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GRE LIT > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

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GRE® Vocabulary flashcards
0
Q

Homeric epithet

A

Rosy-fingered dawn

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1
Q

Hudibrastic

A

Bad, Ill-rhythmed, Ill-rhymed poetry; from Samuel Butler’s Hudibras; rhymed tetrameter lines

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2
Q

Litotes

A

Understatement due to double negative - “I am a Jew from Tarsus … no ordinary city”

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3
Q

Feminine rhyme

A

Rhyming the 2 last syllables of lines; stressed-unstressed pattern for 2 last syllables; “painted/acquainted”

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4
Q

Epithalium

A

Work or poem meant to celebrate a wedding

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5
Q

Doggerel

A

Derogatory term for bad poetry; used by Dromio twins in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors

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6
Q

Euphuism

A

Writing consciously laden with elaborate speech - “neither borrower nor lender be” (Polonius, in Hamlet)

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7
Q

Hamartia

A

Greek - tragic flaw

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8
Q

Georgic

A

Poetry about laboring in countryside (not pastoral, which idealizes countryside)

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9
Q

Alexandrine

A

Line of iambic hexameter (12 syllables). Final line of a Spenserian stanza is Alexandrine

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10
Q

Anthropomorphism

A

Giving human attributes to animals or plants (Orwell - Animal Farm)

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11
Q

Masculine Rhyme

A

Rhyme ending on final stressed syllable (aka a regular rhyme)

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12
Q

Metonymy

A

A term or phrase that refers to person/object by one important feature of that object (“The pen Is mightier than the sword” - from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s play Richlieu)

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13
Q

Neoclassical Unities

A

Principles of dramatic structure derived from Aristotle’s Poetics. Popular in neoclassical mvt in 17th/18th century.

1) to observe unity of time, a work should take place in one day
2) unity of place - work set in one locale
3) unity of action - a single plot, no subplots

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14
Q

Pastoral Elegy

A

Poem that is elegiac (a lament for the dead) and sung by a shepherd. Shepherd is a stand in for the poet, and the elegy is for another poet. (Shelley’s “Adonais” is for John Keats)

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15
Q

Pastoral lit

A

Deals with shepherds in the countryside/nature

16
Q

Pathetic Fallacy

A

Term coined by John Ruskin; refers to ascribing emotion and agency to inanimate objects (“the cruel crawling foam” -Ruskin)

17
Q

Picaresque

A

Tales that move from adventure to adventure, incident to incident. (Huck Finn, Moll Flanders by Defoe, Tales of Perceval)

18
Q

Skeltonics

A

Humorous poetry, uses short rhymed lines with pronounced rhythm. Popularized by John Skelton. Skelton vs doggerel? Quality of thought expressed

19
Q

Sprung Rhythm

A

Created and used by Gerard Manley Hopkins in 19th century; fits varying number of unstressed syllables in a line - only stresses count in scansion.

20
Q

Synesthaesia

A

Interplay of senses; “hot pink”

21
Q

Synecdoche

A

Phrase that refers to person or object by single important feature

22
Q

Ballad

A

Rhyme: abcb
Length of lines determined by stressed syllables (like sprung rhythm)
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by S. T. Coleridge

23
Q

In memorial

A

A stanza of 4 lines, iambic tetrameter, rhymes ABBA

24
Q

Ottava Rima

A

8-line stanza (usually iambic pentameter)
Rhyme: ABA BAB CC
Lord Byron’s Don Juan

25
Q

Rhyme Royal

A

Seven line iambic pentameter

Rhyme: ABABBCC

26
Q

Spenserian Stanza

A

Created for the Faerie Queen; 9 lines. First 8 are iambic Pentameter. Last is alexandrine, or iambic hexameter.
Rhyme: ABABBCBCC

27
Q

Terza Rima

A

Rhymes ABA BCB CDC DED, etc.

28
Q

Blank verse

A

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”

29
Q

Free verse

A

Unrhymed and unmetered verse

Whitman - Song of myself

30
Q

Old English Verse

A

Internal alliteration of lines and strong midline break/pause called a caesura
Ex: Beowulf

31
Q

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

A

14 line poem, octave + sestet (2 tercets)
rhymes: ABBAABBA CDECDE
Iambic pentameter lines

32
Q

Shakespearean/English Sonnet

A

14 lines, octave + sestet (has final couplet!)
Rhymes: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Iambic pentameter lines

33
Q

Spenserian Sonnet

A

14 line poem
Rhymes: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
Has a couplet at the end, and 2 couplets in the body (BB and CC)
Starts like Shakespearean but has overlapping rhyme

34
Q

Villanelle

A

19 line form, rhymes ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA
Repeats 1st and 3rd lines throughout the poem
Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night”

35
Q

Sestina

A

39 lines, 6 stanza of 6 lines + 3 lines called an envoi

No rhyme, but uses repeated end words.

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