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 W
Waka
The classical Japanese court poem, ancestor of the tanka, written in thirty one syllables. For centuries it was the language of refined feeling in Japan.
Wordplay
The pleasure of language turned over in the hands: puns, double meanings, echoes and invented words. In skilled poems wordplay is not decoration but a way of thinking.
All letters
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