In the cosmos of poetry, there are genuine poems, and then there are pieces that masquerade as poems.
Poems, Doggerel, Versification
Such false poems are labeled doggerel. Some writers make the distinction between a genuine poem and doggerel by labeling the latter “verse.” This site will refer to the really bad “poems” as doggerel and to those that do not quite make poem status as “versifications.”
The following offers a glossary of additional terms used in the poetry commentary on this site:
Most Common Poetric Devices
Metaphor: creates a comparison of unlike entities in order to dramatize or portray the sensed reality of the subject. One of the best metaphors in poetry is Robert Frost’s “leaves got up in a coil and hissed / Blindly struck at my knee and missed.”
Image: any sense perceived snapshot. Therefore, there are visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory images. Example: Robert Browning’s “A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch / And blue spurt of a lighted match” offers images of sight, sound, and smell.
Stanzas
Versagraph: a free verse paragraph, usually unrimed, unmetered group of lines
Couplet: two lines
Tercet: three lines
Quatrain: four lines
Cinquain: five lines
Sestet: six lines, usually first stanza or part of a Petrarchan sonnet
Septet: seven lines
Octave: eight lines, usually the second stanza or part of a Petrarchan sonnet
End-rime: the most common rime, usually producing a consistent rime-scheme, such as the English sonnet: ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Slant rime, near rime, off rime: pairs of words that are merely close in rime: to-day / victory, tell / still, arm / exclaim.
Internal rime: a line’s final word riming with a word within the line: “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
Scatter Rime: appears in no definite scheme, AABCDDEFGG.
Cluster Rime: groups of riming words appearing along with unrimed words, AAABBBBCCDEED.
Classifying Poetry
Classic Poetry: poetry recognized before 1920 and poems studied widely in secondary school and college classes, to be distinguished from Classical Poetry, which refers only to the poetry of antiquity—Hindu, Persian, Greek, and Roman.
Contemporary Poetry: poetry recognized after 1920, especially that of Modernism, Postmodernism, and 21st century
Forms of Poetry
Sonnet: the most commonly employed form of poem since the early 13th century. Types of sonnets include the Italian (Petrarchan), English (Spenserian, Elizabethan or Shakespearean), American (Innovative). Also, various combinations of these sonnets exist as innovative sonnets.
Elizabethan Sonnet: Three rimed quatrains and one rimed couplet in iambic pentameter. Rime scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
Petrarchan Sonnet: One octave and one sestet. Traditional rime scheme is ABBAABBACDCDCD
Villanelle: a tightly structured 19-line poem that features only two rimes and two refrains
Versanelle: a short, usually 12 lines or fewer, narration that comments on human nature or behavior, and may employ any of the usual poetic devices
Writing About Poetry
Scholar: emphasizes the research and study of poetry
Critic: emphasizes the evaluation of poems
Commentarian: combines the work of the scholar and critic
Analysis: examines and discusses a poem in terms of its parts
Explication: explains how the poem’s use of poetic devices implies its message. While the term “explicate” comes from the Latin explicare, meaning to unfold, it is useful to think of the term explication as a conflation of explain + implication when referring to poetry; thus an explication “explains the implications” of the poetic devices used in the poem.
Commentary: combines the work of analysis and explication with emphasis on effect and meaning
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
