Rhythm, Stress)
(Compare Caesura)

CAESURA (siz-YUR-uh)

A rhythmic break or pause in the flow of sound which is commonly introduced in about the middle of a line of verse, but may be varied for different effects. Usually placed between syllables rhythmically connected in order to aid the recital as well as to convey the meaning more clearly, it is a pause dictated by the sense of the content or by natural speech patterns, rather than by metrics. It may coincide with conventional punctuation marks, but not necessarily. A caesura within a line is indicated in scansion by the parallel symbol (||), as in the first line of Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?":

I'm no | body! || Who are | you?

Sidelight: As a grammatical, rhythmic, and dramatic device, as well as an effective means of avoiding monotony, the caesura is a subtle but effective weapon in the skilled poet's arsenal.

Sidelight: Since caesura and pause are often used interchangeably, it is better to use metrical pause for the type of "rest" which compensates for the omission of a syllable.

Sidelight: A caesura occurring at the end of a line is not marked in the scanning process.

Sidelight: The classical caesura was a break caused by the ending of a word within a foot.

(See Diaeresis)
(See also Alexandrine, Hemistich)
(Compare Accent, Cadence, Rhythm)

CANON

In a literary sense, the authoritative works of a particular writer; also, an accepted list of works perceived to represent a cultural, ideological, historical, or biblical grouping.

Sidelight: Other literary groupings or collections include sonnet sequences, lyric sequences, cycles, companion poems, and anthologies.

CANTO

A major division of an extended narrative poem, such as an epic, as distinguished from shorter divisions like stanzas.

CANZONE (kan-ZO-nee)

An Italian lyric poem of varying stanzaic length, usually written in a mixture of hendecasyllables and heptasyllables with a concluding short stanza or envoi.

Sidelight: The word "canzone" is derived from the Latin cantio (a song) and normally embraced subjects like love, heroic courage, or moral virtue. Milton's pastoral elegy, Lycidas, is an example in English poetry of a structure similar to the canzone.

(Compare Ghazal, Melic Verse, Ode, Romance, Society Verse)

CARMINA FIGURATA (KAHR-muh-nuh fig-yuh-RAY-tuh) or CARMEN FIGURATUM

See Pattern Poetry

CARPE DIEM (KAHR-peh DEE-em)

Latin for "seize the day," a common motif in lyric verse throughout the history of poetry, with the emphasis on making the most of current pleasures because life is short and time is flying, as in Robert Herrick's, "To the Virgins" or Edward Fitzgerald's The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.

CATACHRESIS (kata-KREE-sis)

Misuse or abuse of words; the use of the wrong word for the context, as atone for repent, ingenuous for ingenious, or a forced trope in which a word is used too far removed from its true meaning, as "melancholy table" or Milton's "blind mouth" in Lycidas.

(See also Enallage, Malapropism, Mixed Metaphor, Oxymoron, Paradox, Solecism, Synesthesia)

CATALECTIC, CATALEXIS

A term applied to a line of verse which is metrically incomplete due to the omission of one or two of the ending unaccented syllables of the final foot.

Sidelight: In versification, poets sometimes use catalexis in lines of trochaic and dactylic verse to achieve a final accented syllable for a strong close or a rhyme, as did William Blake in the poem, "Tyger! Tyger!"

(Compare Acatalectic, Acephaly, Hypercatalectic)

CATALOG VERSE

A poem comprised of a list of persons, places, things, or abstract ideas which share a common denominator. An ancient form, it was originally a type of didactic poetry.

CATAPHORA

The use of a grammatical substitute (like a pronoun) which has the same reference as the next word or phrase, as "before him, John saw a sea of smiling faces."

(Compare Antonomasia, Metonymy)

CAUDATE RHYME

See Tail Rhyme

CENTO

Poetry made up of lines borrowed from a combination of established authors, usually resulting in a change in meaning and a humorous effect.

(Compare Parody, Pastiche)

CHAIN RHYME

Also called interlocking rhyme, a rhyme scheme in which a rhyme in a line of one stanza is used as a link to a rhyme in the next stanza, as in the aba bcb cdc, etc. of terza rima or the aaab cccb of "La Tour Eiffel."

Sidelight: Another type of chain rhyme, which is usually referred as rime enchainée, links consecutive lines, with the last word of one line rhyming with the first word of the following line.

(Compare Anadiplosis, Envelope Rhyme)

CHAIN VERSE

Similar to chain rhyme, but links words, phrases, or lines (instead of rhyme) by repeating them in succeeding stanzas, as in the pantoum, but there are many variations.

