---

A

Accent

A stressed syllable. These alternate with unstressed syllables to produce a metrical pattern (rhythm) that often, but not always, matches how the line would sound in conversation. It is the emphasis (stress, pitch) given to a word or syllable. In the word poetry, the accent (or stress) falls on the first syllable.

Acrostic

The word ACROSTIC comes to the English language via the Latin derivation of the Greek words, 'AKRON' (end) and 'STIKHOS' (line of verse). An Acrostic is a series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence. They need not rhyme. A double acrostic has the first and last letters forming new words.

Administrator

Member who oversees the interaction, policies and moderation of forum board. There are currently two admins at MM.

Admirable Articles

Forum for interesting articles and/or links to sites that contain information relating to the themes that we, as writers strive to understand and incorporate. This is a "members only" forum.

Alexandria's Library

Forum for posts and discussions you may want to chat about in depth.

Alexandrine

A metrical line of poetry that contains 12 syllables (6 feet) originally from French heroic verse. In his "Essay on Criticism," Alexander Pope says, "A needless Alexandrine ends the song / That like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along" (359).

Alliteration

Repetition of the same consonant to start two or more stressed words or syllables in a phrase or verse line, or using a series of vowels to begin such words or syllables in sequence. A famous example is "She sells seashells by the seashore".

Anapest

A metrical foot of three syllables, two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one as in "undermine" and "overcome".

Angkor Wat Accolades

Forum for comedic, youthful and seasonal themed works for exhibition.

Arc of the Covenant

Forum with links to other sites offering a plethoria of resources for writers. New posts to this forum will be reviewed by the Staff.

Assonance

the rhyming of a word with another in one or more of their accented vowels, but not in their consonants; sometimes called vowel rhyme. The cat with a hat lay flat on a mat.

Atarlis Fileata

[At’-ar-lee’ Fee-lee-ah’-tay] (Gaelic for "repeating poetic") is a 7-line poem with 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2 words per line, and only one rhyme — in the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th lines: ABacaBA, the first two lines reversing as the last two lines. (There may be a very slight variation in line 6 and 7, usually only changing one word or rearranging the words already used, but saying basically the same thing.) There may be any number of stanzas, but each stanza must be able to stand alone.

ATM

Mosaic Speak: At the moment.

This Glossary is always a work in progress. Terms and definitions are being added as we do the Mosaic-Speak. If you have comments, corrections, or suggested additions, please send them to Lori Kanter using our Contact Us form. We thank you for the many suggestions that have already been included.

Replace the asterisk in *.html with the first letter of the term you are linking to. Terms with more than one word will generally use an underline to link the words.