AS English L + L - Poetic Terminology

Alternate Rhyme - Lines of poetry where the rhyme is on every other line (abab)

Anapest - Unit of poetic meter which contains two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable

Caesura - A mid-line pause

Couplet - Two line verse which often rhymes

Dactyl - Unit of poetic meter which contains one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

Emjambment - Run-on lines

Eye rhyme - Rhyme that looks like it should rhyme but the sound isn't the same

Iambic - Unit of poetic meter which contains one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Internal rhyme - Rhyming sound occurs within a line of verse

Octet - Eight line verse

Pentameter - Unit of poetic meter which contains 10 syllables

Petrarchan or Italian sonnet - Poem of 14 lines which contains an octet and a sestet written in iambic pentameter, rhyming abbaabba cdecde

Quatrain - Four line verse

Rhythm - Pattern of syllables and stresses within poetry

Rondo - A poem with a circular structure that begins and ends similarly

Sestet - A six line verse

Shakespearean or English sonnet - 14 line poem with 3 quatrains and a couplet written in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Spondee - Unit of poetic meter which contains two stressed syllables

Stanza - Division of lines in a poem also called a verse

Tetrameter - Unit of poetic meter which contains 68 syllables

Trimeter - Unit of poetic meter which contains 6 syllables

Trochee - Unit of poetic meter which contains one stressed syllable followed by one unstresed syllable

Volta - Turning point in a sonnet