(Compare Envelope, Rondeau)

CHANSON DE GESTE (shan-SAWN duh ZHEST))

Literally, a song of heroic deeds, it refers to a class of Old French epic poems of the Middle Ages, such as the Chanson de Roland, believed to have been written by the Norman poet, Turold.

(See Jongleur, Trouvere)
(See also Epic, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)
(Compare Ballad, Narrative, Tragedy)

CHANT ROYALE

An elaborate fixed form of ballade in Old French poetry, consisting of five stanzas of eleven lines with a refrain at the end of each stanza, rhyming ababccddedE and an envoi of five lines rhyming ddedE.

Sidelight: The chant royale was originally used by 12th century troubadours and trouveres. Its 60-line length provided increased range for elaboration of the subject matter, which often dealt with satirical observations as well as elevated topics.

CHAPBOOK

A small book or pamphlet containing ballads, poems, popular tales or tracts, etc.

CHAUCERIAN STANZA

See Rhyme Royal

CHIASMUS (kye-AZ-mus)

An inverted parallelism; the reversal of the order of corresponding words or phrases (with or without exact repetition) in successive clauses which are usually parallel in syntax, as in Pope's "a fop their passion, but their prize a sot," or Goldsmith's "to stop too fearful, and too faint to go."

Sidelight: While the term, chiasmus, is usually used in reference to syntax and word order, it also includes the repetition in reverse of any element of a poem, including sound patterns.

Sidelight: An antimetabole (an-tye-muh-TAB-uh-lee) is a type of chiasmus in which the words reversed involve a repetition of the same words, as "do not live to eat, but eat to live," or Shakespeare's "Remember March, the ides of March remember." The distinction is not generally observed, however.

(See also Anastrophe, Hypallage)
(Compare Envelope, Palindrome)

CHOREE (koh-REE)

A rare form of trochee, also written as choreus.

CHORIAMB

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four syllables, the first two forming a trochee and the second two an iambus, as in BOT-tom- | less PIT or RO-ses | are RED.

CHORIC ODE

See Pindaric Verse

CINQUAIN (sing-KANE)

A five-line stanza of syllabic verse, the successive lines containing two, four, six, eight and two syllables. The cinquain, based on the Japanese haiku, was an innovation of the American poet, Adelaide Crapsey.

(See also Quintet)

CLASSICISM

The adherence to the traditional standards that are universally valid and enduring.

(Compare Idealism, Imagism, Impressionism, Metaphysical,
                 Objectivism, Realism, Romanticism, Symbolism)

CLENCH

See Pun

CLERIHEW (KLEHR-ih-hyew)

A comic light verse, two couplets in length, rhyming aabb, usually dealing with a person mentioned in the initial rhyme. It was named for its originator, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, an English writer, who wrote the following example at age sixteen:

Sir Humphrey Davy
Detested gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

CLIMAX

Rhetorically, a series of words, phrases, or sentences arranged in a continuously ascending order of intensity. If the ascending order is not maintained, an anticlimax or bathos results.

Sidelight: The term is usually applied to the point of supreme interest in a series of thoughts or events, often the turning point of a play or narrative.

CLOSED COUPLET

A couplet in which the sense and syntax is self-contained within its two lines, as opposed to an open couplet.

(See also Distich, Heroic Couplet)

CLOSE RHYME

A rhyme of two contiguous or close words, such as in the idiomatic expressions, "true blue" or "fair and square."

Sidelight: Close rhymes are a distinguishing characteristic of echo verse.

(Compare Ricochet Words)

CLOSET DRAMA

A literary work written in the form of a drama, but intended by the author only for reading, not for performance in the theater.

CLOSURE

The effect of finality, balance, and completeness, which leaves the reader with a sense of fulfilled expectations. Though the term is sometimes employed to describe the effects of individual repetitive elements, such as rhyme, metrical patterns, parallelism, refrains, and stanzas, its most significant application is in reference to the concluding portion of the entire poem.

COMMON MEASURE

A meter consisting chiefly of seven iambic feet arranged in rhymed pairs, thus a line with four accents followed by a line with three accents, usually in a 4-line stanza. It is also called common meter.

Sidelight: A meter of 4-line stanzas of tetrameter verse is called a long meter (L.M.). A meter of 4-line stanzas in which the first, second, and fourth lines are trimeter and the third tetrameter is called a short meter (S.M.). The meter of 8-line stanzas of which the first four lines are tetrameter and the last four are trimeter is called hallelujah meter (H.M.).

Sidelight: While essentially the same as ballad meter, common measure is more regularly iambic.

COMPANION POEM

A poem that is associated with another poem, which it complements.

