Poet's Glossary
Every craft has its vocabulary, and poetry's is one of the most beautiful. This glossary explains the forms, meters, rhymes and devices poets reach for, in plain and warm language. Whether you are decoding a sonnet or naming a technique you already use by instinct, start with a letter below.
Terms starting with E
Elegy
A poem of grief and remembrance for someone who has died, often moving from sorrow toward consolation. It is one of poetry's oldest and most human jobs.
Elision
The omission of a sound or syllable to keep a line within its meter, as in o'er for over. Common in older verse, rare but still available today.
End Rhyme
Rhyme that occurs at the ends of lines, the most familiar kind of rhyme in poetry. Its pattern across a stanza is described by the rhyme scheme.
End-stopped Line
A line whose grammar and thought conclude exactly where the line ends, usually with punctuation. The opposite of enjambment, it produces a settled, measured pace.
Enjambment
The running of a sentence past the end of one line into the next without pause. It creates momentum and lets the line break add a flicker of double meaning.
Envoi
The short final stanza of certain French forms such as the ballade and sestina, traditionally addressed to a patron or to the poem itself as a farewell.
Epic
A long narrative poem on a grand scale, recounting the deeds of heroes and the fate of nations. The Iliad, the Ramayana and Paradise Lost are epics.
Epigram
A very short poem with a sharp turn of wit at the end. It aims to say something permanent in the space of a breath.
Epitaph
A brief poem written for a tombstone, real or imagined. The form demands compression, since stone gives a poet very few lines.
Extended Metaphor
A single metaphor sustained and developed across many lines or an entire poem, gathering detail as it goes.
Eye Rhyme
Words that look like they rhyme on the page but sound different when spoken, such as love and move. Poets use it knowingly, and sometimes pronunciation has simply drifted over the centuries.
All letters
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