- pantoum, 419
- paradox, 430
- paragraphs, well-ordered, 285–6
- parallelism, 120, 430
- participles, 29, 104
- parts of speech, 125, 129, 145, 151
- pentameter, 41, 408–9
- periphrasis, 430
- person, grammatical, 117, 423–24
- persona, 177–80. See also identity, social; self
- personification, 430
- Petrarchan sonnet, 416
- pleasure, poems as, 71–2
- plot, 34–35, 62, 106, 271
- poem-length, 114–15
- poetic justice, 261
- poignancy, 88–90
- predicate, 46, 143, 151
- pronouns, 94, 151–52, 423–24
- prosody, 407–22. See also rhyme; rhythm
- pyrrhic foot, 412