GCSE Poetry terms Flashcards

Question

imagery

Answer 1

the use of words to create a picture or "image" in the mind of the reader. Images can relate to any of the senses, not just sight.

Answer 2

rhyming words within a line rather than at the end of lines

Answer 3

at its simplist level, it means saying one thing while meaning antoher. It occurs where a word or phrase has one surface meaning but another contradictory, possibly opposite meaning is implied. Irony is often confused with sarcasm. SARCASM is spoken, relying on the tone of voice and is much more blunt than irony.

Answer 4

a conparison of one thing to another to make the descrption more vivid. The metaphor actually states that one thing is another. His face was a true harvest festival.

Answer 5

the regular use of unstressed and stressed syllables in poetry tum ti tum ti tum ti tum

Answer 6

telling a story through verse in poetry E.g. An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by W B Yeats I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.

Answer 7

the use of words whose sounds copies the thing or process they describe – e.g. "bang, crash, or ping"

Answer 8

the effect in literature which makes the reader feel sadness or pity (compare to logos, and ethos - logos deploys logic, reason, science; ethos appeals to character, usually trustworthy)

Answer 9

the attribution of human feelings, emotions, or sensations to an inanimate object. Personification is a type of metaphor where human qualities are given to things of abstract ideas

Answer 10

a story can be told by one of the characters or from another point of view. The point of view can change from one part of the story to another when events are viewed through the minds of two or more characters

Answer 11

the main character or speaker in a poem, monologue, play, or story.

Answer 12

a play on words that have similar sounds but quite different meanings - for humour, ambiguity, highlight a word, or irony. “‘Mine is a long and a sad tale!’ said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. ‘It is a long tail, certainly,’ said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; ‘but why do you call it sad?'

Answer 13

corresponding sounds in words, usually at the end of each line, but not always

Answer 14

the pattern of rhymes in a poem usually denoted as AABB, or ABAB, or ABABCDCD, etc.

Answer 15

The 'movement' of the poem as created through the meter and the way that language is stressed within the poem From Shakespeare's *The Tempest -* read it out loud to hear the rhythm Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea change Into something rich and strange. Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Answer 16

the highlighting or exposing of human failings or foolishness through ridiculing them Satire can range from being gentle and light to extremely biting and bitter in tone Eg Don Quixote by Cervantes; Catch-22 by Heller; The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.

Answer 17

the comparison of one thing to another in order to make the description more vivid using *like* or *as* * She dances like a dervish.* * He stomped like a brontosaurus up the stairs.* * They were as intelligent as smart phones, except I couldn't switch them off...*

Answer 18

A fourteen-line poem, usually with 10 syllables in each line. There are several ways in which the lines can be organised, but they often consist of an octave and a sestet (8 lines followed by 6)

Answer 19

the blocks of lines into which a poem is divided. (Sometimes these are, less precisely, refered to as verses, which can lead to confusion as poetry is sometimes called 'verse')

Answer 20

the way a poem or play or other piece of writing has been put together

Answer 21

the individual way in which the writer has used language to express his or her ideas narrative style descriptive style persuasive style educational / expository style reflective style

Answer 22

like the use of images, symbols present things which represent something else. In very simple terms, a red rose can be used to symbolisee love; distant thunder can symbolise approaching trouble. Symbols can be very subtle and multi-layered in their significance and association for people (personal, national, cultural, religious, commercial)

Answer 23

the way in which sentences are structured. Sentences can be structured in different ways to achieve different effects

Answer 24

the central idea or ideas that a writer explores through a text We usually ask what is the theme of this story or poem? There can be many sub-themes or alternative themes. Eg Is the big theme of Great Expectations the life and characters of early 19thC London, or how expectations and reality can clash? There are others... role of money, class, redemption, innocence, loss, grief, friendship.

Answer 25

The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. _“A World of Dew” by Kobayashi Issa_ A wórld of dew, (5) And within every dewdrop (7) A world of struggle. (5) NB: first 'world' has 2 syllables, second time has only 1!

