English- Poetry Flashcards
alliteration
repetition of the initial consonant sound in a series of words
Example - “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”
assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds
Example - “It was a late fake that made the play work”
Concrete imagery
describes the tangible or physical
“The hawk floated below the clouds looking for prey.”
Abstract imagery
deals with ideas and emotions and describes the intangible
“An aura of apprehension pervaded the room as if a terrible secret were to be revealed.”
Blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable)
consonance
the repetition of consonant sounds
“A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage”
connotation
associations a word or phrase carries beyond literal meaning
denotation
the literal meaning of a word or phrase
dramatic monologue
a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speaker’s history and psychological insight into his character.
Meter
rhythm or pattern of stressed syllables in a line of poetry
Types of meter determine how many feet, or syllables are in a line
Types of meter determine how many feet, or syllables are in a line
Monometer = 1 foot
Dimeter = 2 feet
Trimeter = 3 feet
Tetrameter = 4 feet
Pentameter = 5 feet (or 10 syllables) and so on
Foot
measurement in which a line is broken down into
2 types of feet
Iambic = unstressed + stressed (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”)
Anapest = unstressed + unstressed + stressed (“on the foot of my bed”)
Scansion or to “scan” a poem
mark lines for stressed syllables.
Accentual syllabic
poetry written with fixed number of syllables per line and a fixed pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Haiku
(rules for haiku in English)
- Japanese form, 3 lines, 17 syllables, (5-7-5)
- Subject is Nature
- Present tense
- Specific event, not a generalization
Sonnet
14 line lyric, usually making an argument about love
English/Shakespearean sonnet
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
3 quatrains and 1 couplet
Quatrain = four line stanza couplet = 2 consecutive rhyming lines
Turn (or volta) point where argument shifts (not in all sonnets)
Italian/Petrachan sonnet
Octet (or octave) 8 lines split into two quatrains
Sestet (6 line stanza - split into two tercets, or 3 line stanzas)
Octave asks a question and sestet answer or solves the problem
Haibun
A form which combines one or more paragraphs of imagistic prose with one or more haikus.
There is a subtle, usually indirect relationship between the prose and the haiku
The prose, like the haiku, is present tense, concrete, and paints the picture of the scene
The haiku usually follows the prose and captures the essence of the scene or experience
Villanelle
French form, 19 lines
5 tercets - ABA followed by one quatrain = ABAA
There are 2 repeated lines, line 1 = lines 6,12, and 18 line 3 = lines 9,15, & 19
Sestina
39 line poem, six 6 line stanzas, followed by a 3 line envoy (or conclusion)
There are 6 repeated end words that follow a specific pattern,
The end words 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in one stanza will be 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3 in the next
Limerick
5 line humorous poem, often about the peculiarities of a persona and often bawdy.
Rhyme scheme = AABBA
The A lines are anapestic trimeter (unstressed unstressed stressed x 3)
(When he sits on the foot of my bed”)
And the B lines are anapestic dimeter (unstressed, unstressed, stressed x 2)
(“I’d not mind that he speaks”)
Found poetry
Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems.
