Poetry

==Elements==
===Prosody===
{{Main|Meter (poetry)}}
Prosody is the study of the meter, [[rhythm]], and [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] of a poem. Rhythm and meter are different, although closely related.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pinsky|1998|p=52}}</ref> Meter is the definitive pattern established for a verse (such as [[iambic pentameter]]), while rhythm is the actual sound that results from a line of poetry. Prosody also may be used more specifically to refer to the [[scansion|scanning]] of poetic lines to show meter.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=20–21}}</ref>

====Rhythm====
{{Main|Timing (linguistics)|tone (linguistics)|Pitch accent}}
[[File:Robinsonjeffers (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Robinson Jeffers]]]]
The methods for creating poetic rhythm vary across languages and between poetic traditions. Languages are often described as having timing set primarily by [[stress-timed language|accents]], [[syllable-timed language|syllables]], or [[mora-timed language|moras]], depending on how rhythm is established, although a language can be influenced by multiple approaches. [[Japanese Language|Japanese]] is a [[mora (linguistics)|mora]]-timed language. [[Latin language|Latin]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[French language|French]], [[Leonese language|Leonese]], [[Galician language|Galician]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] are called syllable-timed languages. Stress-timed languages include [[English language|English]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and, generally, [[German language|German]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schülter |first=Julia |title=Rhythmic Grammar |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2005 |pages=24, 304, 332}}</ref> Varying [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] also affects how rhythm is perceived. Languages can rely on either pitch or tone. Some languages with a pitch accent are Vedic Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. [[Tonal language]]s include Chinese, Vietnamese and most [[Niger–Congo languages|Subsaharan languages]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yip |first=Moira |author-link=Moira Yip |title=Tone |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-77314-0 |series=Cambridge textbooks in linguistics |pages=1–4, 130}}</ref>

Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns called [[foot (prosody)|feet]] within a line. In Modern English verse the pattern of stresses primarily differentiate feet, so rhythm based on meter in Modern English is most often founded on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (alone or [[elision|elided]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|p=12}}</ref> In the [[classical languages]], on the other hand, while the [[Meter (music)|metrical]] units are similar, [[vowel length]] rather than stresses define the meter.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jorgens |first=Elise Bickford |title=The well-tun'd word : musical interpretations of English poetry, 1597–1651 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-8166-1029-7 |page=23}}</ref> [[Old English]] poetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses in each line.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=75–76}}</ref>

[[File:Marianne Moore 1935.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Marianne Moore]]]]
The chief device of ancient [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[Biblical poetry]], including many of the [[psalms]], was ''[[parallelism (rhetoric)|parallelism]]'', a rhetorical structure in which successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure, sound structure, notional content, or all three. Parallelism lent itself to [[antiphon]]al or [[call and response (music)|call-and-response]] performance, which could also be reinforced by [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]]. Thus, Biblical poetry relies much less on metrical feet to create rhythm, but instead creates rhythm based on much larger sound units of lines, phrases and sentences.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker-Jones |first=Arthur |title=Hebrew for biblical interpretation |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58983-086-8 |pages=211–213}}</ref> Some classical poetry forms, such as [[Venpa]] of the [[Tamil language]], had rigid grammars (to the point that they could be expressed as a [[context-free grammar]]) which ensured a rhythm.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bala Sundara Raman |first1=L. |last2=Ishwar |first2=S. |last3=Kumar Ravindranath |first3=Sanjeeth |year=2003 |title=Context Free Grammar for Natural Language Constructs: An implementation for Venpa Class of Tamil Poetry |journal=Tamil Internet |pages=128–136 |citeseerx=10.1.1.3.7738}}</ref>

[[Shi (poetry)|Classical Chinese poetics]], based on the [[Four tones (Middle Chinese)|tone system of Middle Chinese]], recognized two kinds of tones: the level (平 ''píng'') tone and the oblique (仄 ''zè'') tones, a category consisting of the rising (上 ''sháng'') tone, the departing (去 ''qù'') tone and the entering (入 ''rù'') tone. Certain forms of poetry placed constraints on which syllables were required to be level and which oblique.

