Literary Terms

PersonaMeter/rhythm

ImageImage pattern

Stanza

PersonaThe voice or speaker of a poem or other work of literature

The persona is NOT the writer as s/he exists in the world. Even when the persona is an aspect of the writer, the speaker of a literary work is a literary fiction

The persona will have certain characteristics, which can be determined with reference to the content, tone, and diction of the utterance

Meter and RhymeIn English poetry, the meter is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. When you figure out the meter of a poem, you are “scanning” the lines.

Rhyme is the repetition of the sound of the last stressed syllable: late/fateRhymes can come in the middle of a line, but when we talk about a “rhyme scheme,” we are talking about the ends of lines – or end rhymes.

Image/Imagery/Image Patterns

An image is a word that stands for a sensory element – something you can see, hear, taste, smell, or touchImagery is the collective term for “images”An image pattern is a set of images that share some common element – such as a pattern of comforting images or frightening images or sharp images or smooth images

StanzaA stanza is a group of lines in a poem, usually set off with white spaceThere are numerous standard stanzas:

CoupletsQuatrainsTercet or tripletSestet