Glossary of Literary Terms

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iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in "above" (see foot). Iambic is the most common meter in English poetry.

image: A mental representation of a particular thing able to be visualized (and often able to be apprehended by senses other than sight).

irony: A figure in which what is stated is the opposite of what is meant or expected. For example, see Wilfred Owen´s ironic use of Horace, Odes 3.2.13, in "Dulce Et Decorum Est" (1920).

Italian sonnet: An octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines); typically rhymed abbaabba cdecde, it has many variations that still reflect the basic division into two parts separated by a rhetorical turn of argument (e.g., see Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese [1850]).