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pentameter

(Encyclopedia)pentameter pntm´tr [key] [Gr.,=measure of five], in prosody, a line to be scanned in five feet (see versification). The third line of Thomas Nashe's Spring is in pentameter: Cold doth / not s...

ottava rima

(Encyclopedia)ottava rima tä´v r´m [key]: see pentameter.

poetry

(Encyclopedia)poetry. For lyric poetry, see ballad; elegy; hymn; lyric; ode; pastoral; sonnet. For narrative poetry, see chansons de geste; epic; idyl; romance. Dramatic poetry is incidentally treated in the articl...

alexandrine

(Encyclopedia)alexandrine lgzn´drn, –drn [key], in prosody, a line of 12 syllables (or 13 if the last syllable is unstressed). Its name probably derives from the fact that some poems of the 12th ...

elegy

(Encyclopedia)elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. BC in Greece and poets...

sonnet

(Encyclopedia)sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rh...

versification

(Encyclopedia)versification, principles of metrical practice in poetry. In different literatures poetic form is achieved in various ways; usually, however, a definite and predictable pattern is evident in the langu...

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