Glossary

When characterizing poetry, work written in the reigns of the four Georges (1714-1830) or in the reign of George V (1910-36).

characterizing the life of the farmer.

An Eastern verse form consisting of successive couplets whose lines all end with the same refrain phrase (the qafia), just before which is placed the couplet's rhyming word (radif). The last couplet includes the name of the poet.

A Greek and Roman metre that consists of a spondee, a choriamb, and an iamb / ' ' / ' ~ ~ ' / ~ ' / .

Poems laced with proverbs, aphorisms, or maxims.

18th-century poets such as Thomas Gray, Robert Blair, and Edward Young who penned gloomy poems on death.

Slangy nickname for "gruesome" verse. See also Sick verse