Explore our comprehensive glossary of poetry terms. Whether you're a student, teacher, or poetry enthusiast, our glossary will help you understand key concepts, definitions, and examples that are essential in the study of poetry.
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| Term | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Dactyl | A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. | "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward." |
| Diction | The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. | The diction in the poem was formal and appropriate for the theme. |
| Didactic Poetry | Poetry intended to teach or convey a moral message. | Alexander Pope's "Essay on Criticism" is a didactic poem. |
| Dimeter | A line of verse consisting of two metrical feet. | "Up the | mountain, | Down the | valley." |
| Dirge | A mournful poem or song expressing grief, especially for the dead. | Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a dirge for Abraham Lincoln. |
| Dirge | A mournful song or poem for the dead. | "A Dirge" by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a well-known example. |
| Doggerel | Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme. | A poem of no literary value is often termed doggerel. |
| Dramatic Monologue | A poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character. | Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a famous dramatic monologue. |