Poetry, POU-SQU
; sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more are included.
Poetry Encyclopedia Articles By Title
poulter’s measure, a metre in which lines of 12 and 14 syllables alternate. Poulter is an obsolete variant of poulterer......
poète maudit, (French: “accursed poet”), in literary criticism, the poet as an outcast of modern society, despised......
praise song, one of the most widely used poetic forms in Africa; a series of laudatory epithets applied to gods,......
The Prelude, autobiographical epic poem in blank verse by William Wordsworth, published posthumously in 1850. Originally......
Priapea, poems in honour of the the god of fertility Priapus. Although there are ancient Greek poems addressed......
The Princess, long poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published in 1847; a third edition in 1850 added some new lyrics.......
The Prioress’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale is based on an......
The Prisoner of Chillon, historical narrative poem in 14 stanzas by George Gordon, Lord Byron, published in 1816......
The Prophet, book of 26 poetic essays by Khalil Gibran, published in 1923. A best-selling book of popular mysticism,......
prose poem, a work in prose that has some of the technical or literary qualities of a poem (such as regular rhythm,......
pure poetry, message-free verse that is concerned with exploring the essential musical nature of the language rather......
qaṣīdah, poetic form developed in pre-Islamic Arabia and perpetuated throughout Islamic literary history into the......
The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket, poem by Robert Lowell, published in 1946 in the collection Lord Weary’s Castle.......
quatrain, a piece of verse complete in four rhymed lines. The word is derived from the French quatre, meaning “four.”......
Queen Mab, poem in nine cantos by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1813. Shelley’s first major poem—written in......
Rabbi Ben Ezra, dramatic monologue by Robert Browning, published in the collection Dramatis Personae (1864). Through......
Rajatarangini, historical chronicle of early India, written in Sanskrit verse by the Kashmiri Brahman Kalhana in......
The Rape of the Lock, mock-epic poem in heroic couplets by Alexander Pope. The first version, published in 1712,......
The Raven, best-known poem by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1845 and collected in The Raven and Other Poems the......
Reality Sandwiches, fourth volume of collected poems by Allen Ginsberg, published in 1963. The poems in the collection......
redondilla, a Spanish stanza form consisting of four trochaic lines, usually of eight syllables each, with a rhyme......
The Reeve’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The tale is one of the first......
refrain, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem, generally at the end of the stanza.......
La Reine Sebile, medieval French chanson de geste of some 500 lines reconstructed from 13th-century fragments discovered......
Renascence, poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, first published in 1912 in the anthology The Lyric Year and later......
Residence on Earth, a unified series of verse collections by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The first collection, published......
rhupunt, one of the 24 metres of the Welsh bardic tradition. A rhupunt is a verse composed of three, four, or five......
rhyme, the correspondence of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed so as to echo one another.......
rhyme royal, seven-line iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc. The rhyme royal was first used in English verse......
rhyme scheme, the formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or a poem. If it is one of a number of set rhyme patterns,......
rhythm, in poetry, the patterned recurrence, within a certain range of regularity, of specific language features,......
rhétoriqueur, any of the principal poets of the school that flourished in 15th- and early 16th-century France (particularly......
Richard Cory, poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, published in the collection The Children of the Night (1897). “Richard......
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, poem in seven parts by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that first appeared in Lyrical......
rime riche, in French and English prosody, a rhyme produced by agreement in sound not only of the last accented......
rime suffisante, in French and English prosody, end rhyme produced by agreement in sound of an accented final vowel......
The Ring and the Book, more than 20,000-line poem by Robert Browning, written in blank verse and published in 12......
The Road Not Taken, poem by Robert Frost, published in The Atlantic Monthly in August 1915 and used as the opening......
Roman de Fauvel, (French: “Romance of Fauvel”), French poem by Gervais du Bus that, in addition to its literary......
Roman de la rose, one of the most popular French poems of the later Middle Ages. Modeled on Ovid’s Ars amatoria......
Roman Elegies, cycle of 20 lyric poems by J.W. von Goethe, published in German in 1795 as “Römische Elegien” in......
romance stanza, a six-line verse stanza common in metrical romances in which the first, second, fourth, and fifth......
Romanticism, attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music,......
rondeau, one of several formes fixes (“fixed forms”) in French lyric poetry and song of the 14th and 15th centuries.......
rondel, a fixed poetic form that runs on two rhymes. It is a variant of the rondeau. The rondel often consists......
roundelay, a poem with a refrain that recurs frequently or at fixed intervals, as in a rondel. The term is also......
rove-over, having an extrametrical syllable at the end of one line that forms a foot with the first syllable of......
Ruslan and Lyudmila, romantic narrative poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, published in Russian in 1820 as Ruslan i Lyudmila.......
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, annual prize given by the Poetry Foundation—an independent literary organization and publisher—to......
ríma, versified sagas, or episodes from the sagas, a form of adaptation that was popular in Iceland from the 15th......