(See also Anthology, Canon, Cycle, Lyric Sequence, Sonnet Sequence)

CONCEIT

An elaborate metaphor, artificially strained or far-fetched, in which the subject is compared with a simpler analogue usually chosen from nature or a familiar context. Especially associated with intense emotional or spiritual feelings, they sometimes extend through the entire length of a poem. An example of a conceit is Sir Thomas Wyatt's "My Galley," an adaptation of Petrarch's Sonnet 159.

Sidelight: The term is derived from concetto, Italian for "concept." Most modern conceits are written in a more condensed form.

(See also Euphuism, Gongorism, Marinism, Melic Verse, Metaphysical)

CONCRETE POETRY

Poetry which forms a structurally original visual shape, preferably abstract, through the use of reduced language, fragmented letters, symbols, and other typographical variations to create an extreme graphic impact on the reader's attention. The essence of concrete poetry lies in its appearance on the page rather than in the written text; it is intended to be perceived as a visual whole and often cannot be effective when read aloud.

(Compare Pattern Poetry, Visual Poetry)

CONNOTATION

The suggestion of a meaning by a word beyond what it explicitly denotes or describes. The word, home, for example, means the place where one lives, but by connotation, also suggests security, family, love and comfort.

Sidelight: Sometimes one of the connotations of a word gains enough widespread acceptance to become a denotation.

(See also Allusion, Symbol)

CONSONANCE

The close repetition of the same end consonants of stressed syllables with differing vowel sounds, such as boat and night, or the words drunk and milk in the final line of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan."

Sidelight: Consonance most often occurs within a line. When used at line ends in place of rhyme, as in the words, cool and soul, in the third stanza of Emily Dickinson's "He Fumbles at your Spirit," it is sometimes referred to as consonantal rhyme to differentiate it from perfect rhyme and other types of near rhyme.

Sidelight: In a more general sense, consonance also refers to a pleasing combination of sounds; sounds in agreement with tone.

(See also Euphony, Modulation, Resonance, Sound Devices)
(Compare Alliteration, Assonance, Rhyme)

CONTENT

The substance of a poem; the impressions, facts and ideas it contains--the "what-is-being-said."

(Compare Diction, Form, Motif, Persona, Style, Texture, Tone)

CONTINUOUS FORM

See Stanza

CONVENTIONS

In a literary sense, established "codes" of basic principles and procedures for types of works that are recurrent in literature. The prevailing conventions of their time strongly influence writers to select content, forms, style, diction, etc., which are acceptable to the cultural expectations of the public.

Sidelight: A knowledge of conventions, particularly from a historical aspect, aids the reader in the understanding, interpretation, and appreciation of literary works, particularly poems following the classical pastoral and epic conventions.

Sidelight: Conventions can change over time. Their very existence fosters the emergence of originality and serves as a comparative measure and contrast to new concepts.

CONVERSATION POEM

A poem whose light, colloquial treatment of a serious subject is intended to resemble informal conversation. Similar to the dramatic monologue, the term originates from Coleridge's subtitle for his poem, "The Nightingale."

COUPLET

Two successive lines of poetry, usually of equal length and rhythmic correspondence, with end-words that rhyme. The couplet, for practical purposes, is the shortest stanza form, but is frequently joined with other couplets to form a poem with no stanzaic divisions, as in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."

Sidelight: If the couplet is written in iambic pentameter, it is called a heroic couplet.

(See also Closed Couplet. Open Couplet, Distich, Elegiac)

COURTLY LOVE

A late medieval idealized convention establishing a code for the conduct of amorous affairs of ladies and their lovers. Expressed and spread by the minnesingers and troubadours, it became associated with the literary concept of love until the 19th century.

CRAMBO

A game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to be matched in rhyme by the other players.

(See also Bouts-Rimes)

CRETIC

Used in classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of a short syllable between two long syllables, as in THIR-ty-NINE.

Sidelight: Another name for the cretic foot is amphimacer.

CRITICASTER

An inferior or petty critic.

CROSS RHYME

The rhyme scheme of abab, also called alternate rhyme, in which the end words of alternating lines rhyme with each other, i.e., the rhymes cross intervening lines.

Sidelight: Cross rhyming derives from long-line verse such as hexameter in which two lines have caesural words rhymed together and end words rhymed together, as in Swinburne's:

Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides;
But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides.

As written above, the rhyme pattern what the French call rime brisée; if the two long lines were to be split after the caesuras into four short lines, the rhyme pattern would become a cross rhyme.

