Terminology - Poetry

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Poetry 1

Alternate rhyme - lines of poetry where the rhyme is on every other line (abab)

Caesura - a mid-line pause

Couplet - a two line verse (often rhyming)

End-focus - a change in the structure of the sentence to place emphasis on an closing sentence element

Eye rhyme - where the words look like they should rhyme but the sound is not exactly the same

Foregrounding - a change in the structure of the sentence to place emphasis on an opening sentence element 

Form - the structure and shape of the text

Iambic - a unit of poetic meter containing one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Internal rhyme - where the rhyming sound occurs within a line of verse

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Poetry 2

Octet - an eight line verse

Pentameter - a unit of poetic meter containing five feet (10 syllables in total)

Petrarchan or Italian sonnet - a poem of 14 lines, divided into an octet and a sestet written in iambic pentameter, rhyming abbaabbba cdecde (sestet may vary)

Quatrain - a four line verse

Rhythm - the pattern of syllables and stresses within poetry

Sestet - a six line verse

Shakespearean or English sonnet - a poem of 14 lines, divided into 3 quatrains and a couplet, written in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Stanza - the division of lines in a poem

Verse type - the type of poem, e.g. sonnet, lyric, ballad, ode, narrative

Volta - the turning point in a sonnet

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