| Form | Characteristics | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnet | 14 lines, specific rhyme schemes Petrarchan/Italian: Octave (8) + Sestet (6), rhyme ABBAABBA CDECDE/CDCDCD Shakespearean/English: 3 Quatrains + Couplet, rhyme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG Spenserian: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE Volta (Turn): Shift in thought/emotion (line 9 in Petrarchan, line 13 in Shakespearean) | Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" |
| Ode | Lyric poem, elevated tone, addresses subject Pindaric: Complex structure (strophe, antistrophe, epode) Horatian: Regular stanzas, meditative Irregular/Cowleyan: No fixed pattern Characteristics: Serious, contemplative, elaborate style | Keats: "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn" Shelley: "Ode to the West Wind" Wordsworth: "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" |
| Elegy | Mourns death or loss Tone: Melancholic, reflective, consolatory Themes: Mortality, loss, memory, consolation Pastoral elegy: Uses pastoral (shepherd) imagery | Gray: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" Shelley: "Adonais" (for Keats) Tennyson: "In Memoriam A.H.H." Milton: "Lycidas" |
| Ballad | Narrative poem, simple language, often sung Structure: Quatrains (4-line stanzas), often ABCB rhyme Ballad meter: Alternating 4-3 stress lines (8-6 syllables) Features: Repetition, refrain, dialogue, dramatic Types: Folk ballad (anonymous), Literary ballad (authored) | Coleridge: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Keats: "La Belle Dame sans Merci" Traditional: "Sir Patrick Spens" |
| Epic | Long narrative, heroic deeds, elevated style Characteristics: Grand scope, national/cultural significance Epic conventions: Invocation to Muse, in medias res, epic simile, catalogue Hero: Larger-than-life protagonist | Homer: Iliad, Odyssey Virgil: Aeneid Milton: Paradise Lost Dante: Divine Comedy |
| Lyric | Short, personal, musical, expresses emotion Focus: Speaker's thoughts/feelings NOT narrative (no plot) Originally: Sung to lyre (hence "lyric") | Most Romantic poetry Wordsworth: "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" Shakespeare's sonnets |
| Dramatic Monologue | Speaker addresses silent listener, reveals character Characteristics: • Single speaker (NOT poet) • Addressee present but silent • Dramatic situation • Reveals speaker's psychology/character | Browning: "My Last Duchess", "Porphyria's Lover" Tennyson: "Ulysses" Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" |
| Free Verse | No fixed meter, rhyme, or line length BUT: NOT formless - uses other organizing principles Features: Natural speech rhythms, varied line breaks, repetition, imagery NOT blank verse (blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter) | Whitman: "Song of Myself" Eliot: "The Waste Land" Williams: "The Red Wheelbarrow" |
| Blank Verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter 5 iambs per line (10 syllables) Most common in English drama & epic Flexibility: Close to natural speech, dignified | Shakespeare's plays Milton: Paradise Lost Wordsworth: The Prelude |
| Villanelle | 19 lines, 5 tercets + 1 quatrain Rhyme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA Refrains: Line 1 repeats (lines 6, 12, 18); Line 3 repeats (lines 9, 15, 19) Effect: Obsessive, circular, haunting | Dylan Thomas: "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" Bishop: "One Art" |
| Sestina | 39 lines, 6 sestets + 1 tercet (envoi) NO rhyme, but end-word repetition 6 end-words rotate in fixed pattern Envoi: All 6 words appear (3 in line, 3 at end) | Sidney: "Ye Goatherd Gods" Bishop: "Sestina" Auden: "Paysage Moralisé" |
| Stanza Type | Structure | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Couplet | 2 lines, usually rhymed (AA) Heroic couplet: Rhymed iambic pentameter pairs | Pope: "An Essay on Criticism" Chaucer: Canterbury Tales |
| Tercet/Triplet | 3 lines, various rhyme schemes (AAA, ABA, etc.) | Terza rima (ABA BCB CDC...): Dante, Shelley |
| Quatrain | 4 lines, most common stanza Rhyme schemes: ABAB (alternate), AABB (couplet), ABBA (enclosed), ABCB (ballad) | Most common in English poetry Hymns, ballads, sonnets |
| Quintain | 5 lines, various rhyme schemes | Limerick (AABBA): Lear |
| Sestet | 6 lines Often second part of Petrarchan sonnet | Sonnets, independent poems |
| Rhyme Royal | 7 lines, ABABBCC, iambic pentameter | Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde |
| Ottava Rima | 8 lines, ABABABCC, iambic pentameter | Byron: Don Juan Yeats: "Sailing to Byzantium" |
| Spenserian Stanza | 9 lines, ABABBCBCC 8 lines iambic pentameter + 1 alexandrine (iambic hexameter) | Spenser: The Faerie Queene Keats: "The Eve of St. Agnes" Shelley: "Adonais" |