The formal patterns of meter used in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case of [[free verse]], rhythm is often organized based on looser units of [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] rather than a regular meter. [[Robinson Jeffers]], [[Marianne Moore]], and [[William Carlos Williams]] are three notable poets who reject the idea that regular accentual meter is critical to English poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartman |first=Charles O. |title=Free Verse An Essay on Prosody |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-8101-1316-9 |pages=24, 44, 47}}</ref> Jeffers experimented with [[sprung rhythm]] as an alternative to accentual rhythm.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hollander|1981|p=22}}</ref>

====Meter====
{{Main|Scansion}}
[[File:Alkaios Sappho Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2416 n2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Attica|Attic]] [[red-figure]] ''kathalos'' painting of [[Sappho]] from c. 470 BCE<ref>{{Citation |last=McClure |first=Laura K. |title=Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World: Readings and Sources |date=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W742ZLpdLBoC&q=Glyptothek+Sappho+and+Alcaeus&pg=PA38 |page=38 |place=Oxford, England |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |isbn=978-0-631-22589-8 }}</ref>]]
In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristic [[Foot (prosody)|metrical foot]] and the number of feet per line.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=24}}</ref> The number of metrical feet in a line are described using Greek terminology: [[tetrameter]] for four feet and [[hexameter]] for six feet, for example.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=25, 34}}</ref> Thus, "[[iambic pentameter]]" is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the "[[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]]". This metric system originated in ancient [[Greek poetry]], and was used by poets such as [[Pindar]] and [[Sappho]], and by the great [[Tragedy|tragedians]] of [[Athens]]. Similarly, "[[dactylic hexameter]]", comprises six feet per line, of which the dominant kind of foot is the "[[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]]". Dactylic hexameter was the traditional meter of Greek [[epic poetry]], the earliest extant examples of which are the works of [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]].<ref name="greek">{{Cite web |url=http://aoidoi.org/articles/meter/intro.pdf |title=Introduction to Greek Meter |last=Annis |first=William S. |date=January 2006 |publisher=Aoidoi |pages=1–15}}</ref> Iambic pentameter and dactylic hexameter were later used by a number of poets, including [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unibl.eu/pdf/examples_metrical_systems.pdf |title=Examples of English metrical systems |publisher=Fondazione Universitaria in provincia di Belluno |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308211254/http://www.unibl.eu/pdf/examples_metrical_systems.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2012 |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref> The most common metrical feet in English are:<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=23–24}}</ref>

[[File:Homer British Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Homer]]: Roman bust, based on Greek original<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=460092&partId=1 |title=Portrait Bust |website=britishmuseum.org |publisher=The British Museum}}</ref>]]
* [[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]] – one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g. des-'''cribe''', in-'''clude''', re-'''tract''')
* [[trochee]]{{mdash}}one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g. '''pic'''-ture, '''flow'''-er)
* [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g. '''an'''-no-tate, '''sim'''-i-lar)
* [[anapaest]]{{mdash}}two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (e.g. com-pre-'''hend''')
* [[spondee]]{{mdash}}two stressed syllables together (e.g. '''heart'''-'''beat''', '''four'''-'''teen''')
* [[pyrrhic]]{{mdash}}two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end dactylic hexameter)

There are a wide range of names for other types of feet, right up to a [[choriamb]], a four syllable metric foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables and closing with a stressed syllable. The choriamb is derived from some ancient [[Greek literature|Greek]] and [[Latin poetry]].<ref name=greek/> Languages which use [[vowel length]] or [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] rather than or in addition to syllabic accents in determining meter, such as [[Metre (poetry)#Ottoman Turkish|Ottoman Turkish]] or [[Vedic meter|Vedic]], often have concepts similar to the iamb and dactyl to describe common combinations of long and short sounds.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kiparsky |first=Paul |date=September 1975 |title=Stress, Syntax, and Meter |journal=Language |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=576–616 |doi=10.2307/412889 |jstor=412889}}</ref>

