Some Principles of Versification

Glossary of Terms

The technical vocabulary of prosody (the study of the principles of verse structure, including meter, rhyme, and other sound effects, and stanzaic patterns) is large. An understanding of these terms will not turn anyone into a poet, but it will enable one to discuss some aspects of poetry efficiently. The following are the chief terms of prosody.

Prosody	the study of the principles of verse structure, including meter, rhyme, and other sound effects, and stanzaic patterns
Rhythm	a pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds
Meter	a recurring pattern of stressed (accented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented, or short) syllables in lines of a set length.
Scansion	the process of marking the stresses in a poem, and working out the meter from the distribution of stresses. To scan a line of poetry is to determine its metric pattern.
Accent	a definite stress upon a syllable when pronouncing it.
Foot	the unit of measure, which is a group of syllables containing one accented syllable. In English verse a foot has two or three syllables.
iambic foot	It contains an unstressed syllable followed by a strongly accented syllable. It is a "skipping" foot. It can be heard in such words as because, hello, Elaine, amuse, Leroy. It is called a rising meter, the foot rising toward the stress.
trochaic foot	the "marching" foot, with an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, a falling meter, the foot falling away from the stress. These are trochaic words: answer, Tuesday, Albert, Peter, Hilda
dactylic foot	the "waltzing" foot, with a strongly accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, a falling meter. You can hear the dactylic beat in these words : Saturday, beautiful, silently, Jeremy, Cecily
anapestic foot	a fast movement, almost a "galloping" foot, having two unaccented one, a rising meter. These words are anapestic: cavalier, tambourine, Marianne
spondaic foot	two stressed syllables; it neither rises nor falls; a substitute for an iamb or trochee
pyrrhic foot	a foot consisting of two unstressed syllables
Measures	the number of feet in a line of poetry: Monometer: one foot to a line Dimeter: two feet " " " Trimeter: three " " " " Tetrameter four " " " " Pentameter five " " " " Hexameter six " " " " Heptameter seven " " " " Octameter eight " " " "
Rhyme	the repetition of sounds at the end of two or more lines of poetry. Not only is the accented vowel sound repeated but also the sounds that follow
End rhyme	Repetition of sounds at the ends of lines: Now fades the glimmering landscape from the sight And all the air a solemn stillness holds. Save when the beetle wheels his droning flight And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. Unlike consonants Vowel Like consonants s i ght fl i ght h o lds f o lds
Internal rhyme	repetition of end sounds within the line of poetry (Wilde’s "Each narrow cell in which we dwell").
Perfect or exact rhymes	occur when differing consonant – sounds are followed by identical stressed vowel –sounds, and the following sounds, if any, are identical ( foe: toe; meet: feet;)
Masculine rhyme	the final syllables are stressed and, after their differing initial consonant- sounds, are identical in sound ( stark : mark; support : retort)
Feminine rhyme	stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables (revival: arrival; flatter: batter).
Alliteration	the repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words. Ordinary English speech is full of alliteration, especially if the phrases which are Anglo-Saxon in origin. "Time and tide", "bed and board", "do’s and dont’s", "this and that", "bread and butter" are just a few. Modern commercials and trade names are alliterative because it pays to make the name stick. Did you ever clean with "Spic and Span", or drive a "Dogle –Dart", or drink a "Coca Cola"?
Assonance	the repetition of vowel sound in a line of poetry : Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the middle of the night
Consonance	the repetition of a consonant sound in a line of poetry (fail: feel, rough: roof).
Onomatopoeia	the marking of a word from the sound of the thing or action that the word names. All of us use it in ordinary speech when we say such things as : the bell buzzed, rain pattered.
Stanza	Lines of poetry are commonly arranged in a rhythmical unit called a stanza (from an Italian word meaning “a room” or “ stopping place”). Usually all the stanzas in a poem have the same rhyme pattern. A stanza is sometimes called a verse, though “verse” may also mean a single line of poetry. (In discussing stanzas rhymes are indicated by identical letters. Thus, abab indicates that the first and the third lines rhyme with each other, while the second and fourth lines are linked by a different rhyme, x is used to denote an unrhymed line.)

Stanziac forms

Couplet	stanza of two lines, usually but not necessarily with end- rhymes. Couplet is also used for a pair of rhyming lines.
Triplet	a three- line stanza, usually with one rhyme
Quatrain	a four- line stanza, rhymed or unrhymed
Sonnet	a fourteen–line poem Shakespearean sonnet is rhymed as follows: ababcdcdefefgg
Blank verse	unrhymed iambic pentameter
Free verse	rhythmical lines varying in length, adhering to no fixed metrical pattern, and usually unrhymed. The pattern is often largely based on repetition and parallel grammatical structure
Imagery	devices used by the poet to stimulate the forming of pictures in the reader’s mind. Figures of speech are used for this purpose, as also are words that name sense impressions of sound (crash), color (red), touch (soft), taste(bitter), and smell (perfume, acrid)

Figures of speech

Figure of speech	the use of words in an unusual sense, not to be taken literally
Simile	a comparison, showing a likeness between two things otherwise different. A simile contains the words as or like : His hair was like moldy hay. Bob is strong as an ox
Metaphor	a comparison like a simile but does not contain either as or like: The road was a ribbon of moonlight. The moon was a ghostly galleon.
Personification	attribution to an animal or thing some human activity or quality: The hills untied their bonnets. The steeples swam in amethyst
Reification	attribution to some abstract state or quality the physical characteristics of a real thing: Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber’s chain has bound me
Hyperbole	exaggeration to create an effect; it is not a statement to be taken literally
Apostrophe	a figure of speech in which someone absent or some inanimate thing is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply to us
Epithet	a word or phrase which highlights a characteristic of a person or thing
Allusion	a reference to some person, place, or thing in history, religion, art, literature, mythology, or any other field of knowledge. By skillful use of allusions writers are able to suggest far more than they say