A

ANADIPLOSIS ~ [Greek, "double back"]: repetition of the last word in a line/segment at the start of the next line/segment.

ANAPHORA ~ [Greek, "a carrying up or back"]: a repetition of a word or words in successive phrases, classes or lines [e.g., I repeat the title line in, "When I Think of You..."

ANTEPENULTIMA ~ second word from the end of a line...also the second last syllable of a word.

ANTEPENUMATE ~ third word from the end of a line.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM ~ figure of speech. Speaking of an abstract thing/object as if it were human.

ANTISTROPHE ~ an answer to the strophe and the second stanza in a Pindaric ode.

APHESIS ~ [Greek, "a letting go"]: omission of an unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word [e.g., "special for especial"].

APOCOPE ~ [Greek, "a cutting off"]: omission of the final sound or syllable of a word [e.g., "thick an' thin" in place of "thick and thin"].

ASSONANCE ~ a rhyming of words in one or more of their accented vowels, but not of the following consonants [e.g., pale/brave].

B

BALLAD ~ a verse form consisting of three symmetrical stanzas and a short concluding verse called envoy (addressed to some imagined hearer),

all four stanzas sharing a refrain.

BARD ~ Celtic name for poet or singer.

BOMBAST ~ swollen rhetoric, pretentious language. hollow ranting.

C

CADENCE ~ the fall or modulation of the voice. The rhythmic flow of sound, especially of words in verse or prose.

CIRCUMLOCUTION ~ using many words when few would do. an indirect or roundabout expression.

CLERIHEW ~ a form of light verse consisting of two couplets and having the name of a person in the first line.

CONSONANCE ~ recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondance of vowels

(as in the final sounds of "stroke" and "luck").

COUPLET ~ a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length.

CORONA ~ [Latin, "crown"]: a sonnet sequence where the last line in one sonnet becomes the first line of the next sonnet, and the final line in the sequence repeats the first line of the first sonnet.

D

DIDACTIC ~ a form of poetry intended for instruction such as for knowledge or to teach.

DISTICH ~ two lines of verse, connected, and usually complete in sense. a couplet.

DIZAIN ~ a stanza or poem of ten lines.

DOGGEREL ~ worthless verse. irregular verse measures.

E

ELISION ~ omission of a consonant [e.g., 'o'er' for over] or a vowel [e.g., 'I'm for I am']

ENJAMBEMENT ~ the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next without terminal punctuation.

END-STOPPED ~ a verse line ending at a grammatical boundary or break [dash, closing parenthesis] or punctuation [colon, semi-colon, period].

The opposite of enjambement.

ENVOY ~ closing stanza of a poem, especially a ballad, repeating the meter and rhymes of the previous half stanzas, and beginning by naming the person to whom the poem is addressed.

EPIGRAPH ~ a quotation, taken from another literary work, that is placed at the start of a poem under the title.

EPISTLE ~ a literary work [prose or poem] in the form of a letter.

EPISTROPHE ~ the repetition of the same word at the end of several consecutive phrases or sentences [e.g., 'we'll work for FREEDOM, 'we'll fight for FREEDOM, 'we'll die for FREEDOM]

EPODE ~ the third section [or the stand] of a Pindaric ode after the strophe and antistrophe.

EXEMPLUM ~ a narrative that teaches a moral.