(Compare Envelope Rhyme)

CURTAL QUATRAIN

See under Quatrain

CYCLE

The aggregate of accumulated literature, plays or musical works treating the same theme. In poetry, the term is typically applied to epic or narrative poems about a mythical or heroic event or character, such as the Siege of Troy or the Nibelungs of medieval times.

Sidelight: After the death of Homer, a certain group of epic poets, between 800 and 550 BC, wrote continuations and additions on the subject of the Trojan War; chief among them were Agias, Arctinos, Eugamon, Lesches and Strasinos. Since their writing was confined to that single subject, they were referred to as cyclic poets.

(See also Anthology, Canon, Companion Poem, Lyric Sequence, Sonnet Sequence)

He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things
ought himself to be a true poem.

---John Milton


For a good poet's made as well as born.

---Ben Jonson

D

DACTYL, DACTYLIC

A metrical foot of three syllables, the first of which is long or accented and the next two short or unaccented, as in MER-rily or LOV-er boy, or from Byron's "The Bride of Abydos":

KNOW ye the | LAND where the | CY-press and | MYR-tle

Sidelight: Except for their use in humorous light verse, dactylic lines are now infrequent in English poetry.

(See also Double Dactyl, Meter, Rhythm)

DADAISM

A short-lived WWI European movement in arts and literature based on deliberate irrationality and the negation of traditional artistic values.

(See Poems of Chance)

DECAMETER (dek-AM-uh-tur)

A line of verse consisting of ten metrical feet.

DECASYLLABLE

A metrical line of ten syllables or a poem composed of ten-syllable lines.

(See also Dodecasyllable, Hendecasyllable, Heptasyllable, Octosyllable)

DENOTATION

The literal dictionary meaning(s) of a word as distinct from an associated idea or connotation.

Sidelight: Many words have more than one denotation, such as the multiple meanings of fair or spring. In ordinary language, we strive for a single precise meaning of words to avoid ambiguity, but poets often take advantage of words with more than one meaning to suggest more than one idea with the same word. A pun also utilizes multiple meanings as a play on words.

DIACOPE (di-ACK-o-pee)

See Epizeuxis

DIAERESIS or DIERESIS (dy-EHR-uh-sus)

The pronunciation of two adjacent vowels within a word as separate sounds rather than as a diphthong, as in coordinate; also, the mark indicating the separate pronunciation, as in naïve.

Sidelight: In classical prosody, the diaeresis was a break or pause in a line of verse occurring when the end of a foot coincides with the end of a word.

(Compare Caesura)

DIBRACH (DYE-brak)

See Pyrrhic

DICTION

The choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language in a literary work; the manner or mode of verbal expression, particularly with regard to clarity and accuracy. The diction of a poem can range from colloquial to formal, from literal to figurative, or from concrete or abstract.

Sidelight: Poetic diction refers to words, phrasing, and figures not usually used in ordinary speech and often utilizes archaisms, neologisms, epithets, kennings, periphrases, connotations, and hyperbaton.

Sidelight: Poets often adapt diction to the form or genre of a poem, for example, elevated for odes, or folksy for ballads.

(Compare Content, Form, Motif, Persona, Style, Texture, Tone)

DIDACTIC POETRY

Poetry which is clearly intended for the purpose of instruction -- to impart theoretical, moral, or practical knowledge, or to explain the principles of some art or science, as Virgil's Georgics, or Pope's An Essay on Criticism.

Sidelight: Didactic poetry can assume the manner and attributes of imaginative works by incorporating the knowledge in a variety of forms, such as dramatic poetry, satire, and parody, among others. Allegories, aphorisms, apologues, fables, gnomes, and proverbs are so closely related to didactic poetry that they can be considered specific types of that genre.

Sidelight: Although the instructional purpose is its primary aim, didactic poetry often contains vivid descriptive passages, digressions, and thoughtful reflections bearing on the subject matter.

(See also Georgic)
(Compare Catalog Verse, Epigram)

DIIAMB or DIAMB (dye-EYE-am, DYE-am)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four syllables, with the first and third short and the second and fourth long, i.e., two iambs considered as a single foot.

DIMETER (DYE-muh-tur)

A line of verse consisting of two metrical feet, or of two dipodies.

(See Meter)

DIPODY, DIPODIC VERSE (DIP-uh-dee, dih-PAH-dik)

A double foot; a unit of two feet.

Sidelight: Sometimes heavy and light stresses alternate in the accented syllables of verse. When such alternations are frequent enough to establish a discernable pattern, the meter is scanned in units of two feet instead of one and termed dipodic verse.

DIRGE

A poem of grief or lamentation, especially one intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites.