| Foot | Pattern | Symbol | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iamb | Unstressed + Stressed (da-DUM) | ∪ / | a-LONE, be-FORE Most common in English |
| Trochee | Stressed + Unstressed (DUM-da) | / ∪ | TI-ger, NE-ver |
| Anapest | Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed (da-da-DUM) | ∪ ∪ / | in-ter-VENE, con-tra-DICT |
| Dactyl | Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed (DUM-da-da) | / ∪ ∪ | MER-ri-ly, TEN-der-ly |
| Spondee | Stressed + Stressed (DUM-DUM) | / / | HEART-BREAK, SLOW BOAT Rare as base meter; used for emphasis |
| Pyrrhic | Unstressed + Unstressed (da-da) | ∪ ∪ | of the, in a Rare as base meter; creates light effect |
| Term | Number of Feet | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Monometer | 1 foot | Rare in English |
| Dimeter | 2 feet | "Thus I / Pass by" |
| Trimeter | 3 feet | "The woods / de-cay, / the woods / de-cay" |
| Tetrameter | 4 feet | "I wand / -ered lone / -ly as / a cloud" |
| Pentameter | 5 feet | "Shall I / com-PARE / thee TO / a SUM / -mer's DAY" Iambic pentameter = most common in English |
| Hexameter | 6 feet | Alexandrine (in Spenserian stanza) |
| Heptameter | 7 feet | Fourteeners (14 syllables) |
| Concept | Definition | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Caesura | Pause within a line (marked ||) Often mid-line, can be grammatical (comma, period) or sense-based | Creates rhythm variation, emphasis, dramatic effect Example: "To be || or not to be || that is the question" |
| Enjambment (Run-on) | Sentence/phrase continues to next line without pause NO punctuation at line end, meaning flows over | Creates fluidity, speed, mimics natural speech Contrast with end-stopped lines |
| End-stopped Line | Line ends with punctuation and pause Sentence/phrase completes at line break | Creates closure, emphasis, formality Common in heroic couplets |
| Substitution | Replacing expected foot with different foot E.g., trochee instead of iamb in iambic pentameter line | Creates emphasis, variety, avoids monotony Common at line beginning (trochaic substitution) |
| Inversion | Reversing stress pattern Iamb becomes trochee (or vice versa) | Emphasis, surprise, draws attention to word |
| Type | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| End Rhyme | Rhyme at line ends Most common type | "cat / hat", "night / light" |
| Internal Rhyme | Rhyme within a line Can be word in middle rhyming with end, or two words within line | "I brought him OUT of his pain and doubt" Poe: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary" |
| Masculine Rhyme | Single stressed syllable rhyme Final syllable stressed | "cat / mat", "denote / devote" Most common in English |
| Feminine Rhyme | Two-syllable rhyme, stress on first Ends with unstressed syllable | "flowing / going", "waken / taken" Often lighter, comic effect |
| Perfect/Full Rhyme | Exact correspondence of sounds Vowel + all following sounds identical | "light / night", "cat / hat" |
| Slant/Half Rhyme | Approximate rhyme, not exact Also called: near rhyme, imperfect rhyme, off rhyme Similar but not identical sounds | "soul / oil", "years / yours" Dickinson uses frequently Wilfred Owen: "moan / mourn", "hall / hell" |
| Eye Rhyme | Looks like rhyme but sounds different Spelled similarly, pronounced differently | "love / prove", "cough / bough" Often due to pronunciation changes over time |
| Identical Rhyme | Same word repeated | "leave / leave" Uncommon, used for emphasis |
| Consonance | Repeated consonant sounds Before/after different vowels | "blank / think", "strong / string" |
| Assonance | Repeated vowel sounds Consonants differ | "fleet / weak", "light / ride" |
| Device | Definition | Effect/Example |
|---|---|---|
| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds Usually in nearby words or stressed syllables | Effect: Musicality, emphasis, memorability Example: "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew" "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words Internal vowels, not necessarily at beginning | Effect: Musicality, mood, cohesion Example: "Hear the mellow wedding bells" (e sound) "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (ai sound) |
| Consonance | Repetition of consonant sounds Can be anywhere in words (beginning, middle, end) | Effect: Cohesion, musicality Example: "pitter patter" (tt sound) "blank and think" (nk sound) |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate sounds Sound mimics meaning | Effect: Vivid, sensory, immediacy Examples: buzz, hiss, crack, boom, splash, murmur, rustle Tennyson: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms / And murmuring of innumerable bees" |
