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 F
Feminine Rhyme
A rhyme of two or more syllables where the final syllable is unstressed, as in ocean and motion. It softens the landing of a line.
Figurative Language
Language that means more than it literally says, including metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole. It is the difference between reporting the world and transforming it.
Foot
The basic repeating unit of meter, a small pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Iambs, trochees, anapests, dactyls and spondees are the common feet of English verse.
Form
The outward structure of a poem: its line lengths, stanza pattern, rhyme scheme and rules. Form can be inherited, like the sonnet, or invented for a single poem.
Found Poetry
Poetry assembled from words discovered in other texts, such as newspapers, letters or signs, rearranged so that ordinary language reveals a hidden poem.
Free Verse
Poetry without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme. Free verse is not formless; it replaces inherited rules with the poet's own control of line, cadence and image.
All letters
Enter the October poetry contest