Each of these types of feet has a certain "feel," whether alone or in combination with other feet. The iamb, for example, is the most natural form of rhythm in the English language, and generally produces a subtle but stable verse.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=John |title=The Founding of English Meter |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1961 |page=36}}</ref> Scanning meter can often show the basic or fundamental pattern underlying a verse, but does not show the varying degrees of [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], as well as the differing pitches and [[vowel length|lengths]] of syllables.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pinsky|1998|pp=11–24}}</ref>

There is debate over how useful a multiplicity of different "feet" is in describing meter. For example, [[Robert Pinsky]] has argued that while dactyls are important in classical verse, English dactylic verse uses dactyls very irregularly and can be better described based on patterns of iambs and anapests, feet which he considers natural to the language.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pinsky|1998|p=66}}</ref> Actual rhythm is significantly more complex than the basic scanned meter described above, and many scholars have sought to develop systems that would scan such complexity. [[Vladimir Nabokov]] noted that overlaid on top of the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse was a separate pattern of accents resulting from the natural pitch of the spoken words, and suggested that the term "scud" be used to distinguish an unaccented stress from an accented stress.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |url=https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/9 |title=Notes on Prosody |publisher=[[Bollingen Foundation]] |year=1964 |isbn=978-0-691-01760-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/9 9–13]}}</ref>

====Metrical patterns====
{{Main|Meter (poetry)}}
[[File:Lewis Carroll - Henry Holiday - Hunting of the Snark - Plate 6.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[The Hunting of the Snark]]'' (1876) is mainly in [[anapestic tetrameter]].]]
Different traditions and genres of poetry tend to use different meters, ranging from the Shakespearean [[iambic pentameter]] and the Homeric [[dactylic hexameter]] to the [[anapestic tetrameter]] used in many nursery rhymes. However, a number of variations to the established meter are common, both to provide emphasis or attention to a given foot or line and to avoid boring repetition. For example, the stress in a foot may be inverted, a [[caesura]] (or pause) may be added (sometimes in place of a foot or stress), or the final foot in a line may be given a [[Meter (poetry)|feminine ending]] to soften it or be replaced by a [[spondee]] to emphasize it and create a hard stop. Some patterns (such as iambic pentameter) tend to be fairly regular, while other patterns, such as dactylic hexameter, tend to be highly irregular.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=36–71}}</ref> Regularity can vary between language. In addition, different patterns often develop distinctively in different languages, so that, for example, [[iambic tetrameter]] in Russian will generally reflect a regularity in the use of accents to reinforce the meter, which does not occur, or occurs to a much lesser extent, in English.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |url=https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/46 |title=Notes on Prosody |publisher=Bollingen Foundation |year=1964 |isbn=978-0-691-01760-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/46 46–47]}}</ref>