| Euphony | Pleasant, harmonious sounds Smooth, melodious combination | Effect: Beauty, calm, pleasantness Achieved by: Liquid consonants (l, m, n, r), soft sounds, assonance Example: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" (Keats) |
| Cacophony | Harsh, discordant sounds Jarring, unpleasant combination | Effect: Discord, chaos, ugliness, violence Achieved by: Plosives (p, b, t, d, k, g), fricatives, hard consonants Example: "That corpse you planted last year in your garden, / Has it begun to sprout?" (Eliot) |
| Sibilance | Repetition of 's' sounds Type of alliteration/consonance | Effect: Hissing, whispering, sinister, or soft Example: "The silken sad uncertain rustling" (Poe) "Snake" - sibilance creates hissing effect |
| Plosive | Hard consonants: p, b, t, d, k, g Created by stopping air, then releasing | Effect: Emphasis, violence, energy, force Example: "I caught this morning morning's minion, king- / dom of daylight's dauphin" (Hopkins) |
| Refrain | Repeated line or lines Often at end of stanzas | Effect: Emphasis, unity, musicality, ritual Example: "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore'" (Poe) |
| Repetition | Repeating words, phrases, lines, or sounds Can be anaphora, epistrophe, or general | Effect: Emphasis, intensity, ritual, obsession Example: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Thomas) |
| Anaphora | Repetition at beginning of successive lines/clauses | Effect: Emphasis, accumulation, rhythm Example: Blake's "The Tyger" - "What immortal hand or eye..." |
| Epistrophe | Repetition at end of successive lines/clauses | Effect: Emphasis, conclusion, finality Example: "...of the people, by the people, for the people" |
| Level | Characteristics | Usage/Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Formal/Elevated | • Sophisticated vocabulary • Complex syntax • Literary, abstract words • Polysyllabic words • No contractions, slang, colloquialisms | Usage: Epic, ode, serious subjects Example: Milton's Paradise Lost "Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree..." |
| Middle/Neutral | • Everyday educated language • Clear, direct • Neither ornate nor colloquial • Standard English | Usage: Most modern poetry, general subjects Example: Frost: "Whose woods these are I think I know..." |
| Informal/Colloquial | • Conversational • Contractions, simple words • Everyday speech patterns • May include slang | Usage: Dramatic monologue, modern/contemporary poetry Example: Eliot's "Prufrock": "Let us go then, you and I..." |
| Poetic Diction | • Archaic, elevated language traditional to poetry • Inversions, "poetic" words • Examples: "thee", "thou", "ere", "oft", "hither" • Wordsworth criticized excessive poetic diction | Usage: 18th-century poetry, some Romantic Example: Pope, Gray Wordsworth's reform: "Language really used by men" |
| Concept | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Denotation | Literal, dictionary meaning Objective, factual | "Rose" = flower of genus Rosa |
| Connotation | Associated meanings, emotional implications Subjective, cultural, emotional | "Rose" = love, beauty, romance, passion BUT ALSO: thorns, fleeting beauty |
| Concrete Language | Specific, sensory, tangible Can be perceived by senses | "crimson petals", "rough bark", "bitter taste" Imagist principle: "No ideas but in things" |
| Abstract Language | General, conceptual, intangible Ideas, qualities, not sensory | "love", "truth", "justice", "beauty" Romantic poets often abstract; Imagists concrete |
| Specific vs. General | Specific: Precise, particular General: Broad, vague | Specific: "golden daffodils" (Wordsworth) General: "flowers" |
| Type | Sense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Visual | Sight | "golden daffodils", "blood-red sun" |
| Auditory | Sound | "the murmuring of innumerable bees" |
| Olfactory | Smell | "scent of pine" |
| Gustatory | Taste | "bitter taste of defeat" |
| Tactile | Touch | "rough bark", "silken skin" |
| Kinesthetic | Movement, body | "muscles tensed", "dizzy spin" |
| Organic | Internal sensations | "heart pounding", "stomach churning" |
| Device | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simile | Comparison using "like" or "as" Explicit comparison | "I wandered lonely as a cloud" (Wordsworth) "My love is like a red, red rose" (Burns) Epic simile: Extended, elaborate (Homer, Milton) |
| Metaphor | Implicit comparison, identification "A is B" (NOT "A is like B") Extended metaphor: Developed throughout poem/stanza | "Life's but a walking shadow" (Shakespeare) "Hope is the thing with feathers" (Dickinson) Extended: Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (compass metaphor) |
