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T
Tag
A syllable of extra light stress at the end of a line, not counted in the
meter. Also known as 'feminine ending.
Tagalied
See Aubade
Tail Rhyme
A stanza with a tail, tag, or extra short line that may rhyme with
another such line later on. Chaucer's tale of Sir Thopas is one example.
Tanaga
The Tanaga is a short type of Filipino poem, consisting of four seven-
syllable lines each with the same rhyme at the end of each line. It would
be 7-7-7-7 syllabic verse, with an aaaa rhyme scheme. Like the haiku,
traditional tanagas do not have titles. They have been handed down
from oral history or are used to share proverbs and moral ethics.
Tanagas were designed for their original language, Tagalog. However,
the form is dying. The modern tanagas can be written in English and
other languages. In the modern movement, lines are still restricted to
seven syllables, but the rhyme scheme can vary to aabb, abab, abba or
even aaab, baaa, or abcd.
Tanka
The tanka originated in Japan. This five-line poem consists of thirty-one
syllables broken up as five-seven-five-seven-seven. It is unrhymed and
traditionally it reflects nature in a simple and succinct style. The haiku
was originally the opening three lines of a tanka.
Tautology
A statement redundant in itself, such as "The stars, O astral bodies!"
Telestich
Spelling out a word, a phrase, or name vertically in sequence down the
last letters of verse lines in a poem. See also Acrostic.
Tension
The artistically satisfying equilibrium of opposing forces in a poem,
usually referring to the use of language and imagery, but often applied
to other elements, such as dramatic structure, rhythmic patterns, and
sometimes to the aesthetic value of the poem as a whole.
Tenson
A medieval competition in verse on the subject of love or gallantry
before a tribunal between rival troubadours; also, a subdivision of a
chanson composed by one of the competitors.
Tercet, Terzet
A rhyming triplet, found in sequences such as aaa bbb (for example,
Thomas Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain") aba cdc (where b
and d are unrhyming) abc abc (repeated) aba bcb (interlaced or linked,
where the three lines are tied by rhyme to the rest of the stanza) the
sestet of a sonnet and, when made into a stanza by itself, named terza
rima.
Terza Rima
An Italian stanzaic form, used by Dante in his Divina Commedia,
consisting of tercets with interwoven rhymes, aba bcb dcd efe ... and a
concluding couplet rhyming with the penultimate line of the last tercet.
The original Italian form was iambic pentameter, plus one syllable.
Examples in English are Sir Thomas Wyatt's "Of the Mean and the Sure
Estate," Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," and Robert
Browning's "The Statue and the Bust."
Terzain
A stanza of three lines.
Terzanelle
The terzanelle combines the villanelle and the terza rima. It is nineteen
lines total with five triplets and a concluding quatrain. The rhyme
scheme for the five triplets is aba bcb cdc ded efe. It ends with either
fafa or ffaa.
Tetrabrach
See Proceleusmatic
Tetrameter
Four feet, a measure made up of four feet. Shakespeare's "Fear no
more the heat of the sun" is an example.
Texture
The "feel" of a poem that comes from the interweaving of technical
elements, syntax, patterns of sound and meaning.
The Fleshly School
The phrase that Robert Williams Buchanan coined for Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and his imitators in a scathing review in The Contemporary
Review in 1871.
Theme
A prevailing idea in a work, but sometimes not explicitly stated, as in
Ogden Nash's "Candy is dandy, / But liquor is quicker," which is about
neither candy nor liquor.
Thesis
The first part of an antithetical figure of speech; also, the unaccented
or shorter part of a poetic foot.
Tmesis
The division of a compound word into two parts, with one or more
words between, as what place soever for whatsoever.
Tone
The poet's attitude to the poem's subject as the reader interprets that,
sometimes through the tone of the persona or speaker (who may feel
quite differently).
Tornada
A three-line envoy that include the rhymes of all preceding stanzas.
Tragedy
A medieval narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a
great person; a drama, usually in verse, portraying a conflict between a
strong-willed protagonist and a superior force such as destiny,
culminating in death or disaster.
Tragic Hero
See hamartia
Travesty
A work that deflates something that is treated by another work with
high seriousness.
Tribrach
Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, short, and short
syllables / ~ ~ ~ /.
Trimeter
Three feet; sometimes termed tripody, a triple foot, one measure made
up of three feet. An example is Percy Bysshe Shelley's "To a Skylark,"
which uses trochaic trimeters for the first two lines of each stanza.
Triolet
One of the French forms of poetry, a triolet consists of a pair of
quatrains with two rhyming sounds. The first, fourth, and seventh line
are exactly the same, and the second line repeats as the last (eighth)
line. It uses a rhyme scheme of ABaAabAB. The capitals represent the
repeated lines.
Triple Rhyme
A rhyme in which three final syllables of words have the same sound, as
in glorious and victorious.
Triplet
A three-syllable foot, or a three-line stanza, with a single rhyme. For
example, Robert Herrick's "Upon Julia's Clothes."
Trisyllable
A word of three syllables.
Trochee
A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short
(or unstressed). An easy way to remember the trochee is to memorize
the first line of a lighthearted poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which
demonstrates the use of various kinds of metrical feet:
"Tro</strong>chee/ trips from/ long to/ short." (The stressed syllables
are in bold.) The trochee is the reverse of the iamb.
Troilus Verse
See Rhyme Royal
Trope
A semantic figure of speech or of thought that varies the meaning of a
word or passage. Examples include metaphor, metonymy,
objectification, and personification.
Troubadour
One of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians, often of knightly rank,
who flourished from the 11th through the 13th centuries in Southern
France and neighboring areas of Italy and Spain, and who wrote of
courtly love.
Trouvere
One of a school of poets of northern France who flourished from the
11th to 14th centuries and who composed mostly narrative works such
as chansons de geste and fabliaux.
True Rhyme
See Perfect Rhyme
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