[[File:Kiprensky Pushkin.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alexander Pushkin]]]]
Some common metrical patterns, with notable examples of poets and poems who use them, include:
* [[Iambic pentameter]] ([[John Milton]], ''[[Paradise Lost]]''; [[William Shakespeare]], ''[[Shakespeare's Sonnets|Sonnets]]'')<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|p=206}}</ref>
* [[Dactylic hexameter]] (Homer, ''[[Iliad]]''; [[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'')<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|p=63}}</ref>
* [[Iambic tetrameter]] ([[Andrew Marvell]], "[[To His Coy Mistress]]"; [[Alexander Pushkin]], ''[[Eugene Onegin]]''; [[Robert Frost]], ''[[Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening]]'')<ref name="tetra">{{Cite web |url=http://www.tetrameter.com |title=What is Tetrameter? |publisher=tetrameter.com |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref>
* [[Trochaic octameter]] ([[Edgar Allan Poe]], "[[The Raven]]")<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|p=60}}</ref>
* [[Trochaic tetrameter]] ([[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''; the Finnish national epic, ''[[Kalevala|The Kalevala]]'', is also in trochaic tetrameter, the natural rhythm of Finnish and Estonian)
* {{lang|fr|[[Alexandrin]]}} ([[Jean Racine]], ''[[Phèdre]]'')<ref>{{Cite book |last1=James |first1=E. D. |url=https://archive.org/details/racinephdre00jame |title=Racine: Phèdre |last2=Jondorf |first2=G. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-521-39721-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/racinephdre00jame/page/32 32–34] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Rhyme, alliteration, assonance===
{{Main|Rhyme|Alliterative verse|Assonance}}
[[File:Beowulf Cotton MS Vitellius A XV f. 132r.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Old English]] [[epic poem]] ''[[Beowulf]]'' is in [[alliterative]] [[Verse (poetry)|verse]].]]
Rhyme, alliteration, assonance and [[Literary consonance|consonance]] are ways of creating repetitive patterns of sound. They may be used as an independent structural element in a poem, to reinforce rhythmic patterns, or as an ornamental element.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=65}}</ref> They can also carry a meaning separate from the repetitive sound patterns created. For example, [[Chaucer]] used heavy alliteration to mock Old English verse and to paint a character as archaic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Osberg |first=Richard H. |title=Essays on the art of Chaucer's Verse |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8153-2951-0 |editor-last=Gaylord |editor-first=Alan T. |pages=195–228 |chapter='I kan nat geeste': Chaucer's Artful Alliteration}}</ref>

Rhyme consists of identical ("hard-rhyme") or similar ("soft-rhyme") sounds placed at the ends of lines or at locations within lines ("[[internal rhyme]]"). Languages vary in the richness of their rhyming structures; Italian, for example, has a rich rhyming structure permitting maintenance of a limited set of rhymes throughout a lengthy poem. The richness results from word endings that follow regular forms. English, with its irregular word endings adopted from other languages, is less rich in rhyme.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Alighieri |first=Dante |translator-last=Pinsky |translator-first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/infernoofdante00dant |title=The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation |publisher=Farrar, Straus & Giroux |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-374-17674-7 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> The degree of richness of a language's rhyming structures plays a substantial role in determining what poetic forms are commonly used in that language.<ref name="kiparsky">{{Cite journal |last=Kiparsky |first=Paul |date=Summer 1973 |title=The Role of Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry |journal=Daedalus |volume=102 |issue=3 |pages=231–44}}</ref>

Alliteration is the repetition of letters or letter-sounds at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; or the recurrence of the same letter in accented parts of words. Alliteration and assonance played a key role in structuring early Germanic, Norse and Old English forms of poetry. The alliterative patterns of early Germanic poetry interweave meter and alliteration as a key part of their structure, so that the metrical pattern determines when the listener expects instances of alliteration to occur. This can be compared to an ornamental use of alliteration in most Modern European poetry, where alliterative patterns are not formal or carried through full stanzas. Alliteration is particularly useful in languages with less rich rhyming structures.

Assonance, where the use of similar vowel sounds within a word rather than similar sounds at the beginning or end of a word, was widely used in [[skald]]ic poetry but goes back to the Homeric epic.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Russom |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Russom |url=https://archive.org/details/beowulfoldgerman0000russ |title=Beowulf and old Germanic metre |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-59340-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beowulfoldgerman0000russ/page/64 64–86] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Because verbs carry much of the pitch in the English language, assonance can loosely evoke the tonal elements of Chinese poetry and so is useful in translating Chinese poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=James J. Y. |title=Art of Chinese Poetry |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-226-48687-1 |pages=21–22}}</ref> Consonance occurs where a consonant sound is repeated throughout a sentence without putting the sound only at the front of a word. Consonance provokes a more subtle effect than alliteration and so is less useful as a structural element.<ref name=kiparsky/>

