Terza rima is a poetic form consisting of tercets connected by an interlinking rhyme scheme in which the second line of one stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the following stanza---aba bcb cdc ded efe, etc. The form, which was introduced by Dante in his La Divina Commedia, originally ... Read more
Ideogram
In contexts unrelated to poetry, an ideogram is a character or symbol that represents a thing or an idea without expressing its pronunciation. For example, many street signs---such as those in the U.S. representing "construction ahead," "handicap parking," or "no parking"---are ideograms. Ideograms ... Read more
Anapest
In modern poetry, an anapest is a foot composed of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. In Classical verse, an anapest is two short syllables followed by a long one. Anapests are rare in spoken English, and in English-language poetry anapests are far less common than dactyls, ... Read more
Dactyl
In modern prosody, a dactyl is a metrical foot composed of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones. These words are dactyls: poetry suddenly particle Longfellow Classical dactyl In Classical prosody, a dactyl is a foot composed of one long syllable followed by two short ones. ... Read more
Heterometric
A heterometric poem or stanza is composed of lines of varying lengths and metrical structures. The opposite is an isometric stanza, which is a stanza composed of lines of equal length and metrical structure. In traditional poetry, there are a few types of heterometric stanzas, including the Sapphic ... Read more
Foot
Through the history of poetry, a metrical foot has meant many different things. Today, with regard to modern poetry in English, a foot is usually thought of as a stressed syllable along with its attendant unstressed syllables. So, in general, a line of poetry contains as many feet as there are ... Read more
Isometric
An isometric poem or stanza is composed of lines of uniform length. In traditional poetry, most poems were isometric, adhering to a set line length throughout. For example, this stanza by William Blake is isometric: Phoebe dressed like beauty's queen, Jellicoe in faint pea-green--- Sitting all ... Read more
Palindrome (poetry)
In poetry, a palindrome (from the Greek palindromos, meaning running back again) is a poem, line, or sentence that reads the same both forward and backward, either letter by letter or word by word. One early example, attributed to Gregory of Nazianuzus (329--389 A.D.), is in Latin: nipson ... Read more
Trochee
A trochee is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable---for example, the words poet, barren, public, Denver, Clinton, Teasdale. English is iambic in its natural rhythms, but poets have used trochaic lines to great effect. For example, each of the first ... Read more
Catachresis
In poetry, catachresis is the misapplication of a word or phrase to create a (usually) deliberately strained figure or a mixed metaphor. In nonpoetic writing and speech catachresis is often problematic, but poets have used it to achieve great compression and rhetorical energy in both serious and ... Read more
