final exam terms

Question 1

Narrative Structure

Answer 1

• Poems employing narrative structure are based on sequenced, connected events and usually follow a straightforward, chronological framework

Question 2

dramatic structure

Answer 2

poem employing dramatic structure organize material as a series of scenes, each of which is presented vividly and in detail

Question 3

discursive structure

Answer 3

Poems employing discursive structure organize material based on
the treatise, argument, or essay. Such poems often pursue a kind of “argument.”

Question 4

meditative structure

Answer 4

A type of discursive structure, poems employing meditative

structure often ponder a subject, theme, tone or event.

Question 5

form

Answer 5

• General term referring to the larger structural aspects of poem’s language;
• e.g., stanzas, lines, shape, etc.
• Just as all poems have content, all poems have form.
  Regard form, perhaps, as the shape of the poem’s “container.”

Question 6

fixed form

Answer 6

• Static, predetermined or “set” form to which the poet conforms his or her language.
• The sonnet, the villanelle, the pantoum, etc., are fixed forms.

Question 7

rhyme scheme

Answer 7

Pattern of end rhymes in a poem, often noted by small letters (abba, etc.).

Question 8

full rhyme

Answer 8

Rhymes that employ both corresponding vowel/vowel clusters and
consonants/consonant clusters..

Question 9

masculine rhyme

Answer 9

Type of full rhyme in which the rhyme-pair’s final syllables are
stressed; e.g., respect/collect. All monosyllable rhymes are masculine. E.g.,
lark/dark

Question 10

feminine rhyme

Answer 10

Type of full rhyme in which rhyming words of two or more syllables in
which the stressed and rhymed syllables are not the final ones. E.g.,
spiteful/rightful.

Question 11

slant ryhme

Answer 11

• General term for rhyme in which a vowel/vowel cluster or consonant/consonant cluster echoes in a rhyme pair. (Or some variation thereof.)
• Sometimes called “half rhyme.” See handout for details.

Question 12

end rhyme

Answer 12

refers to rhymes placed at the lines’ endings

Question 13

internal rhyme

Answer 13

refers to proximate rhymes placed within a given line or lines

Question 14

sonnet

Answer 14

• 14 line lyric poem written in iambic pentameter; often turns, often about love.
• Italian for “little song”; widely adapted from Petrarch in Elizabethan England, it’s a fixed form, yet highly variable

Question 15

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 15

Sonnet is organized in an octave and a sestet and employs a volta.
Rhyme scheme is usually abbaabbacdecde.

Question 16

octave

Answer 16

• the first eight lines in a sonnet

- esp. a Petrarchan sonnet

Question 17

sestet

Answer 17

• the final six lines of a sonnet

- esp. a Petrarchan sonnet

Question 18

volta

Answer 18

Italian for “turn,” the sonnet’s volta typically occurs after its octave.

Question 19

shakespearian sonnet

Answer 19

• Sonnet organized in three quatrains and one couplet
• adapted and adopted widely in Elizabethan England.
• Rhyme scheme is variable, but usually ababcdcdefefgg.

Question 20

quatrain

Answer 20

Four line stanza or “chunk” in a sonnet

Question 21

couplet

Answer 21

Two line stanza or “chunk” in a sonnet; typically summative in nature and rhymed.

Question 22

the sestina

Answer 22

• is a complex form that achieves its often spectacular effects through intricate repetition.
• follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six end-words of the first stanza through the remaining five six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi that incorporates the six end-words, usually two per line
• The lines may be of any length, though in its initial incarnation, the sestina followed a syllabic restriction.
• The form is as follows, where each numeral indicates
  the stanza position and the letters represent end-words:
  S1. ABCDEF
  S2. FAEBDC
  S3. CFDABE
  S4. ECBFAD
  S5. DEACFB
  S6. BDFECA
  S7. [F B] [AD] [E C]
• In place of a rhyme scheme,
  the sestina relies on end-word repetition to effect a sort of rhyme.

Question 23

envoi

Answer 23

sometimes known as the “tornada”, must also include the remaining three end-words so that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines

Question 24

villanelle

Answer 24

• is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.
• The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain.
• The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines
• Using capitals for the refrains
  and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as:

A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 /a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

• did not start off as a fixed form

Question 25

triolet

Answer 25

• is a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout.
• The requirements of this fixed form are straightforward:
  ~the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines;
  ~the second line is repeated in the final line;
  ~and only the first two end-words are used to complete the tight rhyme scheme
• the poet writes only five original lines, giving the triolet a deceptively simple appearance:

ABaAabAB

• where capital letters indicate repeated lines.

Question 26

pantoum

Answer 26

• Originated in Malaysia in the fifteenth-century as a short folk poem, typically made up of two rhyming couplets that were recited or sung
• Is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza.
• The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.

Question 27

the blues poem

Answer 27

• stem from the African American oral tradition and the musical tradition of the blues.
• A blues poem typically takes on themes such as struggle, despair, and sex.
• It often (but not necessarily) follows a form, in which a statement is made in the first line, a variation is given in the second line, and an ironic alternative is declared in the third line

Question 28

ghazal

Answer 28

• is composed of a minimum of five couplets (and typically no more than fifteen) that are…
  ~structurally,
  ~thematically,
  ~emotionally autonomous.
• Each line of the poem must be of the same length, though meter is not imposed in English.
• The first couplet introduces a scheme, made up of a rhyme followed by a refrain.
• Subsequent couplets pick up the same scheme in the second line only, repeating the refrain and rhyming the second line with both lines of the first stanza.
• The final couplet usually includes the poet’s signature, referring to the author in the first or third person, and frequently including the poet’s own name or a derivation of its meaning.
• Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions,
• are often sung by Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani musicians

Question 29

ballad

Answer 29

• began in the European folk tradition, in many cases accompanied by musical instruments.
• were not originally transcribed, but rather preserved orally for generations, passed along through recitation.

- Their subject matter dealt with...
        ~religious themes
         ~love
         ~tragedy
         ~domestic crimes
         ~sometimes even political propaganda.

• is a plot-driven song, with one or more characters hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion.
• does not tell the reader what’s happening, but rather shows the reader what’s happening, describing each crucial moment in the trail of events.
• To convey that sense of emotional urgency it is often constructed in quatrains, each line containing as few as three or four stresses and rhyming either the second and fourth lines, or all alternating lines

Question 30

ballad stanza

Answer 30

is often constructed in quatrains, each line containing as few as three or four stresses and rhyming either the second and fourth lines, or all alternating lines

Question 31

terza rima

Answer 31

• is composed of tercets woven into a rhyme scheme that requires the end-word of the second line in one tercet to supply the rhyme for the first and third lines in the following tercet
• the rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, ded) continues through to the final stanza or line
• is typically written in an iambic line, and in English, most often in iambic pentameter. If another line length is chosen, such as tetrameter, the lines should be of the same length.
• There are no limits to the number of lines a poem composed may have