Classical Poetry: * also called neo-classical * perfected form: stanza, rhythm, rhyme, etc. * metrical lines. * followed strict rules and regulations of proper expressions, word-game and music * mainly inspired by models of classical Greek and Latin literature and philosophies. * use of special ‘poetic’ type of words. * use of archaic or old words like thy, thou, dost. * use of un-English kind of sentence structure, especially influenced by Latin. * roundabout expressions. * use of learned metaphors and allusions; so common readers find it difficult to understand the poem's ideas. * satirical poems. * social and not personal poems ('The Garden’ is an exception to this feature). * poems with a lesson (didactic) to teach the society. * more reason and intellect than emotion and feelings. * use of heroic couplet. ** The classical or neo-classical poets of the eighteenth century had had made poetry more social than personal, more intellectual than emotional and imaginative, more rule-based than spontaneous, more formal than familiar, elegant but not simple and frank, generalized but not personalized, more prosaic and actually poetic; it was as though an old man with limited interests is trying to ‘instruct’ a whole mass of people with certain kinds of words and by bitterly criticizing them, rather than a warm-hearted young and imaginative man pouring out his own and deeply personal emotions before you. Then in their poetry, they described only the superficial things of life and didn't touch its deeper issues. Poetry was used as a vehicle for instruction rather than for pleasure.

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. For example, if a poet says, "The moon is ‘smiling’ at me", he animates the moon. Read More...

Ballad:originally a kind of folk song; also sung with music; now recorded in writing, and also regarded as literature/ poetry. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. Read More...

Free verse: Free verse means poetry without rhyme-scheme and any standard or fixed rhythm. Read More...

Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is a pair of lines with iambic pentameter; the lines must also rhyme together. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...

Image: An image is considered to be a picture created in the mind by words. Generally images are divided as visual images and abstract images. Read More...

Imagery: Imagery is the general term for the use of ‘images’ in poetry. The use of all kinds of concrete, metaphoric and more abstract is called imagery. Read More...

Irony: Irony is an indirect way of criticizing things, and it can be done in several ways. The word ‘Irony’ comes from its Greek root ‘Eiron’, a dramatic character who spoke in ‘understatement’, pretending to be less intelligent. Read More...

Lyric: A lyric is a fairly short poem which is the expression of strong feelings (thoughts, or perceptions) of a single speaker in a meditative manner. Read More...

Meter: Meter is the quality of regular and conventional rhythm in poetic lines. Rhythm means any pattern, whether regular or not, and whether following any conventional pattern or not. Read More...