AP Lit Poetry Terms

a poem with fourteen lines that follows a regular rhyme pattern and is usually written in iambic pentameter

• sonnet

• couplet

• ballad

• villanelle

unrhymed iambic pentameter

• free verse
• long verse
• blank verse
• English verse

a four-line stanza of poetry

• heroic couplet
• quadrangle
• quatrain
• quarto

A sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet's meditations upon death or another solemn theme.

• ballad
• allusion
• elegy
• meter

Poetry not written in traditional meter but still rhythmical

• heroic couplet

• free verse

• blank verse

• terza rhyma

A non-dramatic poem that tells a story

• elegy

• lyric

• narrative poem

• sonnet

A short poem that presents a single speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings in an emotional, song-like manner

• narrative

• drama

• lyric

• free verse

a poem narrating a story in short stanzas, typically an unknown author; passed on orally through generations as part of folk culture

• ballad

• elegy

• lyric

• sonnet

a metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one ( u / )

• anapest
• dactyl
• iamb
• trochee

The Petrarchan Sonnet is also known as

• Irish
• English
• Dickensian
• Italian