"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.
Compare Literary Tropes, Music Tropes, and Theatre Tropes.
See also Language Tropes and Lit. Class Tropes.
Tropes:
Subcategories:
Media 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.
- Anadiplosis: Ending a phrase with the start of the next one.
- 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).
- Mesodiplosis: Consecutive phrases sharing a middle.
- 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.