Sidelight: In contrast to an elegy, the principle aim of the dirge is to lament the dead, rather than to console survivors.

(See also Epitaph, Monody)

DISPONDEE (dye-SPAHN-dee)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four long syllables, equivalent to a double spondee.

DISSONANCE

A mingling or union of harsh, inharmonious sounds, often deliberately used for effect, as in the lines from Whitman's "The Dalliance of Eagles:"

      The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,
      Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,
      In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling,

Sidelight: The term, dissonance, can also refer to any elements of a poem which are discordant in the context of their use.

Sidelight: Although often considered synonymous with cacophony, the term dissonance more strongly implies a deliberate choice.

(Contrast Euphony)

DISTICH (DIS-tik)

A strophic unit of two lines; a pair of poetic lines or verses which together comprise a complete sense.

Sidelight: If the end words of a distich rhyme, it is called a couplet.

(See also Closed Couplet, Open Couplet, Heroic Couplet)
(Compare Monostich, Hemistich)

DISYLLABLE

A word of two syllables.

(See also Monosyllable, Polysyllable, Trisyllable)

DISYLLABIC RHYME

A rhyme in which two final syllables of words have the same sound, as in fender and bender or beguile and revile.

Sidelight: In the above examples of disyllabic rhymes, fender and bender are also a feminine rhyme, while beguile and revile are also a masculine rhyme.

(See also Mosaic Rhyme, Triple Rhyme)

DITHYRAMB (DITH-eye-ram)

In classical poetry, a type of melic verse associated with drunken revelry and performed to honor Dionysus (Bacchus), the Greek god of wine. In modern usage, the term has come to mean a poem of impassioned frenzy and irregular character.

Sidelight: John Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," bears a resemblance to the dithyrambic form.

DITTY

A simple little poem meant to be sung.

Sidelight: Long ago, the word "ditty" served as a verb, meaning to sing a song or set words to music, but its use as such became obsolete by the 16th century.

(Compare Versicle)

DIVINE AFFLATUS

See Afflatus

DOCHMIUS (DAHK-mee-us) pl. DOCHMII (DAHK-mee-eye)

In classical prosody, a metrical foot consisting of five syllables, the first and fourth being short and the second, third, and fifth long.

DODECASYLLABLE (DOH-decka-SIL-uh- bul)

A metrical line of twelve syllables.

(See also Decasyllable, Hendecasyllable, Heptasyllable, Octosyllable)

DOGGEREL

Originally applied to poetry of loose irregular measure, it now is used to describe crudely written poetry which lacks artistry in form or meaning. It is sometimes deliberately used, however, for comic or satirical effect.

(See Broadside Ballad)
(See also Poetaster, Poeticule, Rhymester, Versifier)

DORIAN ODE

See Pindaric Verse

DOUBLE BALLADE

See Ballade

DOUBLE DACTYL

A word with two dactyls, such as COUNT-er-in-TEL-li-gence or PAR-lia-men-TAR-i-an; also, a modern form of light verse consisting of two quatrains with two dactyls per line. The first line is a hyphenated nonsense word, often "higgledy-piggledy," the second line is a proper name, and the sixth line is a single double dactyl word. The fourth and eighth lines are truncated, lacking the final two unaccented syllables, and rhyme with each other, as in the following example:

Higgledy-piggledy
Doctor D. Livingstone
Scottish explorer of
Note, but of whom

Chiefly we know by the
Anticlimactical
Greeting by Stanley, who
said, "I presume."

                         -- rgs

DOUBLE RHYME

See Disyllabic Rhyme

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

A literary work which consists of a revealing one-way conversation by a character or persona, usually directed to a second person or to an imaginary audience. It typically involves a critical moment of a specific situation, with the speaker's words unintentionally providing a revelation of his character, as in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."

(See also Conversation Poem, Interior Monologue, Soliloquy)
(Compare Prosopopeia)

DRAMATIC POEM

A composition in verse portraying a story of life or character, usually involving conflict and emotions, in a plot evolving through action and dialogue.

Sidelight: Dramatic, lyric, and narrative are the three main groups of poetry. It is possible, however, for a poem to combine the characteristics of all three.

DUPLE METER

See Binary Meter

DYSPHEMISM (DIS-fuh-mizm)

The substitution of a disagreeable, offensive or disparaging expression to replace an agreeable or inoffensive one.

(Contrast Euphemism)

Of all the arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

---Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire


Though an angel should write, still 't is devils must print.

---Thomas Moore

ECHO

The repetition of particular sounds, syllables, words or lines in poetry.

