Glossary of poetry terms

This is a glossary of poetry terms.

Measures of verse

Types of metre

Below, "short/long" definitions of a syllable of classical languages correspond to "unstressed/stressed" of English language.

• Iamb: short-long
• Trochee or Choreus, choree: long-short
• Spondee: long-long
• Pyrrhic or dibrach: short-short
• Dactyl: long-short-short
• Anapaest or antivdactylus: short-short-long
• Amphibrach: short-long-short
• Amphimacer or cretic: long-short-long
• Molossus: long-long-long
• Tribrach: short-short-short

Tetrasyllables

• primus paeon: long-short-short-short
• secundus paeon: short-long-short-short
• tertius paeon: short-short-long-short
• quartus paeon: short-short-short-long

• first epitrite: short-long-long-long
• second epitrite: long-short-long-long
• third epitrite: long-long-short-long
• fourth epitrite: long-long-long-short

• minor ionic, or double iamb: short-short-long-long
• major ionic: long-long-short-short

• diamb: short-long-short-long
• ditrochee: long-short-long-short

• antispast: short-long-long-short
• choriamb: long-short-short-long

• tetrabrach or proceleusmatic: short-short-short-short
• dispondee: long-long-long-long

Verse forms

• 'a Gra' Reformata' Ten stanza's of ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABAC. Following the rhyme scheme of the 'Villanelle', but with five extra couplets just after each tercet.
• Ballade: Three stanzas of "ababbcbC" followed by a refrain of "bcbC". The last line of each, indicated by the capital letter, is repeated verbatim.
• Chant royal: Five stanzas of "ababccddedE" followed by either "ddedE" or "ccddedE". (The capital letters indicate a line repeated verbatim.)
• Cinquain: "ababb".
• Clerihew: "aabb".
• Couplet: "aa", but usually occurs as "aa bb cc dd ...".
• Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme): "abba".
• Ghazal: "aa ba ca da ...".
• Limerick: "aabba".
• Monorhyme: "aaaaa...", an identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic
• Ottava rima: "abababcc".
• Rhyme royal: "ababbcc".
• Rondelet: "AbAabbA".
• Rubaiyat: "aaba".
• Sapphics
  • Petrarchan sonnet: "abba abba cde cde" or "abba abba cdc cdc".
• Shadorma: an allegedly Spanish six-line stanza, syllable-count restricted form, 3/5/3/3/7/5)
  • Shakespearean sonnet: "abab cdcd efef gg".
  • Simple 4-line: "abcb"
  • Spenserian sonnet: "abab bcbc cdcd ee".
  • Onegin stanzas: "aBaBccDDeFFeGG" with lowercase letters representing assonant rhymes and the uppercase representing end-rhymes
• Spenserian stanza: "ababbcbcc".
• Tanaga: traditional Tagalog tanaga is aaaa
• Terza rima: "aba bcb cdc ...", ending on "yzy z" or "yzy zz".
• Triplet: "aaa", often repeating like the couplet.

See also

Main list: List of basic poetry topics

• List of literary terms
• Literature
• Poet
• Poetry

References and further reading

• M. H. Abrams. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Thomson-Wadsworth, 2005. ISBN 1-4130-0456-3.
• Chris Baldick. The Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Univ. Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-860883-7.
• Chris Baldick. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-280118-X.
• Edwin Barton & G. A. Hudson. Contemporary Guide To Literary Terms. Houghton-Mifflin, 2003. ISBN 0-618-34162-5.
• Mark Bauerlein. Literary Criticism: An Autopsy. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8122-1625-3.
• Karl Beckson & Arthur Ganz. Literary Terms: A Dictionary. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1989. ISBN 0-374-52177-8.
• Peter Childs. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-415-34017-9.
• J. A. Cuddon. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Penguin Books, 2000. ISBN 0-14-051363-9 .
• Dana Gioia. The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms: Vocabulary for the Informed Reader. Longman, 2005. ISBN 0-321-33194-X.
• Sharon Hamilton. Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with Exercises. W. W. Norton, 2006. ISBN 0-393-92837-3.
• William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. Prentice Hall, 2005. ISBN 0-13-134442-0.
• X. J. Kennedy, et al. Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature, Language, Theory. Longman, 2004. ISBN 0-321-20207-4.
• V. B. Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. W. W. Norton, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97429-4.
• John Lennard, The Poetry Handbook. Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, 2005. ISBN 0-19-926538-0.
• Frank Lentricchia & Thomas McLaughlin. Critical Terms for Literary Study. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN 0-226-47203-5.
• David Mikics. A New Handbook of Literary Terms. Yale Univ. Press, 2007. ISBN 0-300-10636-X.
• Ross Murfin & S. M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. ISBN 0-312-25910-7.
• John Peck & Martin Coyle. Literary Terms and Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0-333-96258-3.
• Edward Quinn. A Dictionary of Literary And Thematic Terms. Checkmark Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8160-6244-7.
• Lewis Turco. The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, and Scholarship. Univ. Press of New England, 1999. ISBN 0-87451-955-1.