Versification--Poetic Analysis Terms

Scansion: the art/act of scanning a line to determine metrical feet

Feet: the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
Meter: the unit of feet, (how many feet per line)

Types of Metrical Feet:

Iambic/iamb: two syllables with the stress on the second syllable
example: Whose woods these are I think I know.(iambic tetrameter)

Trochaic/trochee: two syllables with the stress on the first syllable
example: Double, double toil and trouble,(trochaic tetrameter)
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Anapestic/anapest: three syllables with the stress on the last syllable
example: With the sheep in the fold and the cows in their stalls. (anapestic tetrameter)

Dactylic/dactyl: three syllables with the stress on the first syllable
example: Love again, song again, nest again, young again.(dactylic tetrameter)

Numbers of Meter:
monometer: one foot line, - Thus I (trochaic monometer)
dimeter: two foot line, - Workers earn it.(trochaic dimeter)
trimeter: three foot line, -The idle life I lead. (iambic trimeter)
tetrameter: four foot line, Whose woods these are I think I know.
pentameter: five foot line, Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. (iambic pentameter)
hexameter: six, - To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails.(iambic hexameter)
heptameter: seven, - It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day.(iambic heptameter)
octometer: eight, - Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.(trochaic octometer)

Rhyme: identical repetition between two different words
-position: end rhyme, internal rhyme
-kinds of rhyme:
-masculine: one syllable rhymed words, blend/send
-feminine: a stressed the unstressed syllable, lawful/awful
-triple: three syllable rhymed word, quivering/shivering

Rhyme scheme: exact correspondence of rhyming sounds, identified by the first end rhyme represented by an "a," the next variation by a "b," etc.

Internal Structures
-descriptive: requirements of describing used
-discursive: organized like an argument or essay
-dramatic: consisting of a series of scenes, vivid with detail
-imitative: mirroring the structure of something that already exists
-narrative: straightforward chronological framework
-reflective(meditative): pondering a subject or theme, playing with it in the mind
Verse Forms:
Blank verse: lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter
Free verse: no regular meter and no end rhyme, although possible repetative patterns
Rhymed verse: end rhyme and generally regular meter
-couplet: two lines of verse coupled by rhyme
-tercet: three lines of verse linked by a single rhyme
-quatrain: a stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed
-Ballad Stanza: only one set of rhymes in four lines: most abcb
-quintet: five line stanza
-sestet: six line stanza
-septet: seven line stanza
-Rhyme royal: seven line iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc
-octave: eight line stanza
-Ottava rima: eight line stanza rhyming abababcc
-Spencerian stanza: nine lines, first eight iambic pentameter and
last line an iambic hexameter (alexadrine), rhyming ababbcbcc
-sonnet: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with intricate rhyme scheme
Italian (Petrarchan): octave and sestet, typical: abba abba cde cde
English (Shakespearian): three quatrains and a couplet
-limerick: five line poem in aabba (often baudy) with two lines of eight syllabus, two lines of five syllabus, and a final line of eight syllabus

Visual (concrete poetry), or technopaegnia--related to the visual look of a poem on the page

Other "figures of speech" and poetic terminology and language:
-alliteration: repetition of initial consonant or vowel sounds
-assonance: similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants:
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. --Matthew 5:14b (KJV)
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. --Matthew 5:16 (KJV)
-consonance: ending verse words in which the consonant sounds agree but the vowels that proceed them differ (add-read, bill-ball, begun-afternoon)
-onomatopoeia: use of words which in their pronounciation suggests their meaning
(hiss, slam, buzz, whirr, sizzle)
-simile: a comparison directly expressed using "like" or "as"
-metaphor: an implied analogy between two things
-conceit: fanciful intellectual idea; a striking parallel between two dissimilar things
-oxymoron: rhetorical antithesis, bringing together two contradictory terms
-allegory: objects/persons/actions are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself
-symbol: often something physical which stands for or represents something larger or more abstract
-allusion: a reference to a famous historical/literary figure or event
-ambiguity: ability to mean more than one thing
-connotation: what is suggested by a word, apart from what it denotes (the American flag: patriotism, honor, veterans, American values)
-denotation: the direct and specific meaning of a word (the American flag: denotes a piece of colored cloth in a particular pattern)
-personification: treating an abstraction/nonhuman as if it were a person, with human qualities
-precision: exactness, accuracy of language or description
-syntax: the formal arrangement of words in a sentence