Poetry Tropes

"A poet can survive everything but a misprint."

— Oscar Wilde, The Children of Poets

This index lists tropes having to do with the medium and content of poetry in all its forms.

Tropes:

Subcategories:

Useful Notes:

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Devices & Formatting

Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable — Meter that doesn't work out quite right.
Added Alliterative Appeal — When words begin with the same sound. This was actually the dominant device in European poetry before rhyme took over.
all lowercase letters — Some poets choose not to capitalize any letters in their poems.
Anaphora: Many successive verses may start with the same word or group of words, thus giving emphasis to the repeated content.
Common Meter — A particularly common syllable-and-rhyme pattern.
Double Meaning — Poetry is infamous for its reliance on multiple layers of meaning.
Epiphora: A text has consecutive sentences ending with the same string of words, giving it rhythm (and easy rhymes).
Motifs — A poem will often focus on a central image or idea.
No Punctuation Period — Certain styles call for minimal or entirely absent punctuation.
Pun — Poetry often incorporates wordplay, sometimes for comedic effect.
Symbolism — Things Represent Other Things quite frequently in poetry.
Symploce — The presence of consecutive phrases, usually sentences, that start and end with the same words, without being exactly the same.
- Rule of Symbolism — If it's symbolic, it doesn't have to make sense.
- World of Symbolism — A common complaint of high school English students: why does everything have to mean something?
Unconventional Formatting — Many poets play with arranging words in unusual ways.
Wall of Text — Especially common in prose poetry.

Genres & Topics

Courtly Love — Love poems are a traditional means of wooing one's distant beloved.
Epic Catalog — A Narrative Poem lists off characters.
Kishōtenketsu — An East Asian style of poetry with four themed lines: introduction, development, twist, conclusion.
Limerick — A short, witty poem with a specific rhyme-meter pattern.
Love Is Like Religion — Comparing romantic lover to religious devotion or passion.
Love Letter — Often takes the form of a sappy poem.
Morality Ballad — a poem delivering An Aesop.
Murder Ballad — A poem about murder.
Narrative Poem — AKA Epic Poem: a poem that tells a story.
Nursery Rhyme — A simple poem for young children.
- Ironic Nursery Tune — A Nursery Rhyme played for creepiness.
Ode to Family — A poem to a family member.
The Power of Language — A frequent subject of poetic reflection.
Riddle: Word puzzles with nonintuitive answers, often framed through poetry.
Revenge Ballad — A poem about revenge.
Second-Person Narration — Poems to beloveds of various sorts are often formatted this way.
Seduction Lyric — A poem that's trying to get you into bed.
Spelling Song — Poems are a handy way to remember mnemonic devices.
Sonnet — A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with one of two specific rhyme schemes.
Tongue Twister — A short poem designed to be difficult to enunciate.

Other

Anthology — Poems are often published this way.
Awkward Poetry Reading — A character recites a poem awkwardly.
The Bard — A character known for composing poetry.
Epigraph — A quotation at the beginning of a work, often a line of poetry.
Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter — A non-poetic work uses iambic pentameter.
Lost in Translation — Poetry is notoriously difficult to translate while preserving all layers of meaning.
The Muse — Often the subject of romantic poems.
Reclusive Artist — Poets are often portrayed as introverted and unsociable.
Rhymes on a Dime — Rhyming dialogue in a non-poetic work.
Spoken Word in Music — Poetry interpolated into songs.
Warrior Poet — Both a fighter and a bard.
Wandering Minstrel — A travelling poet and musician.