Poetry Terms and Devices

Overview

This lecture covers key poetic terms and provides definitions and examples to help students recognize and apply literary devices in poetry analysis.

Poetic Meter and Line Length

• Monometer: a line with one metrical foot (e.g., Rivers).
• Dimeter: a line with two metrical feet (e.g., For thou must die).
• Trimeter: a line with three metrical feet (e.g., When here the spring we see).
• Tetrameter: a line with four metrical feet (e.g., Those lips that Love’s own hand did make).
• Pentameter: a line with five metrical feet (e.g., Two households, both alike in dignity).

Types of Poetic Feet and Rhythm

• Iambic: each foot has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g., be-LONG).
• Trochaic: each foot has a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g., Once upon a midnight dreary…).
• Dactylic: a foot with stressed, then two unstressed syllables (e.g., Are you still standing there?).
• Anapestic: a foot with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed (e.g., In the heart of the forest, the moonlight will gleam).
• Spondaic: a foot with two stressed syllables.

Line Endings and Rhyme

• Hypercatalexis: an extra syllable at the end of a complete line (e.g., Stood a lowly cattle shed).
• Masculine rhyme: rhyme of final stressed syllables (e.g., Life is but an empty dream).
• Feminine rhyme: rhyme between stressed syllables followed by unstressed syllables (e.g., glamorous).
• Slant rhyme: words with similar but not perfect rhyming sounds (e.g., wake and wait).

Syntax and Poetic Structure

• Syntax: the arrangement of words to create clear sentences (e.g., The dog chased the ball).
• Enjambment: continuing a sentence without pause beyond the line or stanza (e.g., I wandered over the golden hills/ That were brimming...).
• End-stopped line: a line ending with a completed phrase and punctuation (e.g., The crow is migrating east,).

Sound Devices

• Repetition: recurring words/phrases for emphasis (e.g., Run, run, run…).
• Anaphora: repeating words/phrases at sentence beginnings for effect (e.g., Let freedom ring…).
• Alliteration: repeating the same initial sound in nearby words (e.g., Sandy sells sandals…).
• Consonance: repeating consonant sounds, often at word ends (e.g., Peter Piper picked…).
• Assonance: repeating similar vowel sounds within words (e.g., Can sand plan…).

Figurative Language and Literary Devices

• Personification: giving human qualities to non-human things (e.g., The leaves danced…).
• Conceit: an extended metaphor comparing unlike things (e.g., Life is a bowl of cherries).
• Allusion: an indirect or implied reference to something well-known (e.g., my Garden of Eden).

Key Terms & Definitions

• Monometer — line with one metrical foot.
• Hypercatalexis — extra syllable(s) at line end.
• Syntax — word arrangement for clarity.
• Anaphora — repeated opening word/phrase in clauses.
• Conceit — extended metaphor between unlike things.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Review all poetic term definitions and examples.
• Prepare your own examples for three terms you find most challenging.
• Read the assigned poetry to spot these devices in use.