Glossary for poets

A poem in which certain letters of each line spell out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically

An extended metaphor in which the characters, places, and objects in a narrative carry figurative meaning, often religious, moral, or historical in nature

Makes use of repeated sound at the beginning of multiple words, grouped together

An indirect reference to, including but not limited to, an idea, event, or person

A literary device where the letters that make up a word, phrase, or name are rearranged to create new ones

A three-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which two unstressed syllables are followed by a stressed syllable

A poetic technique in which successive phrases or lines begin with the same words

A collection of literary works chosen by the compiler

Used to make inanimate objects, forces and animals appear to actually be human beings

Two contrasting ideas are put together to achieve a desired outcome

A pithy, instructive statement or truism, like a maxim or adage

An address to a dead or absent person, or personification as if he or she were present

A poem examining the role of poets themselves as subjects, their relationships to the poem, and the act of writing

The repetition of vowel sounds across a line of text or poetry, close together enough to be noticeable

A love poem or song welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn

A type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music

A form of lyric poetry that originated in medieval France following a strict rhyme scheme

Poetry written in unrhymed but metered lines, almost always iambic pentameter

A form that reaches into the experiences and histories of African Americans, with its roots in music

Poetry describing the physical and psychological borders that exist for people of mixed backgrounds

The patterning of rhythm in natural speech, or in poetry without a distinct meter

A poetic device in which there is a pause between a line of poetry

The group of authors or works that a consensus of academics, historians and teachers recognise as worthy of study

A poetic form composed entirely of lines from poems by other poets, also collage

A small collection of poetry, generally no more than 40 pages, that often centres on a specific theme

A poem or stanza composed of five lines

A poetic form composed entirely of lines from poems by other poets, also cento

A compilation of poems written by one or more poets

An elaborate, improbable comparison between two very unlike things to create an imaginative connection between them

A noun you can experience or detect with your five senses - you can touch it, taste it, hear it, see it or smell it

The poet’s intent is conveyed by graphic patterns of letters, words, or symbols rather than by the meaning of words

A resemblance in sound between two words, or an initial rhyme

A poetic form that interweaves two or more poems to create a single poem that can be read in multiple ways, depending on how the poem is designed on the page

A pair of consecutive lines of poetry that create a complete thought or idea

A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables

A disruption in the harmonic sounds or rhythm of a verse, for disturbing effect

A low, or trivial, form of verse, loosely constructed and often irregular, but effective because of its simple mnemonic rhyme and loping metre

A form of performance poetry that emerged in Jamaica in the 1970s, combining reggae rhythms with politically and socially conscious lyrics

Poetry with a strong ecological emphasis or message

A vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art

A poem that reflects upon death or loss

A pause at the end of a poetic line

The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next

A short, fixed final stanza of a poem pointing the moral and usually addressing the person to whom the poem is written

A long narrative in verse form that retells the heroic journey of a single person, or group of people

A quotation from another literary work that is placed beneath the title at the beginning of a poem or section of a poem

Poets present their poems in the form of letters appealing to emotions and feelings

Blacking out or erasing words in an existing text source to create new, original poems

A unit of meter, usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable

The physical structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition

Any form of poetry that does not rely on consistent patterns of rhyme and meter

Poems that are generally sung including multiple couplets put together, originating in Arabic poetry

A poetic form that takes a word from each line of an existing poem and uses them as the last word of each line in a new poem

An unrhymed Japanese poetic form that consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables respectively

Religious songs of praise or celebration to God or to a god

A metrical foot of poetry consisting of two syllables

A rhythmic pattern in poetry that consists of ten syllables, with stress on every other syllable

A short-expression used to liven up spoken and written language that means something different than its literal translation

A vivid and vibrant form of description that appeals to readers’ senses and imagination

Words/lines which are spoken or chanted in a magical fashion e.g. the witches in Macbeth

Any poem expressing deep grief, usually at the death of a loved one or some other loss