Answer 26

Free verse: may or may not rhyme irregular number of lines per stanzas irregular number of syllables irregular meter (popular in modern poetry)

Answer 27

in poetry: three lines

Answer 28

in poetry: four lines

Answer 29

**old style of French poetry made up of 19 lines** and following other rules, e. g., five stanzas of three lines + one of four rhymes: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Answer 30

a style of poem used generally for humorous effect (often rude as well!) : made popular by Edward Lear (19thC) : rhyming scheme of AABBA My firm belief that Pizarro... by Aldous Huxley My firm belief is, that Pizarro Received education at Harrow - This alone would suffice, To account for his vice, And his views superstitiously narrow.

Answer 31

**style of poem from Ancient Greece ode comes from aeidein which means to sing or chant** an ode today is usually written about something or someone loved or adored or celebrated _Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats_ Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearièd, For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea-shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell Why thou art desolate, can e’er return. O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed; Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st, ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’ _Ode to My Socks_ by Pablo Neruda - 1904-1973 Maru Mori brought me a pair of socks which she knitted herself with her sheepherder’s hands, two socks as soft as rabbits. I slipped my feet into them as though into two cases knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin. Violent socks, my feet were two fish made of wool, two long sharks sea-blue, shot through by one golden thread, two immense blackbirds, two cannons: my feet were honored in this way by these heavenly socks. They were so handsome for the first time my feet seemed to me unacceptable like two decrepit firemen, firemen unworthy of that woven fire, of those glowing socks. Nevertheless I resisted the sharp temptation to save them somewhere as schoolboys keep fireflies, as learned men collect sacred texts, I resisted the mad impulse to put them into a golden cage and each day give them birdseed and pieces of pink melon. Like explorers in the jungle who hand over the very rare green deer to the spit and eat it with remorse, I stretched out my feet and pulled on the magnificent socks and then my shoes. The moral of my ode is this: beauty is twice beauty and what is good is doubly good when it is a matter of two socks made of wool in winter.

Answer 32

Poetry: whatever the style used, elegies are about a person who has died; so an elegy could be a sonnet, free verse, haiku, etc: _To an Athlete Dying Young_ _BY A. E. HOUSMAN_ The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. Today, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose. Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears. Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. So set, before its echoes fade, The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup. And round that early-laurelled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl’s.

Answer 33

A ballad tells a story, usually dramatic. The style is often of the form of four lines rhyming ABAB or ABCB, but while the structure and style may differ, the subject is always a dramatic story! _The Solitary Reaper_ William Wordsworth - 1770-1850 Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass! Alone she cuts and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain; O listen! for the Vale profound Is overflowing with the sound. No Nightingale did ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands Of travellers in some shady haunt, Among Arabian sands: A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas Among the farthest Hebrides. Will no one tell me what she sings?— Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago: Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again? Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang As if her song could have no ending; I saw her singing at her work, And o'er the sickle bending;— I listen'd, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.

Answer 34

five lines (of a stanza)

Answer 35

two lines (of a stanza)

Answer 36

For literature or language exams! a stanza = a collection of lines in a poem **separated** by a double space a verse = **a single line** in a stanza or a poem (or a collection of lines) based on their rhyme and meter (NB 'verse' can also mean a stanza or a the whole poem in everday language)

Answer 37

A brief piece of wisdom or advice E.g. Things are not always what they seem. Be content with what you have. United we stand, divided we fall

Answer 38

a well-known, perhaps overly used belief about life (adage = wisdom, cliché = overly used) e.g., you can't always judge a book by its cover the grass is always greener on the other side play your cards right

Answer 39

a story within a story E.g., Animal Farm is about a group of animals who rise up and take over a farm. The allegory points to the Russian Revolution and how the revolution did not change the lives of most people that much and the revolutionaries ended up being like the tyrants that they had overthrown..

Answer 40

a short story that is appropriate for the topic being discussed. e.g. I'm exploring the life of Thales and am explaining how he was getting excited about looking at the stars when he fell into a well. The student replies with an anecdote: "That reminds me of my dad - he was so excited about showing mum a gorgeous full moon one night that as he raced to tell her, he tripped over a ball and fell into our pond!"

