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 G
Ghazal
A form from Arabic and Persian tradition, beloved across South Asia, made of self-contained couplets sharing a refrain and often a rhyme before it. The final couplet traditionally carries the poet's own name.
Golden Shovel
A modern form invented by Terrance Hayes in tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks, where the last word of each line reproduces, in order, the words of an existing line of poetry.
Georgic
A poem about farming, labour and the working of the land, descended from Virgil. Where the pastoral idealises the countryside, the georgic respects its sweat.
All letters
Enter the October poetry contest