(See also Anadiplosis, Anaphora, Epistrophe, Epizeuxis, Incremental Repetition,
                 Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Rhyme, Stornello Verses)

ECHO VERSE

A form of poem in which a word or two at the end of a line appears as an echo constituting the entire following line. The echo, either the same word or syllable or a homophone, often changes the meaning in a flippant, cynical or punning response, as in Jonathan Swift's lines from, "A Gentle Echo on Woman:"

Shepherd.  What most moves women when we them address?
Echo.                                         A dress.
Shepherd.  Say, what can keep her chaste whom I adore?
Echo.                                         A door.
Shepherd.  If music softens rocks, love tunes my lyre.
Echo.                                         Liar.
Shepherd.  Then teach me, Echo, how shall I come by her?
Echo.                                         Buy her.

(See also Close Rhyme)

ECLOGUE (EHK-lawg or EHK-lahg)

A pastoral poem, usually containing dialogue between shepherds.

(See also Arcadia, Bucolic, Idyll, Madrigal)

EDDA

Either of two collections of mythological, heroic and aphoristic Icelandic poetry from the 12th and 13th centuries.

Sidelight: The first collection contains the mythology of the people; the second, selections from the poetry of the Skalds.

(See also Rune)

EIDILLION or EIDYLLION

See Idyll

EKPHRASIS or ECPHRASIS (EHK-fra-sis)

In modern usage, the vivid literary description of a specific work of art, which may be actual or imaginary, such as a painting, sculpture, tapestry, church, and the like. Originally, the term more broadly applied to a description in words of any experience, person, or thing,

Sidelight: The general term for the effective quality of sense impressions or mental images and the resulting arousal of emotion is enargia (en-AR-jee-uh).

(See also Imagery, Mimesis)

ELEGIAC (el-uh-JY-uk)

In classical prosody, verses written in elegiac meter, i.e., dactylic hexameter couplets, with the second line of each couplet having only an unaccented syllable in the third and sixth feet; also, of or relating to the period in which elegies written in such couplets flourished, about the 7th century BC; also, relating to an elegy.

ELEGIAC STANZA

See Heroic Quatrain

ELEGY

A poem of lament, praise, and consolation, usually formal and sustained, over the death of a particular person; also, a meditative poem in plaintive or sorrowful mood, such as, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," by Thomas Gray.

Sidelight: The pastoral elegy became conventional in the Renaissance and continued into the 19th century. Traditionally, pastoral elegies included an invocation, a lament in which all nature joined, praise, sympathy, and a closing consolation, as in John Milton's Lycidas.

(See also Dirge, Epitaph, Monody)

ELISION

The omission of a letter or syllable as a means of contraction, generally to achieve a uniform metrical pattern, but sometimes to smooth the pronunciation; most such omissions are marked with an apostrophe. Specific types of elision include aphaeresis, apocope, syncope, synaeresis and synaloepha, most of which can be found in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

Sidelight: The opposite of elision is hiatus: the slight break in articulation caused by the occurrence of contiguous vowels, either within a word as "naive" or in the final and beginning vowels of successive words, as "the umbrella."

ELLIPSIS (ih-LIP-suss), pl. ELLIPSES (ih-LIP-seez)

The omission of a word or words necessary to complete a grammatical construction, but which is easily understood by the reader, such as "the virtues I esteem" for "the virtues which I esteem." Also, the marks (. . .) or (--) denoting an omission or pause.

Sidelight: Other terms involving omissions in grammatical construction include: asyndeton, which omits conjunctions; zeugma and syllepsis, which use one word to serve for two; and aposiopesis, which omits a word or phrase at the end of a clause or sentence for effect.

EMBLEM POEMS

See under Pattern Poetry

EMPATHY

The feeling or capacity for awareness, understanding, and sensitivity one experiences when hearing or reading of some event or activity of others, thus imagining the same sensations as that of those actually experiencing them.

EMPHASIS

A deliberate stress of articulation on a word or phrase so as to give an impression of particular significance to it by the more marked pronunciation. In writing, emphasis is indicated by the use of italics or underlining.

(Compare Accent)
(See also under Spondee)

ENALLAGE (en-AL-uh-jee)

The effective use of a grammatically incorrect part of speech in place of the correct form, e.g., present tense in place of past tense, plural for singular, etc., as in Punch magazine's "you pays your money, and you takes your choice."

(See also Catachresis, Malapropism, Mixed Metaphor, Oxymoron, Paradox, Solecism, Synesthesia)
(Compare Hypallage)

ENARGIA

See under Ekphrasis

ENCOMIUM (en-KOH-mee-um)

A speech or composition in high praise of a person, object, or event.

