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The following sites are well worth visiting:
Writing and Talking about Poetry
This is a brief explanatory list of some of the terms which will be used in lectures, tutorials and seminars. Some of the terms are specific to Spanish poetry. The list is not exhaustive. Quotations are from Antonio Machado and Miguel Hernández.
Alejandrino: a line of 14 syllables: "Mediaba el mes de julio. Era un hermoso día." In English and French poetry the term Alexandrine usually refers to a 12-syllable line.
Alliteration: a sequence of repeated consonants, usually for a particular effect: "carnívoro cuchillo"; "No podrá con la pena mi persona".
Alternate rhyme: usually represented as abab.
Anaphora: a rhetorical device involving the repetition of a word or phrase in several successive clauses, sentences or lines.
Antimetabole: a rhetorical device in which the same words or ideas are repeated in inverse order.
Antithesis: opposing or contrasting ideas in juxtaposed sentences or lines.
Apostrophe: a rhetorical term for speech addressed to a person, idea or thing (Verb: to apostrophise).
Assonance: frequently used in Spanish poetry as an alternative to rhyme. In assonance only the vowels (in the even-numbered lines) are linked: llevada/cama/pasa (assonance in a-a); tierra/peñas/primavera (assonance in e-a); atento/pueblo/tenemos (assonance in e-o). Assonance creates a unity similar to that of rhyme but has greater flexibility.
Blank verse: unrhymed verse, usually with regular line lengths.
Caesura: a break or pause in a line of poetry. This may or may not be signalled by the use of punctuation : "A trechos me paraba | para enjugar mi frente". "No me conformo, no: | me desespero".
Chiasmus: a device by which the word order of similar phrases in a sentence is inverted. In the following example noun + adjective is replaced by adj + noun.
"Mi niña quedó tranquila
dolido mi corazón."
Conceit: a simile or metaphor characterised by an unexpected comparison between two apparently dissimilar things or ideas: "Besarte fue besar un avispero."
Connotation: used to refer to the various secondary meanings and overtones of a particular word; what it suggests and implies.
Couplets: successive rhyming lines, represented as aa bb cc etc.
Elision: particularly important when counting the syllables in Spanish poetry (see below): when there are two adjacent vowels they are normally slurred or elided and count as one: "purga un pecado ajeno"; "mi vida es una herida de juventud dichosa".
Ellipsis: the omission of words which would normally be considered essential in a sentence: this may heighten the dramatic effect.
Enjambement: refers to a line of poetry which is not end-stopped (i.e. which does not have punctuation) but is run on to the following line. The equivalent Spanish term is encabalgamiento.
"¿No cesará este rayo que me habita
el corazón de exasperadas fieras
y de fraguas coléricas y herreras?"
Free verse: poetry which is free from the constraints of normal versification. It tends to rely on natural speech rhythms.
Hendecasyllable: line of 11 syllables: "Al olmo viejo, hendido por el rayo".
Heptasyllable: line of 7 syllables: "y en su mitad podrido".
Imagery: a collective term for the figurative language in a work (metaphors, similes etc).
Internal rhyme: when in addition to the end-of-line rhymes there is also a mid-line rhyme. In the example which follows, the additional rhyming word is at the beginning of the line: "Cardos y penas siembran sus leopardos". Internal assonance is also found.
Metaphor: a figure of speech whereby one thing is described in terms of another: "la pena tizna cuando estalla".
Metonymy: a figure of speech whereby the name of a thing is substituted by one of its attributes: "Será la garra suave."
Metre: the rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry. In the following lines the stressed vowels are in bold type:
"Recojo con las pestañas
sal del alma y sal del ojo
y flores de telarañas
de mis tristezas recojo."
Motif: a recurring theme or image in the work of an author.
Octosyllable: line of 8 syllables: "Una noche de verano".
Quatrain: a stanza of 4 lines (see below under sonnet).
Redondilla: 4 octosyllabic lines rhyming abab OR abba.
Rhetorical figures/devices: a general term which covers the use of chiasmus, apostrophe etc.
Rhyme: Examples of rhyming words in Spanish are beso/hueso; yugos/verdugos; nada/enfada (compare and contrast with Assonance above). Specific names may be given to verse forms with a particular rhyming pattern.
Rhythm: the arrangement of words according to their natural stresses
Romance: the Spanish word for ballad. Traditionally 8-syllable lines with assonance of the even-numbered lines.
Scansion: the analysis of metre to establish the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Silva: a poetic form involving a flexible combination of 7 and 11 syllable lines.
Simile: a figure of speech whereby one thing is specifically likened to another. The key words in English are "like" and "as"; in Spanish they are "como" and "cual".
Sonnet: poem of 14 lines. In Spanish literature the sonnet is normally divided into two quatrains and two tercets. Set rhyming patterns: e.g: abba abba cde cde OR abba abba cdc dcd. (The two sections may also be referred to as the octave and the sestet.)
Syllables: There are certain basic principles to be borne in mind when counting the number of syllables in a line of Spanish poetry. You must always remember that at the end of the line (a) the ending of a word stressed on the penultimate syllable counts as 2 syllables: ventana; patria; dormía; (b) that the ending of a word which is stressed on the final syllable counts as 2: mar; salió; (c) that the ending of a word stressed two syllables from the end also counts as 2: pájaro; románticos. There are specific names in Spanish for these line endings: (a) verso llano; (b) verso agudo; (c) verso esdrújulo. (And see above under Elision and examples of specific line lengths.)
Symbol: something which represents something else:
"¡Qué abismo entre el olivo
y el hombre se descubre!"
Tercet: a stanza of 3 lines (see above under Sonnet). Tercetos are groups of interlocking 3-line stanzas rhyming aba bcb cdc etc.
Versification: the study of the metre of poetry.
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