====Rhyming schemes====
{{Main|Rhyme scheme}}
[[File:Paradiso Canto 31.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Divine Comedy]]'': [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] and [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] see God as a point of light.]]
In many languages, including Arabic and modern European languages, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as [[ballad]]s, [[sonnet]]s and [[couplet|rhyming couplets]]. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional [[rhyme scheme]]s. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wesling |first=Donald |url=https://archive.org/details/chancesofrhymede0000wesl |title=The chances of rhyme |publisher=University of California Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-520-03861-5 |pages=x–xi, 38–42 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Rhyme entered European poetry in the [[High Middle Ages]], due to the influence of the [[Arabic language]] in [[Al Andalus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Menocal |first=María Rosa |author-link=María Rosa Menocal |title=The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8122-1324-9 |page=88}}</ref> Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively not only with the development of literary Arabic in the [[6th century in poetry|sixth century]], but also with the much older oral poetry, as in their long, rhyming [[qasida]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa |publisher=Brill |year=1996 |isbn=978-90-04-10387-0 |editor-last=Sperl |editor-first=Stefan |page=49}}</ref> Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as the [[chant royal]] or the [[Ruba'i|rubaiyat]], while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|pp=71–104}}</ref>

Most rhyme schemes are described using letters that correspond to sets of rhymes, so if the first, second and fourth lines of a quatrain rhyme with each other and the third line do not rhyme, the quatrain is said to have an AA BA [[rhyme scheme]]. This rhyme scheme is the one used, for example, in the rubaiyat form.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|p=27}}</ref> Similarly, an A BB A quatrain (what is known as "[[enclosed rhyme]]") is used in such forms as the [[Petrarchan sonnet]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|pp=88–91}}</ref> Some types of more complicated rhyming schemes have developed names of their own, separate from the "a-bc" convention, such as the [[ottava rima]] and [[terza rima]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=81–82, 85}}</ref> The types and use of differing rhyming schemes are discussed further in the [[rhyme scheme|main article]].

===Form in poetry===
Poetic form is more flexible in modernist and post-modernist poetry and continues to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognizable structures or forms and write in [[free verse]]. Free verse is, however, not "formless" but composed of a series of more subtle, more flexible prosodic elements.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://literarydevices.com/free-verse/ |title=FREE VERSE |date=25 May 2015 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> Thus poetry remains, in all its styles, distinguished from prose by form;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/forms-of-verse-free-verse/ |title=Forms of verse: Free verse [Victoria and Albert Museum] |date=4 July 2011 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> some regard for basic formal structures of poetry will be found in all varieties of free verse, however much such structures may appear to have been ignored.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitworth |first=Michael H. |title=Reading modernist poetry |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4051-6731-4 |page=74}}</ref> Similarly, in the best poetry written in classic styles there will be departures from strict form for emphasis or effect.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hollander|1981|pp=50–51}}</ref>

Among major structural elements used in poetry are the line, the [[stanza]] or [[verse paragraph]], and larger combinations of stanzas or lines such as [[canto]]s. Also sometimes used are broader visual presentations of words and [[calligraphy]]. These basic units of poetic form are often combined into larger structures, called ''poetic forms'' or poetic modes (see the following section), as in the [[sonnet]].

====Lines and stanzas====
{{main|Line (poetry)|Stanza}}
Poetry is often separated into lines on a page, in a process known as [[line break (poetry)|lineation]]. These lines may be based on the number of metrical feet or may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a change in tone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=7–13}}</ref> See the article on [[line break (poetry)|line breaks]] for information about the division between lines.

