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Bob's Byway: Glossary of Poetic Terms

Curated by ACT

Calling itself "unique," Bob's is easy to use, with cross-links throughout, phonetic pronunciation guides when necessary, and many examples and quotations. Click on the letter and scroll for the word.

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Additional Tags
abcedarian poem, abovo, acatalectic, accentual verse, acephaly, acrostic poem, adonic, adynaton, aeolic ode, afflatus, alba, alcaic verse, alexandrine, alliterative verse, altar poem, alternate rhyme, ambiguity, amphibrach, amphigouri, amphimacer, anachronism, anaclasis, anacreontic, anacrusis, anadiplosis, anagoge, anagogy, analecta, analects, anapest, anapestic, anaphora, anastrophe, anisometric, antanaclasis, anthimeria, anthology, antibacchius, anticlimax, antimetabole, antiphrasis, antispast, antistrophe, antonomasia, aphaeresis, apheresis, aphesis, apocope, apologue, apostopesis, approximate rhyme, archaism, arsis, asyndeton, aubade, aube, avant-garde, bacchius, ballad meter, ballade, bard, baroque, bathos, blank verse, bouts-rimes, breton lay, broadside ballad, broken rhyme, bucolic, burden, burlesque, cacophony, caesura, canon, canto, canzone, carmina figurata, carpe diem, catachresis, catalectic, catalexis, catalog verse, cataphora, caudate rhyme, cento, chain rhyme, chain verse, chanson de geste, chant royal, chapbook, chaucerian stanza, chiasmus, choree, choric ode, chorlamb, cinquain, classicism, clerihew, close rhyme, closed couplet, closet drama, closure, common measure, companion poem, conceit, concrete poetry, content, continuous form, conventions, courtly love, crambo, cretic, criticaster, cross ryhme, cycle, dactyl, dactylic, dadaism, decameter, decasyllable, diacope, diaeresis, diamb, dibrach, didactic poetry, dieresis, diiamb, dimeter, dipodic verse, dipody, dirge, dispondee, dissonance, distich, disyllabic rhyme, disyllable, dithyramb, ditty, divine afflatus, dochmii, dochmius, dodecasyllable, doggerel, dorian ode, double ballade, double dactyl, double rhyme, dramatic monologue, dramatic poem, dysphemism, echo, echo verse, eclogue, ecphrasis, edda, eidillion, eidyllion, ekphrasis, elegiac, elegiac stanza, elision, ellipsis, emblem poems, emphasis, enallage, encomium, end rhyme, end-stopped, enjambment, envelope, envoi, envoy, epanadiplosis, epanalepsis, epanaphora, epic, epic simile, epigram, epigraph, epinicion, epiphora, epistrophe, epitaph, epithalamium, epithet, epitrite, epizeuxis, epode, epopee, epos, epyllion, equivoke, equivoque, euphemism, euphony, exact rhyme, extended metaphor, eye rhyme, fabliau, facetiae, fatal flaw, feminine ending, feminine rhyme, fescennine verses, figure of sound, figure of speech, fit, fixed form, form, found poem, fourteener, free-verse, fytte, galliambus, georgic, ghazal, gleeman, gnome, goliardic poetry, gongorism, grammatical rhyme, grave, half rhyme, hamartia, head rhyme, helicon, hemistich, hendecasyllable, hendiadys, heptameter, heroic couplet, heroic quatrain, heroic verse, heterometric, heteronym, hexameter, hiatus, higgledy-piggledy, hokku, homeric simile, horatian ode, hovering accent, hudibrastic verse, hymn, hypallage, hyperbaton, hypercatalectic, hypermetrical, hysteron proteron, iamb, ictus, idealism, identical rhyme, idyll, image, imagism, imitation, imperfect rhyme, improvisatore, in medias res, incremental repetition, initial rhyme, interior monologue, interlocking rhyme, internal rhyme, invective, invocation, ionic, isometric, italian sonnet, jingle, jongleur, kenning, king's