Glossary of Literary Terms

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terza rima: A series of three-line stanzas with interlocking rhymes, invented by Dante for The Divine Comedy (aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.) in the early fourteenth century. For an English example, see Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (1820).

theme: The statement a poem makes about its subject. Although, generally speaking, the theme is what a poem is "about," the meaning of a poem can never be reduced to one or more of the themes within the poem.

tone: The attitude taken in or by a poem toward the subject and theme.

topic: See subject.

tradition: A customary practice or a widely accepted way of viewing or representing things; it usually includes many conventions.

trochee: A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, as in "liar" (see foot).