Glossary of Poetic Terms from BOB'S BYWAY, Letter L

GLOSSARY OF POETIC TERMS from

L

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LAI
A medieval narrative or lyric poem which flourished in 12th century France, consisting of couplets of five-syllable lines separated by single lines of two syllables. The number of lines and stanzas was not fixed and each stanza had only two rhymes, one rhyme for the couplets and the other for the two-syllable lines. Succeeding stanzas formed their own rhymes.

(See also Lay, Virelay)

LAMENT
See Dirge, Elegy, Epitaph, Monody

LAMPOON
A bitter, abusive satire in prose or verse attacking an individual. Motivated by malice, it is intended solely to reproach and distress.
Sidelight: Before the term lampoon was coined, it was called invective and dates back as far as the origin of poetry itself. It now appears primarily in prose, however, except for its occasional use in epigrams.
(See also Burlesque, Parody, Pasquinade)

LAY
Originally the Anglicized term for the French lai, it later came to be used by English poets as a synonym for song or for narrative poetry of moderate length.
(See also Tragedy)

LEONINE VERSE
Named for a 12th century poet, Leonius, who first composed such verse, it consists of hexameters or of hexameters and pentameters in which the final syllable rhymes with one preceding the caesura, in the middle of the line.
Sidelight: Since internal rhyme is the most significant feature of Leonine verse, the two terms are often used synonymously.

LIGHT VERSE
A loose, catch-all term describing poetry written with a relaxed attitude and ordinary tone on trivial, mundane, or frivolous themes. It is intended to amuse and entertain and is frequently distinguished by sophistication, wit, word-play, elegance, and technical competence. Among the numerous forms of light verse are clerihews, double dactyls, epigrams, limericks, nonsense poetry, occasional poetry, parodies, society verse, and verse with puns or riddles.

LIMERICK
A light or humorous verse form of five chiefly anapestic verses of which lines one, two and five are of three feet and lines three and four are of two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba. The limerick, named for a town in Ireland of that name, was popularized by Edward Lear in his Book of Nonsense published in 1846.
Sidelight: the final line of Lear's limericks usually was a repetition of the first line, but modern limericks generally use the final line for clever witticisms.

Sidelight: As shown by these examples, limericks, while unsuitable for serious verse, lend themselves well to humor and word-play. Their content also frequently tends toward the ribald and off-color.

LINE
A unit in the structure of a poem consisting of one or more metrical feet arranged as a rhythmical entity.
Sidelight: The line is fundamental to the perception of poetry, since it is an important factor in the distinction between prose and verse.

Sidelight: In metrical verse, line lengths are usually determined by genre or convention, as well as by meter. But otherwise, and especially in free verse, a poet can give emphasis to a word or phrase by isolating it in a short line.

Sidelight: In recitation aloud (performance), the line-end is a signal for a slight, non-metrical pause.

Sidelight: The traditional practice of capitalizing the initial line-letters contributes to the visual perception of the line as a unit; this practice is often not observed in modern free verse.
(See also Stich)

LIST POEM
See Catalog Verse

LITOTES (LIH-tuh-teez, pl. LIH-toh-teez)
A type of meiosis (understatement) in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary, as in "not unhappy" or "a poet of no small stature."
(Compare Irony)
(Contrast Hyperbole)

LYRIC VERSE
One of the three main groups of poetry, the others being narrative and dramatic. By far the most frequently used form in modern poetic literature, the term lyric includes all poems in which the speaker's ardent expression of a (usually single) emotional element predominates. Ranging from complex thoughts to the simplicity of playful wit, the power and personality of lyric verse is of far greater importance than the subject treated. Often brief, but sometimes extended in a long elegy or a meditative ode, the melodic imagery of skillfully written lyric poetry evokes in the reader's mind the recall of similar emotional experiences.
Sidelight: Lyric is derived from the Greek word for lyre and originally referred to poetry sung to musical accompaniment.

Sidelight: A lyric sequence is a group of poems, mostly lyric verse, that interact as a structural whole, differing from a long poem by the inclusion of unlike forms and diverse areas of focus.
(See Canzone, Ghazal, Melic Verse, Romance, Society Verse)
(See also Anthology, Canon, Companion Poem, Cycle, Sonnet Sequence)

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There is pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.

---William Cowper

If you wish me to weep, you yourself must feel grief.

---Ars Poetica, Horace