Spanish Poetry Forms and Literary Devices: A Complete Reference for Metrics, Strophes, and Rhetoric

7 Tips on Poetic Forms

Estrofico: A poem in stanzas (estrofas) normally of octosyllabic verses. Its stanza is composed of 1 or 2 verses (compound), moving (3 monorhyming verses) and a return of the first verse, which connotes the stanza.
Rhyme: aabbba.

Villancico: A stanzaic poem of octosyllabic or hexasyllabic verses. The compound stanza is composed of 2, 3 or 4 verses, moving (a redondilla) and 1 or more verses back.

Glosa: A poem composed of stanzas, each with 1 quoted text (possibly a verse) and a glosa (commentary text).

Sextina: A poem composed of stanzas of 6 sestets and 1 tercet (of 3 verses).

Soneto: A poem of fourteen rhyming hendecasyllabic verses, consonant, organized in stanzas of 4: two quatrains and two tercets. A sonnet with estrambote is one where the poet adds one or more tercets to the fourteen verses.
Rhymes: abba abba cdc dcd.

Canción: A poem combining hendecasyllabic and heptasyllabic verses. The stanzas (estancias) are of variable length.

Madrigal: A stanzaic poem combining hendecasyllabic and heptasyllabic verses with variable rhyme. Its theme is love. Stanzaic not.

Romance: A poem composed in stanzas of an indefinite number of verses, octosyllabic, assonant rhyme, loosely linking the odd and even verses. When the romance has heptasyllabic verses it is called romance heptasílabo; when it has hexasyllabic verses it is called romancillo. If it has hendecasyllabic verses it is an heroic romance.

Silva: A stanzaic poem that combines preferentially free heptasyllabic and hendecasyllabic verses in an indefinite number, with consonant rhyme.

Tropes

The first is the substitution of an expression for another word.

1. Metaphor: Replacement of an element for another that maintains a connotative relation of similarity with the first.
2. Synesthesia: Qualities of one sensory domain are attributed to qualities of another that do not correspond (e.g., the verse "blue silence," "dark sound").
3. Allegory: A metaphor that is continued. The first version is a serial enigma.
4. Symbol: Consists of associating two planes, one real and the other imaginary, where the first suggests a relation that exists. Depends on every culture and every author (e.g., sea = death).
5. Metonymy: Replacement of one term for another that connotes the first through a relation of continuity (cause for effect, container for content, etc.).
6. Synecdoche: Using a term of wider meaning for another of more restricted meaning, or vice versa; the whole for the part or the part for the whole.

Literary Figures

Figures alter the ordinary language of the common speaker.

1. Alliteration: Repetition of similar sounds.
2. Paronomasia: Placing close together words that are paronyms, that have significant resemblance but different meaning.
3. Pun: Syllables of one or more words are grouped so as to give a different meaning.
4. Chiasmus: Two syntactic groups with the same words are contrasted in reverse order and function.
5. Ellipsis: Omission of one or various elements that are implied.
6. Asyndeton: Suppression of conjunctions.
7. Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions.
8. Geminatio: Repetition of elements at the beginning of a verse.
9. Epiphora: Repetition of elements at the end of a verse.
10. Anaphora: Repetition of elements at the beginning of several verses.
11. Anadiplosis: Repetition of final elements of one verse at the start of the next.
12. Polyptoton: Repetition of the same lexeme with different morphemes and inflections.
13. Derivation: Repetition of the same lexeme with different morphemes and derivatives.
14. Enumeration: Succession of elements.
15. Correlation: Presentation of a plurality of elements in one verse, with which the corresponding 1-1 plurality in another subsequent verse corresponds.
16. Gradation: Enumeration with a determined order.
17. Parallelism: Repetition of similar constructions.
18. Chiasmus (Kiasma): Symmetrical ordering of two groups of words.
19. Hyperbaton: Alteration of the normal order.

Rhetorical Figures

1. Rhetorical question: Asked not to receive an answer.
2. Dilogy: The same word with two different meanings.
3. Antithesis: Contraposition of ideas.
4. Oxymoron: Union of two incompatible terms.
5. Irony: Saying the opposite of what is meant.
6. Zeugma: One element is combined with others.
7. Hyperbole: Exaggeration.
8. Pleonasm: Redundant use of words.
9. Reticence: Interruption of speech.
10. Personification: Human qualities attributed to inanimate beings.

