Sapphic Verse
After the odes of the Greek lyric poet, Sappho, a verse of eleven syllables in five feet, of which the first, fourth and fifth are trochees, the second a spondee, and the third a dactyl. The Sapphic strophe consists of three Sapphic verses followed by an Adonic.
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Scan
To mark off lines of poetry into rhythmic units, or feet, to provide a visual representation of their metrical structure.
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Scansion
The analysis of verse into metrical patterns.
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Senryu
Senryu (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting
of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17
syllables in all. Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions. They possess no
references to the natural world and thus stand out from nature/seasonal haiku. See example.
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Septenarius
A Latin verse used only in comedy and consisting of seven feet.
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A stanza of seven lines
definition can go in this space along with some br tags and stuff.
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Serenade
Music sung (a lover's song) or performed in the open air at nights.
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Serpentine Verses
Verses ending with the same word with which they begin.
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Sestet
A poem or stanza containing six lines.
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Sestina
The sestina is a strict ordered form of poetry, dating back to twelfth
century French troubadours. It consists of six six-line (sestets) stanzas
followed by a three-line envoy. Rather than use a rhyme scheme, the six ending words of the first stanza are repeated as the ending words of the
other five stanzas in a set pattern. The envoy uses two of the ending words per line, again in a set pattern. See example.
First stanza,1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
Second stanza, 6 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 3
Third stanza, 3 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 5
Fourth stanza, 5 - 3 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 4
Fifth stanza, 4 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 6 - 2
Sixth stanza, 2 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 3 - 1
Concluding tercet:
middle of first line - 2, end of first line - 5
middle of second line - 4, end of second line - 3
middle if third line - 6, end of third line - 1
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Sight Rhyme
A rhyme consisting of words with similar spellings but different sounds. Also called eye rhyme
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Sijo
A short Korean poetry form consisting of three lines, each line having a total of 14-16 syllables in four groups ranging from 2 to 7 (but usually 3 or 4) syllables, with a natural pause at the end of the second group and a major pause after the fourth group. The third line often introduces a resolution, a touch of humor, or a turn of thought. Nature is often the subject matter of these poems like traditional haiku.
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Simile
A comparison between two unlike things using like or as, etc. such as "Your eyes are like sparkling diamonds".
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Skeltonics
Named for their creater, John Skelton, short verses of irregular meter with two or three stresses, sometimes in falling and sometimes in rising rhythm, and usually with rhymed couplets.
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Soliloquy
A dramatic or literary form of discourse of a person speaking to himself without addressing a listener.
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Song
A Song is an expression of a poet's personal emotions, meant to be sung.
Lyrics in a song contain verses (lines that make up a song; sung poem)
and a chorus (a repeating verse in a song (refrain).
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Sonnet
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme: abab cdcd efef gg, abba cddc effe gg, or abba abba cdcd cd. English ("Shakespearean") sonnets have 10 syllable lines, Italian ("Petrarchan") sonnets have 11 syllable lines, and French sonnets have 12 syllable lines. See example.
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Sonneteer
A composer of sonnets or an inferior poet.
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Spenserian Stanza
A stanza consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter and a final alexandrine, rhymed ababbcbcc, first used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.
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Spondee, Spondaic
A metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables.
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Stanza, Stanzaic
One of the divisions of a poem, composed of two or more lines of verse usually characterized by a common pattern of meter, rhyme, or number of lines.
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Stanza Forms
Names describing the number of lines is an stanzaic unit, (2) couplet, (3) tercet, (4) quatrain, (5) quintet (6) sestet, (7) septet, (8) octave
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Stave
A set of verses; a stanza; a portion of a poem.
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Stich
A line or verse of poetry.
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Stress
Importance, significance, or emphasis placed on a word or syllables within a line of poetry.
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Strophe
The first of a pair of stanzas of alternating form on which the structure of a given poem is based.
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Style
The poet's individual creative process, through figurative language, sounds, and rhythmic patterns.
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Syllabic Verse
A type of verse distinguished by the syllable count.
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Syllable
A unit of spoken language consisting of a single impulse of the voice formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant alone.
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Symbol
An image or icon that represents something else by association.
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Symbolism
A common writing practice of representing things by means of symbols or symbolic meaning.
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Synaeresis or Syneresis
The drawing together into one syllable of two consecutive vowels or syllables.
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Synaloepha or Synalepha
Blending of a vowel at the end of one word is coalesced with one beginning the next word, especially to fit a poetic meter; for example, th'eight men instead of the eight men.
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Syncope
The shortening of a word by omission of a sound, letter, or syllable from the middle of the word; for example, ne'er for never.
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Synonym
A word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.
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Syntax
Rules in which words or other elements of sentence structure are arranged to form grammatical sentences.
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