| A | B |
|---|
| accentual-syllabic line | A line of poetry with words chosen to make a regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. |
| allegorical guises | a two-level story in which events or characters stand for other, sometimes abstract, elements. |
| alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds, such as prisoner pent. |
| ambiguous | Term for words or phrases that can be read two or more ways, allowing the poet to say more than one thing at a time. |
| analogy | A direct comparison. |
| apostrophe | The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or thing as if it were present. |
| apposition | Equivalent words or phrases set adjacent one another. |
| assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds, such as deaf, heaven. |
| bathos | Overly sentimental feelings expressed in trite statements. |
| caesura | A pause within a line of poetry. |
| conceit | An elaborate, strained comparison |
| conventions | Standard practices used by poets. |
| couplet | A two-line unit appearing at the end of a sonnet, commenting on the |
| decade | A unit of ten sonnets. |
| demonstrative | A word, such as “that,” that refers to another element in the sentence. |
| diction | An author’s choice of words. |
| dissonance | cacaphony, or harsh-sounding language |
| end-stop line | A pause at the end of a line indicating that the unit of thought also stops |
| enjambment | the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next, |
| epigrammatic couplets | The final pairs of lines that state maxims or summarize poems. |
| euphony | a pleasing harmony of sounds |
| exemplum | An example |
| figurative | Implied, suggested, or metaphoric |
| glossing | Interpretation or translation of a word. |
| heroic couplet | a couplet written in iambic pentameter |
| hyperbole | Gross exaggeration. |
| iambic pentameter | An iambic foot is a two-syllable unit or sound with the accent on the second syllable; pentameter means that there are five sound units, or feet, per line |
| image | Word group that forms a picture or sound in the reader’s mind |
| imperative mood | Grammatical expression that commands or directs, such as “Step over the wire" |
| indicative mood | Grammatical expression that states a fact or asks a question |
| inversion | a line in which the syntax is backward |
| irony | Words stating one message, but indicating that the opposite meaning is intended. |
| literal | Directly stated. |
| metaphor | An implied comparison. |
| meter | The regular rhythm of a poem created by ordering the accented syllables. |
| octave | The first unit of eight lines in a sonnet, usually posing a problem or problematic idea |
| parallelism | recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts |
| paradox | a self-contradictory phrase or sentence that makes sense |
| parody | An imitation, often humorous. |
| personification | The poetic device of giving human qualities to nonhuman things. |
| punning | Wordplay, usually humorous, suggesting multiple meanings of a single |
| quarto | A book with pages folded twice, each leaf making a quarter of a page |
| quatrain | A four-line unit in a poem |
| rhetoric | The art of using language effectively and persuasively |
| rhetorical devices | The various techniques that make style effective |
| rhetorical question | A sentence worded as a question, that does not call for an answer because it is intended to suggest an effect |
| rhyme scheme | The pattern of rhymes at the ends of line of poetry, marked with a different letter of each rhyming set, such as abba |
| scansion | the scanning of verse, that is, dividing it into metrical feet and identifying its rhythm |
| sestet | A unit of six lines in a sonnet, resolving a problem or troublesome idea |
| subjunctive mood | Verb forms signaling conditions contrary to fact, such as I demand that he go or If I were you. |
| synecdoche | A figure of speech in which the part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part. |
| syntax | Word order in a sentence |
| tenor | The drift of an argument; or, that which is meant in a metaphor |
| iamb | U/ |
| trochee | /U |
| anapest | UU/ |
| dactyl | /UU |
| spondee | // |
| pyrrhic | UU |
| monometer | one foot |
| dimeter | two feet |
| trimeter | three feet |
| tetrameter | four feet |
| pentameter | five feet |
| hexameter | six feet |
| heptameter | seven feet |
| octameter | eight feet |
