Structure Key Terms

• Blank Verse

  A poem written in iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line) but doesn’t rhyme
• Caesura

  A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line
• End stopped

  The opposite of enjambment. End-stopped is where each line has a full stop after it. It os short and punchy and does not flow very well
• Enjambment

  Where there is no punctuation at the end of a line of poetry, so you keep reading onto the next line, and the meaning continues too. Makes it flow from one line to the next
• Free Verse

  A poem which has no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme
• Iambic Pentameter

  5 pairs of ‘de dum’ beats in a line of poetry (equalling 10 syllables in total)
• Metre

  The rhythmic arrangement of syllables in a line or verse of poetry (another word for rhythm - ‘the metre of the poem is…’)
• Narrative persona

  The persona is the invented voice which presents a narrative - the ’I’ of a narrative which is not necessarily the voice of the author
• Narrative voice

  The narrative voice is the voice which ‘tells’ a story. Some narratives are third-person (he/she/they) while others are first-person (I)
• Refrain

  A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza - kind of like the chorus of a song
• Rhyme

  The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with an ‘AABBA’ rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.
• Rhyme structure

  The patterns that is made by the thyme within each stanza or verse. E.g - ABAB, AABB
• Rhyming Couplets

  In a poem, a pair of lines that are the same length and (usually) thyme and form a complete thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet
• Rhythm

  The pattern of pulsed beats within a line or stanza of poetry
• Stanza

  The posh word for a verse, the way a poem us divided into chunks of line

  • Quatrain: 4 line stanza
  • Sestet: 6 line stanza
  • Octave: 8 line stanza
  • Cinquain: 5 line stanza
• Structure

  The organisation of a poem into sections. This includes the line length, the number of lines in a stanza, the number of stanzas
• Tense

  The time setting for the poem - is it past, present, future or a mixture?