GLOSSARY

accentual-syllabic verse Sometimes called "stress-and-syllable" verse, it counts a

repeated number of stresses and the syllables between them. Combining the
"stress" model of Old English and the "syllable" model of Old French,
"accentual-syllabic verse" has been the predominant meter of English poetry
since the time of Chaucer.
anapest A metrical foot comprising two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed
syllable (i.e. x x/ ).
apostrophe A figure of speech that addresses an absent or dead person or an
animate object as if he, she, or it were alive or present.
caesura A gap in the continuity of a line that is subject to a metrical rule; it can be
used to create emphasis.
dactyl A metrical foot comprising a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed
syllables (i.e. /x x ).
dimiter A metrical line of two feet.
end-stopped This is where a line of poetry comes to an end with the completion of
a syntactical unit.
enjambment Sometimes called a "run-on," enjambment is where one line of
poetry flows into the next. Strictly speaking, enjambment denotes where there
is a difference between the metrical completion of a line and the continuing
movement of a syntactical unit from one line to another.
hexameter A metrical line of six feet.
iamb A metrical foot comprising a unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable (i.e. x / ); the most common metrical foot in English poetry.
intertextuality This concept suggests that all texts are inescapably enmeshed with
many other different texts that circulate within a culture. In other words, all
texts are bearers of a multiplicity of intertexts by way of allusion, sources of
influence, and levels of discourse.
intratextuality The interrelations between the texts contained within an author's
canon of work.
pathetic fallacy A term coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters VIII (1856)
that describes the ways that poets attribute human feelings to the natural
world; it is close in sense to the term anthropomorphism.
pentameter A metrical line of five feet. Iambic pentameter is the most common
meter in English poetry.
prosody The study of structures of verse, namely meter, rhyme, and stanza.

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 GLOSSARY

pyrrhic A metrical foot comprising two unstressed syllables (i.e. x x ).

quantitative verse Classical verse adopts quantitative prosody, so-called because it
depends on the duration of each syllable; such prosody is based upon a contrast
between long and short syllables.
spondee A metrical foot comprising two stressed syllables (i.e. / / ).
tetrameter A metrical line of four feet.
trimeter A metrical line of three feet.
trochee A metrical foot comprising a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
syllable (i.e. / x ).

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© Cambridge University Press, 2006