Sidelight: Other terms for works involving praise and commendation include the panegyric, a more formal and elaborate type of encomium, and the eulogy, which applies to praise of the character and accomplishments of a person only; the epinicion is a celebration of victory in an ode, both the hymn and the paean embrace praise addressed to gods, while the epithalamium and prothalamium honor a bride and bridegroom.

END RHYME

A rhyme occurring in the terminating word or syllable of one line of poetry with that of another line, as opposed to internal rhyme.

(See also Feminine Rhyme, Masculine Rhyme, Perfect Rhyme)

END-STOPPED

Denoting a line of verse in which a logical or rhetorical pause occurs at the end of the line, usually marked with a period, comma, or semicolon.

Sidelight: While correctly used to refer to a single line, the term is most frequently used in reference to the couplet, especially the closed or heroic couplet.

(Contrast Enjambment, Open Couplet, Run-On Lines)

ENJAMBMENT

The continuation of the sense and therefore the grammatical construction beyond the end of a line of verse or the end of a couplet.

Sidelight: This run-on device, contrasted with end-stopped, can be very effective in creating a sense of forward motion, fine-tuning the rhythm, and reinforcing the mood, as well as a variation to avoid monotony, but should not be used as a mere mannerism.

(See also Open Couplet)

ENVELOPE

A poetic device in which a line, phrase, or stanza is repeated so as to enclose other material, as in Dryden's:

 
      What passion cannot Music raise and quell!
              When Jubal struck the corded shell,
          His listening brethren stood around,
          And, wondering, on their faces fell
          To worship that celestial sound.
      Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
              Within the hollow of that shell
              That spoke so sweetly and so well.
      What passion cannot Music raise and quell!

Sidelight: The term can apply to rhyme as well. The rhyme scheme abba in a quatrain is termed an envelope rhyme since the rhymes of the first and last lines enclose the other lines.

(Compare Chain Verse, Chiasmus, Rondeau)

ENVOI or ENVOY

A short final stanza of a poem, especially a ballade or sestina, serving as a concise summary, as in Villon's "Des Dames du Temps Jadis."

Sidelight: The Occitan troubadours' term for an envoi was tornada (return). They used tornadas in chant royales as well as ballades.

EPANADIPLOSIS ( ehp-an-uh-duh-PLOH-sus)

See Anadiplosis

EPANALEPSIS (ehp-uh-nuh-LEP-sis)

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated after intervening matter, as "Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more," from Milton's Lycidas. More specifically, the repetition, placed at the end of a sentence, line, clause, or phrase, of the word or words at the beginning of the same sentence, line, clause or phrase.

(See also Antanaclasis, Epizeuxis, Ploce, Polyptoton)

EPANAPHORA (ehp-uh-NAF-or-uh)

See Anaphora

EPIC

An extended narrative poem, usually simple in construction, but grand in scope, exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race.

Sidelight: Homer, the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Epic Poetry." Based on the conventions he established, classical epics began with an argument and an invocation to a guiding spirit, then started the narrative in medias res. In modern use, the term, "epic," is generally applied to all lengthy works on matters of great importance.

(See also Chanson de Geste, Cycle, Epopee, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)
(Compare Ballad, Narrative, Tragedy)
(Contrast Mock-Epic)

EPIC SIMILE

See under Simile

EPIGRAM

A pithy, sometimes satiric, couplet or quatrain which was popular in classic Latin literature and in European and English literature of the Renaissance and the neo-Classical era. Epigrams comprise a single thought or event and are often aphoristic with a witty or humorous turn of thought. Coleridge wrote the following definition:

What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

(See also Monostich, Heroic Couplet)
(Compare Allegory, Apologue, Didactic Poetry, Fable, Gnome, Proverb)

EPIGRAPH

A quotation, or a sentence composed for the purpose, placed at the beginning of a literary work or one of its separate divisions, usually suggestive of the theme.

EPINICION (ehp-uh-NISS-ee-ahn) also EPINICIAN, EPINIKION

A song in celebration of triumph; an ode in praise of a victory in the Greek games or in war.

(See also Encomium, Pindaric Verse)

EPIPHORA (ehp-ih-FOH-ruh)

See Epistrophe

EPISTROPHE (ehp-ISS-truh-fee)

Also called epiphora, the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases or verses, as in Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people."

(See also Anaphora, Symploce)
(Compare Anadiplosis, Echo , Epizeuxis, Incremental Repetition,
                 Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello Verses)

EPITAPH

A brief poem or statement in memory of someone who is deceased, used as, or suitable for, a tombstone inscription; a commemorative lamentation.