Answer 41

the opposite of an idea or statement That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind. (Neil Armstrong, 1969)

Answer 42

deliberate use of contrasting ideas "I can bring you in cold or I can bring you in warm" - The Mandalorian, episode 1. Or Romeo's juxtapositions showing his madness (he's madly in love, but Rosaline has rejected him) Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

Answer 43

**when a sentence is left deliberately cut off.** Greek ***aposiōpan = silent*** Why? It may show a speaker or writer's desire to avoid continuing and allowing the listener or reader to finish the sentence in their own way. "Then there was the time when we were all supposed to be ready to go to the airport, and ..." Yes, we all knew what happened. It was a painful and embarrassing memory to all of us. "Yes, I can quite imagine ..." grandmother nodded with a knowing eye that made me uncomfortable. She had a way of doing that, not finishing her sentences, but the meaning would pour out nonetheless. "Your family are just ... " she pulled a face. "I think I'm beyond anger! I could ... I could ..." He grasped his hair and shook violently.

Answer 44

a word or phrase that was used in the past but is not so used today. E.g., "I *shan't* go to the shops!" (instead of "I won't go to the shops!") "I *daresay*, it will rain later."

Answer 45

when a speaker or writer misses out conjunctions between phrases (for, and, yet, but, etc.) for effect An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was thick, warm, heavy, sluggish. - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Answer 46

an abrupt change in description to the surprising, silly or absurd From Douglas Adams's *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* "You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young. “Why, what did she tell you?” “I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”

Answer 47

an absurd imitation or comic exagerration of something such as a dramatic scene (from Italian - burlesco = to ridicule) Types: parody (mimicking a style) - eg The songs of Weird Al Jankovic are burlesque imitations of the originals. mock-heroic eg Monty Python's *Holy Grail* travesty: vulgar or lewd (rude) imitation of a significant work (eg Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and the treatment of Pyramus and Thisbe)

Answer 48

series of harsh, discordant sounding words cacophony = kako - ill; phōnos = sound EG Lewis Carroll's *Jabberwocky* ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Answer 49

release of strong emotions Gk: kathairein - to cleanse

Answer 50

a story's central turning point, the moment of peak tension or conflict the answer to a story's mystery the beginning of a story's resolution (image: Freytag's pyramid of literary climax)

Answer 51

a figure of speech (artistic use of language) in which the **same consonant sound** repeats E.g., **F**inally, enou**gh** terri**f**ic **ph**antoms **f**loated around to **f**righten even tou**gh** **Ph**oebe. (/f/ sound even though with different spellings) Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds: Yea, **th**ough I walk **th**rough the valley of the shadow of dea**th**, I will fear no evil: for **th**ou art with me; **th**y rod and **th**y staff, **th**ey comfort me. King James Bible. Psalm 23 [Assonance on the other hand is repetition of vowel sounds: "H**ey**, w**ai**t! Don't blame me! Nate and James are the perpetrators!"]

Answer 52

connotation = the array of emotions and ideas suggested by a word in addition to its dictionary definition; the array can be positive, neutral or negative. “She is hot … (I really fancy her!)" denotation = literal meaning of a word (not the feelings/ideas that the word suggests) “She is hot … (Call a doctor!)"

Answer 53

giving a human or thing animal characteristics

Answer 54

a doing or being word I **swim** in the sea in the sultry summers. I **am** warm today. Powerful verbs draw the readers into the imagery compared to weaker verbs. Consider: She *read* the paper for an hour. (weak) She *scrutinised* the paper for an hour. (strong) Verbs can thus affect: Reader's **engagement**. **Clarity or detail** of what's going in. **Tone** and voice. Help the **flow** of the narrative - speed it up or slow it down. Tom *sprinted* down the road *throwing* glances behind him as he *fled* the gang running behind him. Active versus passive can also have an effect on who/what is important. Look at the subject (who is person/thing doing the action): The **boy** kicked the window. The **window** was kicked by the boy. Our attention shifts from the boy to the window in the second example.

Answer 55

lack of conjunctions eg. I came, I saw, I conquered.

Answer 56

Understanding the word from the context.

Answer 57

"A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash. "In fair Verona**,** where we lay our scene."