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 I
Iamb
A metrical foot of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in the word belong. It is the heartbeat of English poetry.
Iambic Pentameter
A line of five iambs, ten syllables alternating unstressed and stressed. It is the meter of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets and much of English verse since.
Imagery
The sensory life of a poem, everything the reader is made to see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Strong imagery is the most reliable way to move a reader, and it is one of the five criteria on which Writory scores every poem.
Internal Rhyme
Rhyme that happens within a single line, or between the middle of one line and the end of another, weaving sound through the body of the poem.
Inversion
Reversing normal word order, as in quiet fell the night. Once common for meeting meter, it now reads as archaic unless handled with intent.
All letters
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