Lines of poems are often organized into [[stanza]]s, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a collection of two lines is a [[couplet]] (or [[distich]]), three lines a [[tercet|triplet]] (or [[tercet]]), four lines a [[quatrain]], and so on. These lines may or may not relate to each other by rhyme or rhythm. For example, a couplet may be two lines with identical meters which rhyme or two lines held together by a common meter alone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=78–82}}</ref>

[[File:Alexander Blok - Noch, ulica, fonar, apteka.jpg|thumb|[[Alexander Blok|Blok]]'s [[Russian language|Russian]] poem, "''Noch, ulitsa, fonar, apteka''" ("Night, street, lamp, drugstore"), on a wall in [[Leiden]]]]
Other poems may be organized into [[verse paragraph]]s, in which regular rhymes with established rhythms are not used, but the poetic tone is instead established by a collection of rhythms, alliterations, and rhymes established in paragraph form.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=78}}</ref> Many medieval poems were written in verse paragraphs, even where regular rhymes and rhythms were used.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Middle English Literature: a guide to criticism |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-631-23290-2 |editor-last=Dalrymple |editor-first=Roger |page=10}}</ref>

In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, the [[ghazal]] and the [[villanelle]], where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas. Related to the use of interlocking stanzas is their use to separate thematic parts of a poem. For example, the [[strophe]], [[antistrophe]] and [[epode]] of the ode form are often separated into one or more stanzas.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=78–79}}</ref>

In some cases, particularly lengthier formal poetry such as some forms of epic poetry, stanzas themselves are constructed according to strict rules and then combined. In [[skald]]ic poetry, the [[dróttkvætt]] stanza had eight lines, each having three "lifts" produced with alliteration or assonance. In addition to two or three alliterations, the odd-numbered lines had partial rhyme of consonants with dissimilar vowels, not necessarily at the beginning of the word; the even lines contained internal rhyme in set syllables (not necessarily at the end of the word). Each half-line had exactly six syllables, and each line ended in a trochee. The arrangement of dróttkvætts followed far less rigid rules than the construction of the individual dróttkvætts.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture |publisher=Blackwell |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4051-3738-6 |editor-last=McTurk |editor-first=Rory |editor-link=Rory McTurk |pages=269–280}}</ref>

====Visual presentation====
{{Main|Visual poetry}}
Even before the advent of printing, the visual appearance of poetry often added meaning or depth. [[Acrostic]] poems conveyed meanings in the initial letters of lines or in letters at other specific places in a poem.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freedman |first=David Noel |date=July 1972 |title=Acrostics and Metrics in Hebrew Poetry |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=367–392 |doi=10.1017/s0017816000001620|s2cid=162853305 }}</ref> In [[Arabic poetry|Arabic]], [[Jewish literature#Poetry|Hebrew]] and [[Chinese poetry]], the visual presentation of finely [[calligraphy|calligraphed]] poems has played an important part in the overall effect of many poems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kampf |first=Robert |title=Reading the Visual – 17th century poetry and visual culture |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-640-60011-3 |pages=4–6}}</ref>

With the advent of [[printing]], poets gained greater control over the mass-produced visual presentations of their work. Visual elements have become an important part of the poet's toolbox, and many poets have sought to use visual presentation for a wide range of purposes. Some [[Modernism|Modernist]] poets have made the placement of individual lines or groups of lines on the page an integral part of the poem's composition. At times, this complements the poem's [[rhythm]] through visual [[caesura]]s of various lengths, or creates [[Contrast (linguistics)|juxtapositions]] so as to accentuate meaning, [[ambiguity]] or [[irony]], or simply to create an aesthetically pleasing form. In its most extreme form, this can lead to [[concrete poetry]] or [[asemic writing]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bohn |first=Willard |url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticsofvisu0000bohn/page/1 |title=The aesthetics of visual poetry |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-226-06325-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/aestheticsofvisu0000bohn/page/1 1–8]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/07/web-semantics-asemic-writing/ |title=Web Semantics: Asemic writing |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |date=13 July 2009 |magazine=Wired |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027152452/http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/07/web-semantics-asemic-writing/ |archive-date=2009-10-27 |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref>

