Elements of Poetry

ENG 230

Meter: The pattern of repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
Foot: The smallest repeated pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables in a poetic line;
usually contains one stressed syllable and at one unstressed syllabus. Standard feet in English
poetry include:
Iamb: An unstressed followed by a stressed syllable
Trochee: A stressed followed by an unstressed syllable
Spondee: Two stressed syllables
Dactyl: One strong stressed syllable followed by two weakly accented or
unaccented syllables
Anapest: Two weakly accented syllables followed by one strong stress
Verse: A metric line of poetry named for kind and number of feet it contains
Monometer: one foot Dimeter: two feet Trimeter: three feet
Tetrameter: four feet Pentameter: five feet Hexameter: six feet
Heptameter: seven feet Octometer: eight feet
Stanza: A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains
Couplet: two lines Tercet/Triplet: three lines Quatrain: four lines
Quintet: five lines Sestet: six lines Septet: seven lines
Octave: eight lines
Caesura: A pause or sudden break in a line of poetry
Canto: A main division of a long poem

Sonnet: A poem consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter

Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet: has two parts: an octave and a sestet; abbaabba,
cdecde rhyme scheme.
Shakespearean Sonnet: Consists of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet.
Rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Ballad: A poem in verse that tells a story, typically arranged in quatrains with an ABAB
rhyme scheme
Villanelle: a 19-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains; made up of five
tercets followed by quatrain
Haiku: A form of Japanese poetry that has three lines: the first line has five syllables, the
second has seven syllables, and the third has five syllables
Blank verse: An unrhymed form of poetry that generally consists of ten syllables in which
every other syllable, beginning with second, is stressed
Free verse: Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme

Heroic (or closed) couplet: Two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought
Enjambment: The running over of a sentence or thought from one line of poetry to another
Rhyme: The similarity or likeness of sound existing between two words
Internal rhyme: When rhyming words occur within the same line of poetry
End rhyme: Rhyming words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of
poetry
Rhymed verse: verse with end rhyme that usually has regular meter
Repetition: The repeating of a word, phrase, or sound in a poem to create a sense of rhythm
Refrain: The repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, especially at the
end of a stanza
Rhythm: The ordered, or free occurrences of sound in poetry. Ordered or regular rhythm is
called meter; free occurrence of sound is free verse
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds without the repetition of consonants
Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds; although similar to alliteration,
consonance is not limited to the first letters of words