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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tableau | A vivid or graphic description of a scene, often used in poetry to create a striking mental image. | The poet’s tableau of the battlefield brought the horrors of war to life. |
| Tail Rhyme | A rhyme at the end of a short line that is followed by a longer line, commonly found in certain ballads and hymns. | The poem’s tail rhyme added a musical quality to the narrative. |
| Tapinosis | A rhetorical device that involves the use of demeaning or belittling language, often for ironic effect. | The poet’s use of tapinosis highlighted the disparity between appearance and reality. |
| Tautology | The repetition of an idea or statement using different but equivalent words; a redundancy in poetry. | The poet’s tautology emphasized the inescapable truth of the situation. |
| Teleutons | The final words or syllables in a line of verse, particularly when they form a rhyme or contribute to the poem’s meter. | The teleutons in the poem created a rhythmic closure to each stanza. |
| Tercet | A group of three lines of verse, often rhyming together or connected by rhyme with an adjacent tercet. | The second and fourth stanzas of "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas are tercets. |
| Tmesis | A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is separated into two parts, with an intervening word or phrase inserted in between. | The poet’s clever use of tmesis disrupted the flow, making the reader pause and think. |
| Tmesis | A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is separated into two parts, with an intervening word or phrase inserted in between. | The poet’s clever use of tmesis disrupted the flow, making the reader pause and think. |
| Tmesis | A figure of speech in which a word is split into two parts, with other words inserted between them. | Inserting words into phrases, as in abso-bloody-lutely, is an example of tmesis in poetry. |
| Tone | The general attitude or mood conveyed by a poem, which can be influenced by diction, syntax, and other stylistic choices. | The poem’s tone shifted from hopeful to melancholic as it progressed. |