| Conceit | Extended, elaborate metaphor Often ingenious, surprising comparison Characteristic of Metaphysical poetry | Metaphysical conceit: Donne compares lovers to compass legs Donne: lovers' souls vs. gold beaten to airy thinness Petrarchan conceit: Conventional lover's complaints |
| Personification | Giving human qualities to non-human Animals, objects, abstract ideas as human | "Death, be not proud" (Donne) "The Wind began to knead the Grass" (Dickinson) Keats: "Season of mists" addressed as person |
| Apostrophe | Addressing absent person, dead, abstract, or thing Direct address to non-present entity | "O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being" (Shelley) "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour" (Wordsworth) |
| Metonymy | Substituting associated term for thing meant Close association, connection | "The pen is mightier than the sword" (pen=writing, sword=war) "The crown" = monarchy "The White House" = U.S. President/administration |
| Synecdoche | Part represents whole, or whole represents part Type of metonymy | "All hands on deck" (hands = sailors) "Fifty sail" (sails = ships) "England won the match" (England = English team) |
| Symbol | Object/image representing abstract idea Concrete stands for abstract Conventional: Culturally established Contextual: Meaning from poem's context | Conventional: Rose=love, dove=peace, cross=Christianity Contextual: Yeats's "gyre", Blake's "Tyger" Eliot's "objective correlative" |
| Allegory | Extended narrative with symbolic meaning Surface story + deeper meaning Characters = abstract qualities | Spenser's The Faerie Queene Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Medieval morality plays |
| Device | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for emphasis NOT literal, deliberate overstatement | "I've told you a million times" Marvell: "My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow" Burns: "Till a' the seas gang dry" |
| Understatement | Deliberate minimization Says less than what's meant | "It's just a scratch" (for serious wound) Auden on Yeats's death: "he became his admirers" |
| Litotes | Affirming by denying opposite Type of understatement, uses negative | "not bad" = good "no small achievement" = great achievement "She's no fool" = she's smart |
| Device | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Irony (Verbal) | Saying opposite of what's meant Words mean contrary to literal sense Often sarcastic or humorous | Saying "Beautiful weather!" during storm Swift's A Modest Proposal Byron's satire |
| Irony (Situational) | Gap between expectation and reality Outcome opposite of expected | Fire station burns down Hardy's "Hap": universe indifferent, not hostile |
| Irony (Dramatic) | Audience knows more than character Reader/audience aware, character unaware | Oedipus seeking his father's killer (IS the killer) Shakespeare's plays |
| Paradox | Apparent contradiction that reveals truth Seems impossible/contradictory but is true | "Less is more" Wordsworth: "The Child is father of the Man" Donne: "Death, thou shalt die" |
| Oxymoron | Two contradictory terms together Compressed paradox | "bitter-sweet", "deafening silence", "living death" Shakespeare: "fair is foul", "parting is such sweet sorrow" Milton: "darkness visible" |
| Antithesis | Contrasting ideas in balanced structure Parallel structure emphasizing opposition | "To err is human, to forgive divine" (Pope) "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" Blake: "Innocence" vs. "Experience" |
| Device | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Allusion | Reference to literature, history, mythology, Bible, etc. Brief, indirect reference Assumes reader's knowledge | Eliot's The Waste Land: numerous classical, biblical allusions Yeats: "Leda and the Swan" (Greek myth) "He's a real Romeo" (Shakespeare) |
| Ambiguity | Multiple possible meanings Deliberate uncertainty, richness Valued by New Critics (William Empson: Seven Types of Ambiguity) | Blake's "Tyger": Is creator good or evil? Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn": "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" - who speaks? |
| Pun (Paronomasia) | Play on words, multiple meanings Same sound, different meanings Can be serious or comic | Shakespeare: "Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man" (serious/tomb) Donne: "Hymn to God the Father" - "done/Donne" |
| Transferred Epithet | Adjective transferred to different noun Modifies grammatically wrong but semantically logical noun | "He passed a sleepless night" (he is sleepless, not night) "Angry sea" (sailors angry, sea reflects it) |
