Tercet: A three-line unit or stanza of poetry. It typically rhymes in an AAA or ABA pattern. If the tercet forms a stanza by itself, it is often called a triplet.

 

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Tercet: A three-line unit or stanza of poetry. It typically rhymes in an AAA or ABA pattern. If the tercet forms a stanza by itself, it is often called a triplet.

Tercet, Terzet: a rhyming triplet, found in sequences such as: aaa bbb (for example, Thomas Hardy's 'The Convergence of the Twain'), aba cdc (where b and d are unrhyming), abc abc (repeated), aba bcb (inter . . . View Full Definition

Triplet: Three-base sequence of mRNA that codes for a specific amino acid or termination codon.

Tristich: Another term for a tercet. (Greek, 'three lines')

Englyn: A group of certain Welsh tercets and quatrains written in strict Welsh meters including monorhyme and cywydd, especially in poems that make use of cynghanedd. The simplest example of an engl . . . View Full Definition

Catalectic: A type of verse termed by george puttenham in 1589 'maimed' because it is missing a syllable in the last foot. An acatalectic verse is complete. A hypercatalectic line has an extra syllable. . . . View Full Definition

Terza Rima: An italian stanzaic form, used by dante in his divina commedia, consisting of tercets with interwoven rhymes, aba bcb dcd efe ... And a concluding couplet rhyming with the penultimate line o . . . View Full Definition

Rhyme Royal: A stanza of seven ten-syllable lines, rhyming ababbcc, popularized by geoffrey chaucer in troilus and criseyde and the parliament of fowls, and termed 'royal' because his imitator, james i o . . . View Full Definition

Curtal Sonnet: A short sonnet devised by gerard manley hopkins that maintains the proportions of the italian form (6:4.5 to 8:6), substituting two six-stress tercets for two quatrains in the octave (rhymin . . . View Full Definition

Villanelle: An italian verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas (tercets) and a final quatrain, possessing only two rhymes, repeating the first and third lines of the first stanza alternately in . . . View Full Definition