(See also Dirge, Elegy, Monody)

EPITHALAMIUM (eh-puh-thuh-LAH-mee-im) or EPITHALAMION

A nuptial song or poem in honor of the bride and bridegroom.

Sidelight: Spenser's Epithalamion, is widely regarded as a treasure of English literature.

Sidelight: Sir John Suckling's "A Ballad upon a Wedding," is a parody of an epithalamium.

(Compare Prothalamium)
(See also Encomium, Fescennine Verses)

EPITHET

An adjective or adjectival phrase, usually attached to the name of a person or thing, such as "Richard the Lion-Hearted," Milton's "ivy-crowned Bacchus" in "L'Allegro," or Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn."

Sidelight: With epithets, poets can compress the imaginative power of many words into a single compound phrase.

Sidelight: An epithet may be either positive or negative in connotation or allusion and sometimes may be freshly coined, like a nonce word, for a particular circumstance or occasion.

(Compare Antonomasia, Kenning, Periphrasis)

EPITRITE (EP-ih-trite)

In classical poetry, a metrical foot consisting of three long syllables and one short syllable, and denominated first, second, third, or fourth according to the position of the short syllable.

(Contrast Paeon)

EPIZEUXIS (eh-puh-ZOOK-sis)

A rhetorical device consisting of the immediate repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis, as in Milton's:

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon.

Sidelight: The placement of a word before a repetition in an epizeuxis is called a diacope, as in Shakespeare's:

Words, words, more words, no matter from the heart.

(See also Antanaclasis, Epanalepsis, Ploce, Polyptoton)
(Compare Anadiplosis, Anaphora, Echo,Incremental Repetition,
                 Parallelism, Polysyndeton, Refrain, Stornello Verses)

EPODE (EHP-ode)

A type of lyric poem in which a long verse is followed by a shorter one, or the third and last part of an ode, or the third part of a triadic Greek poem or Pindaric verse following the strophe and the antistrophe.

EPOPEE (eh-puh-PEE) or EPOPOEIA (eh-puh-PEE-uh)

An epic poem, or the history, action, or legend which is the subject of an epic poem.

(See also Chanson de Geste, Epos, Heroic Quatrain)
(Compare Ballad, Narrative, Tragedy)

EPOS (EH-pahs)

An epic poem; also a number of poems of an epic theme but which are not formally united.

(See also Chanson de Geste, Epopee, Heroic Quatrain)
(Compare Ballad, Narrative, Tragedy)

EPYLLION (eh-PILL-yuhn), pl. EPYLLIA

A brief narrative work in classic poetry written in dactylic hexameter. It commonly dealt with mythological themes, often with a romantic interest, and was characterized by vivid description, scholarly allusion , and an elevated tone.

EQUIVOCAL RHYME

See under Perfect Rhyme

EQUIVOKE or EQUIVOQUE

An ambiguous word or phrase capable more than one interpretation, thus susceptible to use for puns.

ETHOS (EE-thahs)

See under Persona

EULOGY (YOO-luh-jee)

A speech or writing in praise of the character or accomplishments of a person.

(See also Encomium)

EUPHEMISM (YOO-fuh-mizm)

The substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression to replace one that might offend or suggest something unpleasant, for example, "he is at rest" is a euphemism for "he is dead."

(Contrast Dysphemism)

EUPHONY (YOO-fuh-nee)

Harmony or beauty of sound which provides a pleasing effect to the ear, usually sought-for in poetry for effect. It is achieved not only by the selection of individual word-sounds, but also by their arrangement in the repetition, proximity, and flow of sound patterns.

Sidelight: The consonants considered most pleasing in sound are l, m, n, r, v, and w. The harsher consonants in euphonious texts become less jarring when in the proximity of softer sounds. Vowel sounds are generally more euphonious than the consonants, so a line with a higher ratio of vowel sounds will produce a more agreeable effect; also, the long vowels in words like moon and fate are more melodious than the short vowels in cat and bed. But the most important measure of euphonic strategies is their appropriateness to the subject.

(See also Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Modulation, Sound Devices)
(Compare Resonance)
(Contrast Cacophony, Dissonance)

EUPHUISM (YOO-fyuh-wizm)

An ornate Elizabethan style of writing marked by the excessive use of alliteration, antithesis and mythological similes. The term derives from the elaborate and affected style of John Lyly's 16th century romance, Euphues.

(See also Baroque, Conceit, Gongorism, Marinism, Melic Verse)

EXACT RHYME

See Perfect Rhyme

EXTENDED METAPHOR

A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend