METER
1 Monometer (v. rare)
2 Dimeter (rare)
3 Trimeter
4 Tetrameter
5 Pentameter (most common)
6 Hexameter
7 Heptameter (rare)
x / iamb (iambic)
/ x trochee (trochaic)
x x / anapaest (anapaestic)
/ x x dactyl (dactylic)
x x pyrrhic
/ / spondee (spondaic)
Most common English meter is
iambic pentameter. Look out for 10
syllable lines.
Reversed foot: usually at start of
line, when stress order is reversed
compared to normal pattern. e.g. a
trochee when you’re expecting an
iamb
Feminine ending: line ends with an
unstressed syllable
Masculine ending: line ends with a
stress
RHYME
Full/ rich: dead/red
Half/ slant: sing/thin; real/school
Eye: lull/full
external: at end of lines
internal: within lines
FORMS
BITS and PIECES
Ballad: 4 line stanza, abab or abcb; usually
4/3/4/3 beats, or some variant; medieval period,
later revived by Romantics
End-stopped/stopping:
when line ends with
punctuation
Blank verse: most common verse form in
English poetry until mid-19C. Iambic
pentameter, unrhymed. Most of Shakespeare’s
drama; Milton, Paradise Lost; Wordsworth,
“Lines”
Enjambement: no
punctuation at end of line
Heroic couplets: iambic pentameter and
couplets (aabbcc, etc). Augustan (early 18C)
verse, e.g. Alexander Pope
Alexandrine: iambic hexameter
Ottava Rima: eight line stanza. abababcc,
iambic pentameter. Byron, Don Juan.
Sonnet forms:
Petrarchan/Italian: Octave/volta/sestet.
abbaabba/cdecde
Shakespearean/English: 3 Quatrains/couplet
(usually volta after first 2 quatrains, plus
conclusion in final couplet).
ababcdcdefefgg
Spenserian: abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee (masochistic
version of English sonnet)
(Quatorzain: What Shakespeare et al would
have called a 14 line poem)
Villanelle: terribly difficult 19 line poem. Look
it up!
Sestina: 6 sestets, 3 line envoi, other difficult
rules . . .
Terza Rima: Dante’s Commedia.
aba/bcb/cdc/ded etc.
Haiku: tercet, 5-7-5 syllables
Caesura: a pause during
a line, usually indicated
by punctuation. Old
English poetry has a
medial caesura
Quatrain: 4 line chunk
Tercet: 3 line chunk
SOUNDS
consonance: repetition of
consonants
alliteration: consonance
at start of words (big
bouncy ball)
assonance: repetition of
vowels
hard/soft consonants
short/long vowels