Appendix i 485elegy A poem mourning someone’s death.
ellipsis Part of a statement left out, unspoken.
end rhyme A rhyme at the end of a verse line.
end-stopped A verse line that pauses at its end,
when no enjambment is possible.
enjambment A verse line whose momentum for-
bids a pause at its end, thus avoiding being end-
stopped.
epic A long poem that, typically, recounts the adven-
tures of someone in a high style and diction; classi-
cally, the adventures include a hero who is at least
partially superhuman in makeup or deed, and the
events have special importance in terms of the fate
of a people.
epigram A brief, witty statement, often satiric or
aphoristic.
epithet A word or phrase that characterizes some-
thing or someone.
eye rhyme Agreement of words according to their
spelling but not their sound.
feet See foot.
feminine ending A verse line that ends with an extra
soft stress.
feminine rhyme The rhyming of two words in more
than a single syllable.
figurative language Language that employs figures
of speech such as irony, hyperbole, metaphor, simile,
symbol, metonymy, etc., in which the language con-
notes meaning.
foot A configuration of syllables to form a meter,
such as an iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, or
spondee. A line of one foot is called a monometer
line, of two feet a dimeter line, of three feet trim-
eter, of four tetrameter, of five pentameter, of six
hexameter, etc.
free verse Poetry lacking a metrical pattern or pat-
terns; poetic lines without any discernible meter.
haiku A Japanese lyric form consisting of a certain
number of syllables overall and in each line, most
often in a five-seven-five syllabic line pattern.
half rhyme A form of consonance in which final
consonant sounds in neighboring stressed syllables
agree.
heroic couplet Two successive lines of end-rhyming
(see end-rhyme) iambic pentameter.
hexameters A verse line consisting of six metrical
feet.
hyperbole An exaggeration meant to emphasize
something.
iamb A metrical foot consisting of a soft stress fol-
lowed by a hard stress.
iambic pentameter A five-foot line with a prepon-
derance of iambic feet.
image Language meant to represent objects, actions,
feelings, or thoughts in vivid terms.
internal rhyme A rhyme within a poetic line.
masculine rhyme A rhyme depending on one hard-
stressed syllable only.
metaphor An implicit comparison, best when
between unlike things, made without using the
words like or as.
meter An arrangement of syllables in units called
feet, such as iamb or trochee, and in numbers
of feet to make a pattern, such as iambic pentam-
eter; the syllables can be hard- or soft-stressed
according to the type of foot or pattern to be
employed.
metonymy The substitution of a word that repre-
sents an association with, proximity to, or attribute
of a thing for the thing itself; this figure of speech is
not unlike synechdoche.
monometer A verse line consisting of a single metri-
cal foot.
occasional verse verse written to celebrate or to
commemorate a particular event.
octave An eight-line stanza of poetry, also the first
and larger portion of a sonnet. See octet.
octet An eight-line stanza of poetry. See octave.
ode A lyric poem usually in a dignified style and
addressing a serious subject.
onomatopoeia A word or phrase whose sound
resembles something the word or phrase is signifying.
oxymoron A phrase or statement containing a self-
contradiction.
paradox A statement that seems to be self-
contradictory but contains a truth that reconciles
the contradiction.
pastoral A poem that evokes a rural setting or rural
values; the word itself derives from the Latin pastor,
or “shepherd.”