| Pathetic Fallacy | Nature reflects human emotions Term by Ruskin (initially pejorative) Attributing human feelings to nature | "The cruel sea" "Angry storm" Tennyson: Nature "red in tooth and claw" |
| Synesthesia | Mixing senses One sense described in terms of another | "Sweet music" (taste for sound) "Loud colors" Keats: "soft incense" (touch for smell) |
| Theme | Related Concepts | Common Poets |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | • Beauty of natural world • Communion with nature • Nature as teacher/healer • Nature vs. civilization • Pastoral ideal | Wordsworth, Romantic poets Frost, Hopkins Pastoral poets |
| Love | • Romantic love • Unrequited love • Physical vs. spiritual • Loss of love • Carpe diem | Shakespeare (sonnets) Donne, Metaphysical poets Browning, Barrett Browning |
| Death & Mortality | • Inevitability of death • Grief, mourning • Afterlife • Memento mori • Carpe diem | Elegy writers Donne, Herbert Dickinson, Dylan Thomas |
| Time | • Transience, mutability • Passage of time • Memory vs. present • Aging • Carpe diem (seize the day) | Shakespeare (sonnets) Marvell, Herrick Wordsworth ("Intimations Ode") |
| Identity & Self | • Self-discovery • Individual vs. society • Consciousness • Alienation • Search for meaning | Wordsworth (Prelude) Eliot, modernists Confessional poets |
| Art & Poetry | • Nature of poetry • Poet's role • Imagination vs. reality • Immortality through art • Ars poetica | Sidney, Shelley ("Defence") Keats ("Ode on a Grecian Urn") Yeats, Stevens |
| Social/Political | • Injustice, inequality • War • Industrialization • Class, power • Protest, reform | Blake Shelley ("England in 1819") War poets (Owen, Sassoon) |
| Context | What to Consider | Why Important |
|---|---|---|
| Historical | • When written • Major historical events • Social/political climate • Cultural norms of period | Explains references, attitudes, concerns Example: WWI poetry (Owen, Sassoon) - trench warfare horror |
| Biographical | • Poet's life events • Personal experiences • Beliefs, philosophy | Caution: Don't assume poem = autobiography Useful: Can illuminate meaning Example: Sylvia Plath's mental illness context for her poetry |
| Literary | • Genre, form, tradition • Influences • Intertextuality • Literary movement | Understanding conventions, innovations, allusions Example: Eliot's modernist techniques vs. Romantic tradition |
| Cultural | • Mythology, religion • Symbols, archetypes • Shared cultural knowledge | Decoding allusions, symbols Example: Biblical allusions in Milton, Herbert |
| Term | Quick Definition |
|---|---|
| Sonnet | 14 lines; Petrarchan (8+6) vs. Shakespearean (4+4+4+2); volta = turn |
| Blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter (Shakespeare plays, Milton) |
| Free verse | No fixed meter/rhyme (Whitman, modern poets) |
| Iambic pentameter | 5 iambs per line (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM) - most common |
| Enjambment | Line runs over to next without pause |
| Caesura | Pause within line (marked ||) |
| Alliteration | Repeated initial consonant sounds |
| Assonance | Repeated vowel sounds |
| Consonance | Repeated consonant sounds (anywhere in words) |
| Metaphor | Implicit comparison (A IS B) |
| Simile | Explicit comparison (A is LIKE B) |
| Personification | Human qualities to non-human |
| Apostrophe | Addressing absent/dead/abstract |
| Metonymy | Associated term substitutes (crown = king) |
| Synecdoche | Part for whole (hands = sailors) |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for emphasis |
| Paradox | Apparent contradiction revealing truth |
| Oxymoron | Contradictory terms together (sweet sorrow) |
| Conceit | Extended elaborate metaphor (Metaphysical poetry) |
| Dramatic monologue | Single speaker addresses silent listener, reveals character |
| Elegy | Poem mourning death/loss |
| Ode | Lyric poem, elevated, addresses subject |
| Ballad | Narrative poem, simple language, often sung; quatrains ABCB |
| Villanelle | 19 lines, 5 tercets + 1 quatrain, complex repetition (Dylan Thomas) |
| Heroic couplet | Rhymed iambic pentameter pairs (Pope) |
| Spenserian stanza | 9 lines ABABBCBCC, 8 pentameter + 1 hexameter (alexandrine) |
| Imagery | Sensory language (visual, auditory, etc.) |
| Symbol | Concrete represents abstract (rose = love) |
| Allusion | Reference to literature/history/mythology |
| Tone | Speaker's attitude toward subject |
| Mood | Emotional atmosphere created for reader |
| Pathetic fallacy | Nature reflects human emotions (Ruskin's term) |
| Objective correlative | External objects/situation evoke emotion (Eliot's term) |
| Volta | Turn in thought/emotion in sonnet (line 9 or 13) |