Glossary of Literary Terms

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masculine rhyme: Rhymes that consist of a single stressed syllable. This is the most common form of end rhyme in English (compare feminine rhyme).

meditation: A contemplation of some physical object as a way of reflecting upon some larger truth, often (but not necessarily) a spiritual one. For example, see Wallace Stevens, "Sunday Morning" (1923).

metaphor: A figure of speech that relies on a likeness or analogy between two things to equate them and thus suggest a relationship between them. For example, in "A Far Cry from Africa" (1962) Derek Walcott portrays the continent as an animal, with a "tawny pelt" and "bloodstreams." Compare metonymy, simile.

meter: The formal organization of the rhythm of a line into regular patterns; see foot, scansion.

metonymy: A figure that relies on a close relationship other than similarity (compare metaphor) in substituting a word or phrase for the thing meant. For example, the "scepter" in Tennyson´s "Ulysses" (1842) represents the rule of Ithaca.

mnemonic devices: Forms, such as rhyme, built into poems to help reciters remember the poems.

motif: A recurrent device, formula, or situation that deliberately connects a poem with preexisting patterns
and conventions. For example, Edmund Spenser´s Sonnet 75 (1595; "One day I wrote her name upon the strand") relies on the motif of immortality through poetry (cf. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55 [1609]).

mythologies: Large systems of belief and tradition on which cultures draw to explain and understand themselves. These are often political or religious, and often become conventional over time (for example, see the use of "Venus´ son" in Elizabeth´s "When I Was Fair and Young").