poetics
Study of versification
Poetics is the theory and study of poetry—its forms, techniques, and principles.
More broadly, it can describe the aesthetic principles underlying any creative work: the poetics of film, the poetics of architecture.
A writer's poetics is their distinctive approach to craft: Dickinson's poetics of compression and slant rhyme.
Poem's line grouping
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- tercetThree-line verse unit
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
villanelle · sestina · haiku · ode · elegy · ballad · epic · lyric
Device that measures usage
- rhythmPatterned stress and silence
- cadenceRhythmic pulse or pattern
- footLeg's lowest part
- iambTwo-syllable metrical foot
trochee · dactyl · anapest · spondee · pentameter · hexameter · scansion · stress
Implied identity comparison
- simileComparison via "as"
- alliterationMatching initial consonants
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
- hyperboleRhetorical extreme exaggeration
onomatopoeia · oxymoron · synecdoche · allegory · irony · paradox · anaphora · juxtaposition
Artistic imitation of reality
- catharsisPurification through emotional expression
- dictionChoice of words
- unityWholeness through cohesion
- decorumFitting social conduct
verisimilitude · defamiliarization · intertextuality · ambiguity · tension · speaker · voice · tone
Aesthetic excellence
- harmonyAgreement or musical blend
- eleganceRefined, graceful quality
- formShape or document
- styleDistinctive way of expression
sublimity · taste · refinement · sensibility · artistry · proportion · balance · grace
stanza
Poem's line grouping
sonnet · villanelle · sestina · haiku · ode · elegy · ballad · epic · lyric · free verse
meter
Device that measures usage
iamb · trochee · dactyl · anapest · spondee · pentameter · hexameter · scansion · stress · syllable
metaphor
Implied identity comparison
- simileComparison via "as"
- alliterationMatching initial consonants
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
hyperbole · onomatopoeia · oxymoron · synecdoche · allegory · irony · paradox · anaphora · juxtaposition · apostrophe
mimesis
Artistic imitation of reality
- catharsisPurification through emotional expression
- dictionChoice of words
- unityWholeness through cohesion
decorum · verisimilitude · defamiliarization · intertextuality · ambiguity · tension · speaker · voice · tone · conceit
beauty
Aesthetic excellence
style · sublimity · taste · refinement · sensibility · artistry · proportion · balance · grace · composition
- disciplinesbiology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, psychology
- literature and languageprose, fiction, grammar, syntax, semantics
- poetrypoems, verse, verses, rhyme, rhymes
- Greek philosophyAristotle, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Academy
- AristotleLyceum, Metaphysics, logic, ethics, telos
- Greek classicsHomer, Iliad, Plato, Odyssey, Aristotle
poeticscreative writing
Original literary expression
poetry · composition · craft · praxis · artistic practice
poeticsthematics
Analysis of recurring subjects
hermeneutics · rhetoric · message · didacticism · social realism
poeticsprose
Unversified language
technical writing · plain language · journalistic writing · business writing · instruction manual
- waxing poeticSpeaking with heightened eloquence
- poetic justiceFitting outcome matching misdeeds
- poetic verseRhythmic literary composition
- poetic devicesMethods poets use
- wax poeticSpeak with elaborate sentiment
- poetic licenseAuthorized departure from convention