===Diction===
{{Main|Poetic diction}}
Poetic diction treats the manner in which language is used, and refers not only to the sound but also to the underlying meaning and its interaction with sound and form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barfield |first=Owen |title=Poetic diction: a study in meaning |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-8195-6026-1 |edition=2nd |page=41}}</ref> Many languages and poetic forms have very specific poetic dictions, to the point where distinct [[grammar]]s and [[dialect]]s are used specifically for poetry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sheets |first=George A. |date=Spring 1981 |title=The Dialect Gloss, Hellenistic Poetics and Livius Andronicus |journal=American Journal of Philology |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=58–78 |doi=10.2307/294154 |jstor=294154}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blank |first=Paula |title=Broken English: dialects and the politics of language in Renaissance writings |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-415-13779-9 |pages=29–31}}</ref> [[Register tone|Registers]] in poetry can range from strict employment of ordinary speech patterns, as favoured in much late-20th-century [[Prosody (poetry)|prosody]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perloff |first=Marjorie |author-link=Marjorie Perloff |title=21st-century modernism: the new poetics |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-631-21970-5 |page=2}}</ref> through to highly ornate uses of language, as in medieval and Renaissance poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Medieval lyric: genres in historical context |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-252-02536-5 |editor-last=Paden |editor-first=William D. |page=193}}</ref>

Poetic diction can include [[rhetorical device]]s such as [[simile]] and [[metaphor]], as well as tones of voice, such as [[irony]]. [[Aristotle]] wrote in the ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' that "the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor."<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Gutenberg|title=The Poetics of Aristotle|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1974|date=1974|page=22}}</ref> Since the rise of [[Modernism]], some poets have opted for a poetic diction that de-emphasizes rhetorical devices, attempting instead the direct presentation of things and experiences and the exploration of [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge companion to modernist poetry |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-61815-1 |editor-last1=Davis |editor-first1=Alex |pages=90–96 |editor-last2=Jenkins |editor-first2=Lee M.}}</ref> On the other hand, [[surrealism|Surrealists]] have pushed rhetorical devices to their limits, making frequent use of [[catachresis]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=San Juan |first=E. Jr. |title=Working through the contradictions from cultural theory to critical practice |publisher=Bucknell University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8387-5570-9 |pages=124–125}}</ref>

[[Allegory|Allegorical]] stories are central to the poetic diction of many cultures, and were prominent in the West during classical times, the [[Allegory in the Middle Ages|late Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]]. ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'', repeatedly rendered in both verse and prose since first being recorded about 500 BCE, are perhaps the richest single source of allegorical poetry through the ages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Treip |first=Mindele Anne |title=Allegorical poetics and the epic: the Renaissance tradition to Paradise Lost |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-8131-1831-4 |page=14}}</ref> Other notables examples include the ''[[Roman de la Rose]]'', a 13th-century French poem, [[William Langland]]'s ''[[Piers Ploughman]]'' in the 14th century, and [[Jean de la Fontaine]]'s ''Fables'' (influenced by Aesop's) in the 17th century. Rather than being fully allegorical, however, a poem may contain [[symbols]] or [[allusion]]s that deepen the meaning or effect of its words without constructing a full allegory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crisp |first=P. |date=1 November 2005 |title=Allegory and symbol – a fundamental opposition? |journal=Language and Literature |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=323–338 |doi=10.1177/0963947005051287|s2cid=170517936 }}</ref>

Another element of poetic diction can be the use of vivid [[imagery (literature)|imagery]] for effect. The juxtaposition of unexpected or impossible images is, for example, a particularly strong element in surrealist poetry and [[haiku]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Richard |year=2004 |title=The Disjunctive Dragonfly |journal=Modern Haiku |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=21–44}}</ref> Vivid images are often endowed with symbolism or metaphor. Many poetic dictions use repetitive phrases for effect, either a short phrase (such as Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn" or "the wine-dark sea") or a longer [[refrain]]. Such repetition can add a somber tone to a poem, or can be laced with irony as the context of the words changes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hollander|1981|pp=37–46}}</ref>