What term describes a repeated line or phrase throughout a poem?

What term describes a repeated line or phrase throughout a poem?

• A. Repetition
• B. Parallelism
• C. Onomatopoeia
• D. Refrain

Answer: (D)

A refrain is the recurring line or phrase that appears throughout a poem, often at the end of each stanza, acting like a chorus to give the poem a unifying cadence and to reinforce its mood or central idea. This specific kind of repetition—a fixed line or phrase that repeats at intervals—is what distinguishes a refrain from general repetition, which can happen anywhere in the text without forming a consistent repeated segment. Parallelism, by contrast, involves matching grammatical structures rather than repeating a line itself, and onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate sounds. So the term that describes a repeated line or phrase throughout a poem is refrain. A classic example is the line that recurs at the end of each stanza in a ballad or the repeated word in a lyric like The Raven’s “Nevermore,” which functions as the refrain.

A refrain is the recurring line or phrase that appears throughout a poem, often at the end of each stanza, acting like a chorus to give the poem a unifying cadence and to reinforce its mood or central idea. This specific kind of repetition—a fixed line or phrase that repeats at intervals—is what distinguishes a refrain from general repetition, which can happen anywhere in the text without forming a consistent repeated segment. Parallelism, by contrast, involves matching grammatical structures rather than repeating a line itself, and onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate sounds. So the term that describes a repeated line or phrase throughout a poem is refrain. A classic example is the line that recurs at the end of each stanza in a ballad or the repeated word in a lyric like The Raven’s “Nevermore,” which functions as the refrain.