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 K
Kenning
A compressed, two word metaphor from Old Norse and Old English poetry, calling the sea the whale road or the body the bone house.
Kyrielle
A French form written in quatrains in which the same line returns as the final line of every stanza, tolling through the poem like a bell.
All letters
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