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 |
|---|---|---|
| Scansion | The action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm. | A teacher might ask students to perform scansion on a sonnet to identify its meter. |
| Sestet | A six-line stanza or the last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet. | "When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." |
| Simile | A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid. | As brave as a lion. |
| Sonnet | A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, typically having ten syllables per line. | Shakespearean sonnets are famous for their iambic pentameter. |
| Spondee | A metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables. | "Faithful" is an example of a spondee. |
| Stanza | A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse. | A sonnet has 14 lines divided into three stanzas and a couplet. |
| Stanza | A grouped set of lines in a poem, usually separated by a blank line or indentation. | A poem might have several stanzas, each with a different mood. |
| Symbolism | The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. | A red rose often symbolizes love or romance. |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. | "All hands on deck" where "hands" refers to sailors. |