Sailing to Byzantium, poem by William Butler Yeats, published in his collection October Blast in 1927 and considered......
Samson Agonistes, tragedy by John Milton, published in the same volume as his epic Paradise Regained in 1671. It......
Satanic school, pejorative designation used by Robert Southey, most notably in the preface to his A Vision of Judgement......
Satires, collection of 16 satiric poems published at intervals in five separate books by Juvenal. Book One, containing......
The Scholar Gipsy, lyric poem by Matthew Arnold, published in Poems (1853). It is a masterful handling of the 10-line......
scop, an Anglo-Saxon minstrel, usually attached to a particular royal court, although scops also traveled to various......
A Season in Hell, collection of prose and poetry pieces by French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, published in 1873,......
The Second Coming, poem by William Butler Yeats, first printed in The Dial (November 1920) and published in his......
The Second Nun’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This religious tale exemplifies......
September 1, 1939, poem by W.H. Auden, published in the collection Another Time (1940). The poem conveys the poet’s......
septenarius, in classical Latin prosody, iambic or trochaic lines of seven feet (equal to Greek tetrameter catalectic......
serpentine verse, in poetry, a line of verse beginning and ending with the same word, as in the first line of Alfred,......
sestina, elaborate verse form employed by medieval Provençal and Italian, and occasional modern, poets. It consists,......
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of Chinese scholars and poets of the mid-3rd century ad who banded together......
If William Shakespeare’s ascendancy over Western theatre has not extended to the opera stage—a fact explained by......
In 1567 John Brayne went east of Aldgate to Stepney, where he erected a theatre called the Red Lion. It was the......
A hundred yards or so southeast of the new Globe Theatre is a vacant lot surrounded by a corrugated-iron fence......
“He was not of an age, but for all time!” exclaimed Ben Jonson in his poem “To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author......
The Shepheardes Calender, series of poems by Edmund Spenser, published in 1579 and considered to mark the beginning......
Shijing, the first anthology of Chinese poetry. It was compiled by the ancient sage Confucius (551–479 bc) and......
The Shipman’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is based on an old French......
short metre, a quatrain of which the first, second, and fourth lines are in iambic trimeter and the third is in......
A Shropshire Lad, a collection of 63 poems by A.E. Housman, published in 1896. Housman’s lyrics express a Romantic......
Sicilian octave, an Italian stanza or poem having eight lines of 11 syllables (hendecasyllables) rhyming abababab.......
Silappathikaram, the earliest epic poem in Tamil, written in the 5th–6th century ad by Prince Ilanko Adikal (Ilango......
Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, Middle English alliterative poem of unknown authorship, dating from the second......
skaldic poetry, oral court poetry originating in Norway but developed chiefly by Icelandic poets (skalds) from......
Skamander, group of young Polish poets who were united in their desire to forge a new poetic language that would......
Skunk Hour, poem by Robert Lowell, published in Life Studies (1959). It is modeled on “The Armadillo,” a poem by......
slam poetry, a form of performance poetry that combines the elements of performance, writing, competition, and......
Snow-Bound, poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, published in 1866 and subtitled “A Winter Idyll.” This nostalgic pastoral......
Sohrab and Rustum, epic poem in blank verse by Matthew Arnold, published in 1853 in his collection Poems. Among......
The Soldier, sonnet by Rupert Brooke, published in 1915 in the collection 1914. Perhaps his most famous poem, it......
The Solitary Reaper, poem by William Wordsworth, published in 1807 in the collection Poems, in Two Volumes. It......
Psalms of Solomon, a pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) comprising 18 psalms that were originally......
Song of Myself, poem of 52 sections and some 1,300 lines by Walt Whitman, first published untitled in the collection......
Song of the Open Road, poem by Walt Whitman, first published in the second edition of Leaves of Grass in 1856.......
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, masterpieces of English lyric poetry, written and illustrated by William......
The Book of Songs, collection of verse by Heinrich Heine, published as Buch der Lieder in 1827. The work contains......
sonnet, fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming......
Sonnets from the Portuguese, collection of love sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published in 1850. The poet’s......
Sonnets to Orpheus, series of 55 poems in two linked cycles by Rainer Maria Rilke, published in German in 1923......
Sordello, poem by Robert Browning, published in 1840. The much-revised work is densely written, with multilayered......
Spenserian stanza, verse form that consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of six iambic......
spondee, metrical foot consisting of two long (as in classical verse) or stressed (as in English verse) syllables......
Spoon River Anthology, poetry collection, the major work of Edgar Lee Masters, published in 1915. It was inspired......
Spring and All, volume of poems and prose pieces by William Carlos Williams, published in 1923 in Paris in an edition......
Spring and Fall, poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, written in 1880 and published posthumously in 1918 in Poems of......
sprung rhythm, an irregular system of prosody developed by the 19th-century English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.......
The Squire’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Squire relates an incomplete......