A five-line poem that consists of a single stanza, an AABBA rhyme scheme, and whose subject is a short, pithy tale or description

A three stanza poem. The first stanza must be 31 syllables, and be an imperative, a set of instructions. The second stanza is 14 syllables, broken into 3 lines (no specific number of syllables per line). The 3rd stanza is 10 syllables, and must be a question or questions

A formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person

A short, highly musical verse that conveys powerful feelings

A common poetic device where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object

A group of 17th-century poets whose works are marked by philosophical exploration, colloquial diction, ingenious conceits, irony, and metrically flexible lines

The rhythmic pattern of a poetic line

A recurring image or theme that appears throughout the work to reinforce a deeper central meaning

The annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends

Written to describe or comment on a particular event and often written for a public reading

A short lyric poem that praises an individual, an idea, or an event

A figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense, like ‘hiss’

A figure of speech that brings together contradictory words for effect, like ‘deafening silence’

A word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward and forward

A small collection of poetry, usually 15 to 30 poems, centring around one theme

A poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza

The imitation of the style of another work, writer or genre, which relies on deliberate exaggeration to achieve comic or satirical effect

A genre or mode of poetry that refers to works that idealise country life and the landscape they take place in

A poetic meter in which a line of poetry consists of 5 groups of stressed and unstressed syllables called metrical feet

A poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given human qualities

The act by a writer or poet of changing facts or rules to make a story or poem more interesting or effective

A poet appointed by a government or organisation, who may be asked to compose poems by that appointing body

A poem of tribute or gratitude

Poetry not broken into verse lines, but demonstrating other traits such as symbols, metaphors, and other figures of speech common to poetry

An intentional rearrangement or selection of words in order to create humour

A series of four lines that make one verse of a poem, known as a stanza

Any poetic form or stanza that contains five lines

A line, phrase, or single word that is repeated periodically within the poem to build up drama, emphasis, or rhythm

A form written by multiple collaborating poets

Repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas, used to emphasise an idea, create rhythm, and/or develop a sense of urgency

The use of corresponding sounds in lines of writing, occurring at the end of lines or in the middle

The ordered pattern of rhyming words at the end of each line of a poem. This pattern is labelled using capital letters, AABBCC

The recurrence of specific sounds based on long and short patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables

Characterised by the repeating lines of the rentrement, or refrain, and the two rhyme sounds throughout

A fixed poetic form that runs on two rhymes, a variant of the rondeau

A poem that uses irony, humor, or exaggeration in order to criticise an aspect of contemporary society

A syllabic form of 7 lines where the syllable count starts at one in line one, increasing by one each line up to line four, then decreasing at the same rate until line seven has one syllable again

A six-line stanza or poem, or the second half of a sonnet, not requiring a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern

A complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a three-line envoi

A poem of fourteen lines following an initial rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA. They use iambic pentameter as their meter

A poem that consists of fourteen lines divided into three quatrains and one heroic couplet

A comparison between two unlike things that uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’

A competitive art form where poets perform their poetry against fellow poets and in front of an audience

The voice of the poem, similar to a narrator in fiction

Poetry intended for performance

A division of a poem consisting of two or more lines arranged together as a unit

The emphasis that falls on certain syllables and not others

A natural division of a word. For example, the word flower has two syllables: -flow and -er.

The use of imagery to represent complex ideas, allowing readers to engage with the abstract concretely

A period of time during which publishers ask for any poems to be submitted

A thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line

A unit of poetry that contains three lines

A poem, Italian in origin, composed of tercets woven into a complex rhyme scheme

A literary device that reflects the writer’s attitude toward the subject matter or audience of a literary work

Translating poetry from one language to another, fraught with difficulty to retain the poet’s original intention, meaning and tone

A short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout

A type of metrical foot consisting of two syllables, the first is stressed and the second is an unstressed syllable

A single line, a stanza, or the entire poem itself

A novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose

A highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains

The turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or And yet