A Quick Introduction to Some Technical Elements of Poetry

Types of Poetry Classification Systems:

• Traditional Verse -- sometimes referred to as "closed forms"
• Free Verse -- sometimes referred to as "open forms"
   
• Continuous Form
• Stanzaic Form
• Fixed Form -- e.g. sonnet, limerick, sestina, villanelle, haiku, etc.
   
• Narrative -- e.g., ballad
• Lyric -- a brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion, and creating a single, unified impression -- e.g., ode, elegy, sonnet, epigram, aphorism, limerick, sestina, villanelle, haiku
• Dramatic -- e.g., Shakespeare's plays, Browning's dramatic monologues, Ginsberg's Howl

Types of Stanzas:

Stanza or Verse -- two or more lines grouped together / four lines grouped together is most common

• Couplet -- a unit of two lines that end in perfect rhyme / the basic unit of English poetry
• Tercet -- a unit of three lines
• Quatrain (Quartet) -- a group of four lines with a recurring rhyme scheme
• Quintain (Quintet) -- a group of five lines with a recurring rhyme scheme
• Sestet -- a group of six lines with a recurring rhyme scheme
• Septet -- a group of seven lines with a recurring rhyme scheme
• Octave -- a group of eight lines with recurring rhyme scheme

Reading Lines of Poetry:

• End-Stopped Line – the meaning of a line comes to a definite end
• Enjambed Line – the meaning does not end but continues on to the next line
• Enjambment – (noun) the running of one line into another line

The Sounds of Poetry:

1.) Rhyme – a similarity of sound.

• End Rhyme – the words at the end of the lines rhyme
   
• Eye Rhyme – two words look as though they should sound alike (e.g. tough and though)
• Perfect Rhyme – the sound of the two words is exactly alike (e.g. dream and scheme)
• Near or Slant Rhyme – the sound of the two words is close but not exact (e.g. ball and bell)
   
• Masculine Rhyme – the accent on the rhyming words is on a final strong syllable (e.g. bells and foretells)
• Feminine Rhyme – the accent on the rhyming words is on a weak syllable (e.g. season and reason)
   
• Internal Rhyme – using rhyme in the middle of a line as well as the end

2.) Alliteration – the repetition of the same sounding letters, and the letters are consonants. Or, the repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables, especially stressed syllables. . . . Alliteration, limited to "onsets," which are mostly consonants, seems to dwell in the ear for a much shorter time than rhyme, which involves both vowels and consonants and seems to stay in the memory over a period of thirty or more syllables.

• Consonantal Alliteration: "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow followed free." (Coleridge)
• Vowel Alliteration: "Apt alliteration's artful aid is often an occasional element in prose."
• Alliteration of sounds: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees." (Tennyson)

3.) Assonance – the repetition of vowel sounds within a phrase. Or, generally, the patterning of vowel sounds without regard to consonants. . . . Assonance sometimes refers to same or similar vowel sounds in stressed syllables that end with different consonant sounds. Assonance differs from rhyme in that rhyme typically involves both vowel and consonant sounds. "Lake" and "fake" demonstrate full rhyme; "lake" and "fate" assonance.

4.) Consonance -- the relation between words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differ, such as "add-read," "mill-ball," and "torn-burn." In view of the vagaries attending the ways in which vowels are pronounced and spelled, most so-called eye rhymes (such as "word-lord" or "blood-food-good" are instances of consonance.

5.) Onomatopoeia – using a word that “sounds” like the noise it describes (e.g. buzz, whack, hiss, sizzle, etc.).

The Rhythm of Poetry:

Rhythm – “the rhythm of a poem is built on the sound of words”

Scansion – a method of analyzing a poem by marking the pattern of accents in a line of poetry

• Accent – the strong syllable or syllables in a word / the part of a word we emphasize with breath and tone
   
• Strong Accent – all words with more than one syllable will have at least one strong accent
• Weak Accent – other syllables in a word
   
• Stressed – a term used in place of “strong accent” / the emphasized sound(s) in a word
• Unstressed – a term used in place of “weak accent” / the unemphasized sound(s) in a word

Foot – one unit of the rhythmic pattern that makes up the meter

• Iamb – one weak and one strong syllable
• Iambic Meter – the rhythm based on the iambic foot
   
• Trochee – one strong and one weak syllable
• Trochaic Meter – the rhythm based on the trochaic foot
   
• Anapest – two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable
• Anapestic Meter – the rhythm based on the anapestic foot
   
• Dactyl – a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables
• Dactylic Meter – the rhythm based on the dactylic foot
   
• Spondee – two strong accents together
• Pyrrhus – two weak accents together
   
• Caesura – a break in the meter (often punctuated with a period, colon, semicolon, or possibly a comma)
• Anacrusis – an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a line that does not affect the overall meter

Meter – the pattern set up by the regular rhythm of words in a poem

• Monometer – a line of one (1) foot
• Dimeter – a line of two (2) feet
• Trimeter – a line of three (3) feet
• Tetrameter – a line of four (4) feet
• Pentameter – a line with five (5) feet
• Hexameter – a line with six (6) feet
• Heptameter – a line with seven (7) feet
• Octameter – a line with eight (8) feet

(Adapted from Charters/Charters, Literature and Its Writers, Compact Second Edition, Chapters 8-11, and A Handbook to Literature, 9th edition.)