Glossary
Glossary
A glossary of literary terms — from metaphor to free verse.
Literature01Versification
Rhythm, metre, rhyme and the stanza.
44 termsOpen
Literature02Tropes & Figures
Metaphor, metonymy and rhetorical figures.
43 termsOpen
Literature03Stylistics
Language, register and stylistic devices.
52 termsOpen
Literature04Genres & Forms
Novel, novella, sonnet — genres and folk forms.
91 termsOpen
Literature05Movements
Baroque, romanticism, modernism, avant-garde.
38 termsOpen
Literature06Composition
Plot, fabula, conflict and structure.
50 termsOpen
Literature07Character & Image
Hero, character, lyric subject, archetype.
30 termsOpen
Literature08Theory & Criticism
Literary theory, criticism and book culture.
68 termsOpen
Versification
← All dimensions
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem in which the initial letters of the lines, read from top to bottom, form a word, name or whole phrase.
Adjacent rhyme
Adjacent (paired) rhyme is a way of joining lines in which neighbouring lines rhyme according to the scheme aabb.
Alternate rhyme
Alternate rhyme is a way of joining lines by the scheme abab, when lines rhyme through one: the first with the third, the second with the f…
Amphibrach
The amphibrach is a trisyllabic foot with the stress on the middle syllable (U—U).
Anacrusis
Anacrusis is the initial unstressed syllable or syllables of a verse line before the first metrical stress (ictus).
Anapaest
The anapaest is a trisyllabic foot with the stress on the last syllable (UU—), the mirror image of the dactyl.
Blank verse
Blank verse is verse with a clear metrical structure but without rhyme.
Caesura
The caesura is a fixed rhythmic pause within a verse line that divides it into two relatively independent segments (hemistichs).
Clausula
The clausula is the concluding part of a verse line, beginning with the last stressed syllable; it is precisely the clausula that determine…
Dactyl
The dactyl is a trisyllabic foot with the stress on the first syllable (—UU).
Dactylic rhyme
Dactylic rhyme is a rhyme with the stress on the third syllable from the end, when two unstressed syllables follow the stressed one.
Distich
The distich (couplet) is the simplest stanza of two lines, usually united by adjacent rhyme or, as in the ancient elegiac distich, by the m…
Dolnyk
The dolnyk is a transitional form between syllabo-tonic and tonic versification, in which the number of stresses in the line is fixed while…
Enjambment
Enjambment is the non-coincidence of syntactic and verse segmentation, when a sentence or phrase does not conclude within the line but "flo…
Envelope rhyme
Envelope (enclosed) rhyme is a way of joining lines by the scheme abba, when the first line rhymes with the fourth and the second with the…
Exact rhyme
Exact rhyme is a rhyme in which all the sounds from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word coincide (for example, "bright — light").
Feminine rhyme
Feminine rhyme is a rhyme with the stress on the penultimate syllable, when one unstressed syllable follows the stressed one (for example,…
Free verse
Free verse (vers libre) is a type of versification that renounces fixed metre, rhyme and equal syllable count, building rhythm on syntactic…
Hexameter
The hexameter is a six-foot dactylic measure of ancient metrics, the principal verse of heroic epic.
Iamb
The iamb is a disyllabic foot with the stress on the second syllable (U—), one of the most widespread in European and Ukrainian versificati…
Internal rhyme
Internal rhyme is the consonance of words within a single line or between the middle of a line and its ending, in contrast to ordinary end…
Masculine rhyme
Masculine rhyme is a rhyme with the stress on the final syllable of the consonant words (for example, "delight — night").
Metre
Metre is the ideal rhythmic scheme of verse, the generalised law of alternation between strong and weak positions (ictuses and inter-ictic…
Metrical foot
The metrical foot is the smallest recurring unit of poetic metre in the syllabo-tonic system, a conventional combination of one strong (str…
Ottava rima
Ottava rima is an eight-line stanza with the rhyme scheme abababcc, in which six lines of alternating rhyme conclude with a final couplet o…
Paeon
The paeon is a four-syllable foot with one stressed and three unstressed syllables; depending on the position of the stress, the first (—UU…
Poetic measure
Poetic measure is the concrete realisation of metre, defined by the type of foot and the number of its repetitions in the line.
Pyrrhic
The pyrrhic is a conventional disyllabic foot of two unstressed syllables (UU) which, in syllabo-tonic verse, replaces the iamb or trochee…
Quatrain
The quatrain is a four-line stanza, the most widespread in European and Ukrainian poetry, admitting all three principal rhyme schemes: adja…
Refrain
The refrain is a line, group of lines or stanza that recurs periodically at certain points of a poem, most often at the ends of stanzas.
Rhyme
Rhyme is the consonance of the endings of verse lines, beginning from the last stressed vowel.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the regular alternation of commensurate linguistic units (stressed and unstressed syllables, pauses, intonational segments) that…
Scansion
Scansion is a way of pronouncing verse with an emphasised, even highlighting of all metrically strong positions, in which the rhythmic sche…
Sestina
The sestina is a complex fixed form of six six-line stanzas and a concluding tercet (envoi), in which, instead of rhyme, a system operates…
Slant rhyme
Slant rhyme is a rhyme in which the sounds coincide only partially, with deviations in the consonants or vowels after the stress (for examp…
Sonnet
The sonnet is a fixed verse form of fourteen lines, usually iambic pentameter, with a canonical composition and rhyme scheme.
Spondee
The spondee is a conventional disyllabic foot of two stressed syllables (——).
Stanza
The stanza is a group of verse lines united by a common rhythmic, rhyme and intonational-semantic structure that recurs periodically within…
Syllabic versification
Syllabic versification is a system in which rhythm rests on an equal number of syllables in the lines regardless of the placement of stress…
Syllabo-tonic versification
Syllabo-tonic versification is a system in which rhythm is built on the ordered alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, taking in…
Terza rima
Terza rima is a chain stanzaic form of tercets linked by a continuous "interlocking" rhyme according to the scheme aba bcb cdc…, where the…
Tonic versification
Tonic (accentual) versification is a system in which rhythm is determined by an equal or ordered number of stresses in the line, while the…
Trochee
The trochee is a disyllabic foot with the stress on the first syllable (—U), the opposite of the iamb in the placement of the strong positi…
Versification
Versification is the system of organising poetic speech through the rhythmic commensurability of lines, the feature that distinguishes vers…
