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 P
Pantoum
A form of interlocking quatrains in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza return as the first and third of the next. Its repetitions circle obsessively, which suits poems of memory.
Paradox
A statement that contradicts itself on the surface yet reveals a deeper truth, the engine of much devotional and philosophical poetry.
Parallelism
Repeating grammatical structures across lines or phrases so that ideas march in step. It is the backbone of biblical verse and of great speeches.
Parody
An imitation of a poet's style exaggerated for comic or critical effect. Good parody is a form of close reading with a grin.
Pastoral
Poetry that idealises rural life, shepherds and green landscapes. Modern pastorals often question the idyll they inherit.
Pathetic Fallacy
Giving human emotions to nature and weather, so the sky grieves and the wind complains. Named as a fault by Ruskin, used as a tool by poets ever since.
Pentameter
A line of five metrical feet. Iambic pentameter is the most common line in English poetry.
Persona
The invented speaker of a poem, distinct from the poet. Writing in persona lets a poet borrow eyes they were not born with.
Personification
Granting human qualities to things that are not human, so death can knock politely and autumn can grow tired.
Petrarchan Sonnet
The Italian sonnet of an octave rhyming ABBAABBA and a sestet of varied rhymes, with a turn of thought, the volta, between them.
Prose Poetry
Poetry written in paragraphs rather than lines, keeping the compression, imagery and music of verse without the line break.
Pun
A play on words that sound alike or carry two meanings at once. In poetry a pun can be a joke or a trapdoor into seriousness.
All letters
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