Art Attack: The Vocabulary of Creativity: It Could Be Verse: Poetry Parlance

From Shakespeare's sonnets to Kendrick Lamar's lyrics, language that is organized around rhythm and rhyme can carry enormous meaning and emotional force. Whether you're into epic odes or freestyle slams, this list gives you the lingo you need to unlock some of the most beautiful works ever written.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
    Where Harry Potter was aggressively simplistic, Handler used devices such as alliteration and repetition to the point of absurdity, while referencing everything from Shakespeare to Melville. The Guardian (Oct 3, 2019)
    Most, if not all, poetry was written to be spoken aloud. Rhythm and rhyme both help make language easier to memorize, and devices like alliteration — kind of like rhyme in reverse, where words begin with the same sound — serve that same objective.
  2. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
    At a time when the boundary lines between film and television are growing blurrier by the day, Quibi deepens the ambiguity — and even embraces it. Los Angeles Times (Apr 8, 2020)
    One of poetry's fundamental qualities is the ability to make just a few words evoke a number of possible associations. This openness to multiple interpretations, which is directly tied to the ability of words to convey multiple meanings simultaneously, gives poetry its artistic power. Ambiguitas is a Latin word meaning just that: "able to be understood in more than one way."
  3. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
    The lyrics of the pop music we secretly listened to, for instance, were “soft”: “Assonance is assonance but a rhyme is a rhyme. You can’t approximate!” The New Yorker (Apr 17, 2017)
    Assonance is similar to alliteration, but it involves interior vowel sounds rather than initial consonants. The phrase "vowel sounds" is assonant.
  4. couplet
    a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse
    Who stops to gaze and pen a couplet for the ragweed poking up from the Manhattan sidewalk? Salon (Mar 22, 2020)
  5. diction
    the manner in which something is expressed in words
    Steeped in images of sea and border crossings, travel papers and suitcases, the poet’s extraordinary diction coupled with direct address generates a sense of empathy for the dispossessed. New York Times (Mar 27, 2020)
    Dictionary should give you a pretty good clue as to the meaning of diction: "word choice."
  6. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
    Indeed, where the symphony offers an elegy, the concerto is pulled constantly downward as if by gravity. New York Times (Oct 6, 2019)
  7. enjambment
    continuation from one line of verse into the next line
    Martin notes that Child was thinking about an “enjambment,” the lit-crit term for a phrase in a poem that runs over into a second line. The New Yorker (Nov 6, 2016)
    Jambe is French for "leg." Enjambment — where a phrase or sentence doesn't stop at the end of a line, but carries over into the next one — literally means "to stick your leg out," in the sense of taking a step over a boundary or border.
  8. epic
    a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
    Two elves trade the quiet, suburban life for an epic quest in “Onward,” the latest offering from Pixar. New York Times (Apr 8, 2020)
  9. haiku
    an epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines
    “Hello? It’s a haiku. Five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables.” The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
    Haiku are poems
    Measured out in syllables:
    Five, seven, and five
  10. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
    There’s a lot of irony about the way we are celebrating Passover. New York Times (Apr 8, 2020)
  11. limerick
    a humorous rhymed verse form of five lines
    "A witty limerick is very hard to write," she added. Matilda
  12. lyric
    of or relating to poetry that expresses emotion
    The original is noticeably darker in tone, largely because it’s sung by Dylan in his fearsome latter-day rasp, but its powerful cocktail of beautifully direct lyrics and indelible melody are irresistible. The Guardian (Apr 9, 2020)
    Lyrics refer to the words of a song or a rap, but originally lyric poetry was specifically about emotions, often love. The word comes from lyre, a small Greek harp made from wood or animal horns and a longtime symbol of poetry and song.
  13. meter
    a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse
    And his drumming was at once intricate and explosive, pinpointing odd meters and expanding the band’s power-trio dynamics; countless drummers admired his technical prowess. Seattle Times (Jan 17, 2020)
    The rhythm of a poem is known as its meter, a Greek word meaning "measure." The most famous meter in Western poetry is iambic pentameter, which Shakespeare and many other poets used extensively. An iamb is a two-syllable beat with the accent on the second syllable; pentameter means there are five iambs per line. Penta is five in Greek, as in pentagon.
  14. muse
    the source of an artist's inspiration
    Janice Stone served as her husband’s muse, first reader, typist, cook and caretaker, accountant, travel agent and life coach. Washington Post (Mar 25, 2020)
    In Greek mythology, nine Muses — goddesses of knowledge — embodied different arts and sciences. Of the nine, at least five of them dealt with different areas of poetry, which should give you an idea of how important it was to Ancient Greek culture. Today a muse is anyone who inspires you to create art.
  15. ode
    a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
    The album is something of an ode to former selves, a sequence of memories tied together by Ocean’s charismatic and often pitch-shifted voice. The Guardian (Apr 7, 2020)
  16. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
    Michael noted the word gargoyle is an example of onomatopoeia, much like “zap” or “splash.” Washington Times (Apr 5, 2020)
    Onomatopoeia is a fun-to-say and hard-to-spell Greek word for words that sound like what they mean.
  17. sonnet
    a verse form of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
    Today was Auden — my major literary enthusiasm — and a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Los Angeles Times (Apr 9, 2020)
    Besides his plays, Shakespeare is most famous for his sonnets. The form was invented in 13th century Italy and became immensely popular throughout Europe in the following centuries. The fourteen lines of iambic pentameter follow strict rhyme schemes and are usually divided into eight lines followed by six. Sonus is "sound" in Latin, and sonnetto is Italian for "little song or poem."
  18. stanza
    a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
    Chalfant reads Eliot’s sublime stanzas with a restrained elegance such that each reaches the listener as a marvel of imagery. Los Angeles Times (Feb 17, 2020)
  19. symbolism
    the practice of investing things with arbitrary meaning
    Whatever the Oscar nominee ends up wearing to the Academy Awards, it’ll be almost impossible for us not to find symbolism in it. Los Angeles Times (Jan 13, 2020)
  20. verse
    literature in metrical form
    There’s superb writing throughout, but the opening verse is extraordinary: Slate (Apr 3, 2020)
    Verse refers to poetry, or part of a poem, or the part of a song that is not the chorus. Versus means "a line of writing" in Latin. There are also different kinds of verse in Western poetry, like blank verse, which follows an established meter but does not rhyme, and free verse which has neither meter nor rhyme.
Created on Tue Jan 14 12:15:41 EST 2020 (updated Fri Apr 10 17:45:18 EDT 2020)

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