Glossary of poetry terms

Measures of verse

Types of metre

• Iamb: short-long
• Trochee or Choreus, choree: long-short
• Spondee: long-long
• Pyrrhic or dibrach: short-short
• Dactyl: long-short-short
• Anapaest or antivdactylus: short-short-long
• Amphibrach: short-long-short
• Amphimacer or cretic: long-short-long
• Molossus: long-long-long
• Tribrach: short-short-short

  Tetrasyllables

• primus paeon: long-short-short-short
• secundus paeon: short-long-short-short
• tertius paeon: short-short-long-short
• quartus paeon: short-short-short-long

• first epitrite: short-long-long-long
• second epitrite: long-short-long-long
• third epitrite: long-long-short-long
• fourth epitrite: long-long-long-short

• minor ionic, or double iamb: short-short-long-long
• major ionic: long-long-short-short

• diamb: short-long-short-long
• ditrochee: long-short-long-short

• antispast: short-long-long-short
• choriamb: long-short-short-long

• tetrabrach or proceleusmatic: short-short-short-short
• dispondee: long-long-long-long

  Verse forms

• 'a Gra' Reformata' Ten stanzas of ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABA CD ABAC. Following the rhyme scheme of the Villanelle, but with five extra couplets just after each tercet.
• Ballade: Three stanzas of "ababbcbC" followed by a refrain of "bcbC". The last line of each, indicated by the capital letter, is repeated verbatim.
• Chant royal: Five stanzas of "ababccddedE" followed by either "ddedE" or "ccddedE".
• Cinquain: "ababb".
• Clerihew: "aabb".
• Couplet: "aa", but usually occurs as "aa bb cc dd...".
• Enclosed rhyme : "abba".
• Ghazal: "aa ba ca da...".
• Limerick: "aabba".
• Monorhyme: "aaaaa...", an identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic
• Ottava rima: "abababcc".
• Rhyme royal: "ababbcc".
• Rondelet: "AbAabbA".
• Rubaiyat: "aaba".
• Sapphics
• Seguidilla : Spanish with seven syllable-counted lnes
• * Petrarchan sonnet: "abba abba cde cde" or "abba abba cdc cdc".
• Shadorma: an allegedly Spanish six-line stanza, syllable-count restricted form, 3/5/3/3/7/5)
• * Shakespearean sonnet: "abab cdcd efef gg".
• * Simple 4-line: "abcb"
• * Spenserian sonnet: "abab bcbc cdcd ee".
• * Onegin stanzas: "" with lowercase letters representing assonant rhymes and the uppercase representing end-rhymes
• Spenserian stanza: "ababbcbcc".
• Tanaga: traditional Tagalog tanaga is aaaa
• Terza rima: "aba bcb cdc...", ending on "yzy z" or "yzy zz".
• Triplet: "aaa", often repeating like the couplet.
• Verbless poetry