The metrics of verses are established by counting syllables according to poetic rules. The following metrical licenses apply:

• Sinalefa: If the last word ends in a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, they are merged into one metrical syllable.
• Dialefa: Occurs when there is no sinalefa.
• Diéresis: A diphthong is broken into its vowels, which are then pronounced as separate syllables, as when trying to split a hiatus into two distinct syllables.
• Sinéresis: The two vowels of a hiatus are merged in one syllable, forming a diphthong.

Verse Structure

Verse unit: A verse group that forms a complete unit in its own right.
Interrelated verses: Where the final word of one verse does not match the final sense, breaking the syntagm. Three types:

• Soft enjambment: The affected phrase ends at the end of the verse.
• Gross enjambment: The affected phrase is in the first syllables of the following verse.
• Lexical enjambment: The verse breaks in the middle of a word.

Pause (cesura): Within a verse, a pause divides it into two hemistichs.
Internal rhyme: Within a verse when there is a cesura.

Classification of Verses

• Isosyllabic verses: Those that have a determined number of syllables.
• Minor art: Eight or fewer syllables.
• Major art: Nine or more syllables.
• Free verses: Those without a determined number of syllables.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds from the last stressed vowel onward. Consonant rhyme: Repetition of all sounds. Assonant rhyme: Repetition of the vowels only. Loose rhyme: Where verses are linked without the same rhyme as the first stanza. White verses: Verses without rhyme.

Types of Stanzas

• Pareado: Verses of 2 syllables; major or minor art; assonant or consonant rhyme.
• Terceto: Verses of 3 syllables; major art; consonant rhyme aba.
• Tercetilla: Same as the terceto, minor art.
• Cuarteto: Verses of 4 syllables; major art; consonant rhyme abba.
• Redondilla: Same as the cuarteto, minor art.
• Serventesio: Verses of 4 syllables; major art; consonant rhyme abab.
• Serventesio: Verses of 4 syllables; major art; consonant rhyme abab (same as above).
• Cuaderna vía: Verses of 4 syllables; alexandrines; rhyme aaaa-bbbb, consonant.
• Seguidilla: Verses of 4 syllables: heptasyllables (odd) and pentasyllables (even). Rhyme: even verses and loose; assonant for odd verses: 7-5a-5a-7.
• Seguidilla gitana: Verses of 4 syllables: the 1st, 2nd and 4th are heptasyllables or pentasyllables and the 3rd is hexasyllable or decasyllable; even verses rhyme.
• Asonante couplet: Verses of 4 syllables: octosyllables. Rhyme: assonant; even verses; loose; odd verses.
• Quintilla: Verses of 5 syllables; major art; consonant rhyme (no more than 2 verses in a row with the same rhyme; no loose verse; the last 2 may not be stopped).
• Quintilla: Same as the quintilla, minor art.
• Lira: Verses of 5 syllables: 1st, 3rd and 4th heptasyllables and 2nd and 5th hendecasyllables. Rhyme: consonant 7a-11b-7a-7b-11b.
• Sextina: Verses of 6 syllables: hendecasyllables; rhyme: rhyming couplet not allowed.
• Cuadrado: Verses of 2 stanzas; verses of 6 syllables: 3rd and 6th tetrasyllables, the rest octosyllables. Rhyme: consonant 8a-8b-4c, 8a-8b-4c.
• Sexteto-lira: Verses of 6 syllables: even hendecasyllables and odd heptasyllables. Rhyme: consonant 7a-7a-11b-11b-11c-7c.
• Sexta rima: Verses of 6 syllables: hendecasyllables. Rhyme: 11a-11a-11b-11b-11c-11c.
• Octava real: Verses of 8 syllables: hendecasyllables. Rhyme: consonant abababcc.
• Octava de arte mayor: Verses of 8 syllables: dodecasyllables. Rhyme: abbaacca.
• Octavilla: Verses of 8 syllables; minor art. Rhyme: consonant. The combination is free; the 4th and 8th verses should be given acute rhyme.