Giving Words - Opening - Creative Writing

Giving Words

Words and Verse

-Structural-

These definitions apply to the way in which we put words, phrases and lines together to create sections of a poem.

Canto: Major division of a long poem.

Chiasmus: Inversion or reversal of regular word order in successive phrases.

Couplet: Two adjacent lines of poetry that from a complete unit due to end rhyme, rhyme or meaning.

Enjambent: The sense or meaning of one line running over into the next line.

Line: The basic unit of a poem that a line ends when its momentum ends, not necessarily where a sentence or grammatical structure would end.

Parataxis: A way of placing words or phrases so that two images are merely stuck next to one another without any connective or explanation (like-my wrinkled hand or the bark of an old oak).

Quatrain: Four lines of poetry that form a complete unit through end rhyme, rhyme or meaning.

Refrain: A line or lines repeated at the end of several successive stanzas.

Stanza: Any distinct grouping of lines in a poem, usually occurring in the same number (couplets, tercets and quatrains are all types of stanzas).

Tercet: Three lines of poetry that form a complete unit due to end rhyme, rhyme or meaning.

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