A. Perfect Rhyme: When both the vowel and the succeeding consonant of the last syllable of the two words are the same: bone - stone.

B. False Rhyme: When only the vowel sounds of the last syllable are the same (called imperfect rhyme, or referred to as assonance): late - gray.

C. Suspended Rhyme (consonance): When the vowel sounds of the two words are not the same, but the succeeding consonants are: study - ready.

D. Slant Rhyme (dissonance): When the vowel sounds of the two words are not the same, but both the preceding and succeeding consonants are: light - late.

E. Eye Rhyme: When the two words do not sound alike, although they appear to the eye to do so: days - says.

F. Leonine Rhyme: When a word at the middle of a line rhymes with the word at the end of the line.

Rhyme Scheme: The pattern, or sequence, in which the rhyme sounds occur in a stanza. Rhyme schemes are shown by assigning the same letter of the alphabet to each similar sound in a stanza.

boon	a
boy	b
soon	a
toy     b

Meter: A rhythmic pattern established by the recurrence of stress or accent marks at regular intervals within a line.

A. Stress: When a word or syllable is spoken more strongly than another, it is said to be stressed or accented. In poetry the accents are similar to the beats found in music. Each line of poetry is made up of a group of stressed syllables or words and a group of unstressed syllables or words.

B. Foot: A foot of poetry consists of one stressed or accented syllable and one or more unstressed or unaccented syllables. The different kinds of feet are recognized by the number and arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

1. Iambic (iamb): one unstressed and one stressed u/

2. Trochaic (trochee): one stressed and one unstressed /u

3. Anapestic (anapest): two unstressed and one stressed uu/

4. Dactylic (dactyl): one stressed and two unstressed /uu

5. Spondaic (spondee): two stressed //

C. Number of Feet Per Line: Lines of poetry are made up of a certain number of feet, or of stressed and unstressed syllables, per line. This number determines the length of a line of poetry.

1. Monometer - one foot per line

2. Dimeter - two feet per line

3. Trimeter - three feet

4. Tetrameter - four feet

5. Pentameter - five feet

6. Hexameter - six feet

7. Heptameter - seven feet

8. Octameter - eight feet

D. Metrical Pattern: Therefore we determine the metrical pattern of a line of poetry by counting the kind and number of feet per line. For example, iambic pentameter consists of 5 iambic feet, or 10 syllables per line ( v/ v/ v/ v/ v/ ).

E. Scansion (vb. to scan): The division of a verse of poetry into feet to determine the meter of a poem.

Verse: One line of poetry is called a verse.

Stanza: Poems are made up of divisions called stanzas (just as prose is made up of paragraphs). Each stanza contains a division of thought developing the poem; it usually has a definite rhyme scheme.

Stanza Forms: The specific arrangement of two or more lines of a poem; a stanza form will have a specific number of lines, a specific rhyme scheme, and a specific metrical pattern.

1. Couplet: a). length�2 lines; b). metrical form�usually iambic pentameter (heroic couplets), or iambic tetrameter (octosyllabic couplets); c). rhyme scheme�aa, bb, cc.

2. Tercet: a). length�3 lines (a triplet); b). metrical form�usually iambic pentameter or iambic tetrameter; c). rhyme scheme�aaa.

3. Terza Rima: a). length�3 lines; b). metrical form�usually iambic pentameter; c). rhyme scheme�aba, bcb, cdc, ded. . . .

4. Quatrain: a). length�4 lines; b). metrical form�variable; c). rhyme scheme�variable.

5. Rhyme Royal: a). length�7 lines; b). metrical form�iambic pentameter; c). rhyme scheme�ab, ab, b, cc.

6. Ottava Rima: a). length�8 lines; b). metrical form�iambic pentameter; c). rhyme scheme�ab, ab, ab, cc.

7. Spenserian Stanza: a). length�9 lines; b). metrical form�8 lines of iambic pentameter, the 9th. line of iambic hexameter (alexandrine); c). rhyme scheme�ab, abb, cb, cc.

8. Sonnet:

a. Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan): a). length�14 lines; b). metrical form�iambic pentameter, c). rhyme scheme�abba, abba, cde, cde. The first eight lines of the sonnet are called the octave; the last six lines are called the sestet (the rhyme scheme of the sestet may vary).

b. Shakespearean Sonnet: a). length�14 lines; b). metrical form�iambic pentameter; c). rhyme scheme�abab, cdcd, efef, gg. (Three quatrains and a couplet)

9. Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. It may be any length.

10. Free Verse: This form is characterized by its irregular metrical pattern, usually by its lack of a definite rhyme-scheme, and by its attempts to secure a variety of rhythmical effects.

Sound Devices

A. Alliteration: The repetition of consonantal sounds in a verse of poetry. It may be initial or medial repetition.
Initial: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free.�Coleridge.

Medial: The moan of doves in innumerable elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.�Tennyson.

B. Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in a verse of poetry. It may be initial or medial repetition.

Initial: Apt alliteration's artful aid is often an occasional ornament in prose.

Medial: Though oft the ear the open vowels tire.� Pope.

C. Onomatopoeia: The use of words which have the same sound as the noise they represent--hiss, buzz, whirr.

Figurative Language: Poets will often depart from the normal order, meaning, or construction of words in order to gain freshness of expression, to express thoughts and feelings which are the result of heightened emotion, to create a pictorial effect, or to point out similarities in otherwise dissimilar things.

A. Simile: A direct comparison of two things expressing or implying a similarity between them. A simile is introduced by like or as.

O, my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June. �Burns.

B. Metaphor: A direct identification of one thing with another. The comparative expressions like and as are omitted.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. � Shakespeare.

C. Personification: The attribution of life to inanimate objects.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls. � Tennyson.

D. Allusion: A poetic reference to some will-known person, place, thing, or idea which the reader is supposed to recognize.

So might I ...
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. �Wordsworth

E. Symbol: A symbol is a concrete object which is itself and yet stands for or suggests or means something else. A flag is a piece of colored cloth, and yet it stands for a nation. A cross is made of two pieces of wood, and yet it symbolizes Christianity.

F. Apostrophe: The direct invocation of some abstract quality or non-existent personage as if he or she were present.

Tell me, Muse, about the man of many turns,
Who many ways wandered when he had sacked
Troy's holy citadel.� Homer.

G. Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration used to produce tragic or comic effects.

No; this my hand will rather
The Multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. �Shakespeare.