english, lai, lament, lampoon, lay, leonine verse, light verse, list poem, litotes, lyric verse, macaronic verse, madrigal, malapropism, marinism, masculine rhyme, measure, meistersingers, melic verse, mesostich, metaphysical, metonymy, metre, metrical foot, metrical pause, metrics, metrist, middle rhyme, miltonic, mimesis, minnesingers, minstrel, minstrelsy, mixed metaphor, mock-epic, mock-heroic, modulation, molossus, monody, monometer, monorhyme, monostich, monosyllable, mora, morae, mosaic rhyme, muse, natural language patterns, near rhyme, neologism, nonce word, nonsense poetry, numen, objectivism, occasional poem, octameter, octave, octet, octosyllable, odeon, odeum, off rhyme, open couplet, ottave rima, paean, paeon, palindrome, palinode, panegyric, pantoum, parallelism, parnassian, paronomasia, paronym, pasquinade, pastiche, pastoral elegy, pastoral poetry, pastourelle, pathetic fallacy, pattern poetry, pause, pentameter, perfect rhyme, periphrasis, persona, petrarchan sonnet, phonetic symbolism, picaresque, pierian, pindaric verse, play on words, pleiad, pleiade, pleonasm, ploce, poems, poems of chance, poesie, poesy, poet laureate, poetaster, poetic diction, poetic license, poetic terms, poetics, poeticule, poetry term technique, poets' corner, polyphonic prose, polyptoton, polyrhythmic verse, polysyllable, polysyndeton, portmanteau word, poulter's measure, proceleusmatic, procephalic, prolepsis, prose poem, prosody, prosopopeia, prothalamium, pyrrhic, quantitive verse, quatorzain, queen's english, quintain, quintet, reduplicated words, repetend, repetition, rhapsody, rhetorical question, rhopalic, rhyme royal, rhymester, rhyming slang, rich rhyme, ricochet words, riding rhyme, rime, rime riche, romance, rondeau, rondel, rondelet, roundel, roundelay, run-on couplet, run-on lines, rune, sapphic verse, scan, scansion, scop, senryu, septenarius, septet, serenade, serpentine verses, sestet, sestina, shaped verse, sight rhyme, sight verse, sigmatism, sijo, skald, skeltonics, slant rhyme, society verse, solecism, sonneteer, sotadean, sotadic, sound symbolism, speaker, spenserian sonnet, spenserian stanza, split rhyme, spondaic, spondee, sprung rhythm, stanza forms, stanzaic, stave, stich, stichomythia, stornello verses, strain, stream of consciousness, stress, strophe, style, syllabic verse, syllepsis, symploce, synaeresis, synaesthesia, synalepha, synaloepha, syncope, synecdoche, synesthesia, synesthetic metaphor, tagalied, tail rhyme, tanka, tautology, telestich, tenor, tenson, tercet, terza rima, tetrabrach, tetrameter, theme, thesis, timesis, tragic hero, tribrach, trimeter, triolet, triple rhyme, triplet, trisyllable, trobairitz, trochaic, trochee, troilus verse, trope, troubadour, trouvere, true rhyme, understatement, vehicle, vers de societe, vers libre, verse paragraph, verset, versicle, versification, versifier, villanelle, virelay, visual poetry, volta, vowel length, vowel rhyme, wedge verse, well-versed, whimsey, whimsy, wordsmith, wrenched accent, zeugma, metaphor, poet, bob's byway: glossary of poetic terms, academie francaise, accent, allegory, allusion, analogy, antonym, aphorism, apostrophe, argument, ballad, cadence, couplet, eulogy, fable, genre, haiku, homograph, homonym, homophone, inversion, limerick, line, meter, motif, narrative, nursery rhyme, ode, paradox, parody, proverb, pun, quatrain, refrain, rhyme, rhyme scheme, rime enchainee, simile, soliloquy, sonnet, stanza, syllable, symbol, synonym, tragedy, verse, poetry terms and techniques
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