Lyrical Texs/ Poetry Flashcards
What is the basic form of a sonnet?
A sonnet typically consists of 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme
The basic forms include the Italian (Petrarchan) and English (Shakespearian) sonnets.
What are the two main parts of a Petrarchan sonnet?
octet and sestet
The octet presents a problem or situation, while the sestet offers a resolution or commentary.
What are the components of the English sonnet?
three quatrains and a final couplet
The English sonnet often develops a theme or argument through the quatrains and concludes with a summary or twist in the couplet.
What themes are commonly found in Petrarchan poetry?
unrequited love, pleasurable pains, poetic self-reflexivity
Themes often reflect the complex emotions associated with love, including longing and beauty.
What is the significance of the ‘volta’ in a sonnet?
The volta represents a turn in thought or argument
In English sonnets, it often occurs at the beginning of the final couplet or line 13.
True or False: The Shakespearian sonnet typically has a fixed volta location.
False
The placement of the volta can vary in Shakespearian sonnets.
Fill in the blank: Petrarchism refers to the _______ of Francesco Petrarca’s writings.
[direct or indirect imitation]
It includes both prose and verse imitations, particularly of his Canzoniere.
What is the catalogue of beauty or ‘blazon’ in Petrarchan sonnets?
A detailed description of a woman’s physical attributes
This technique often serves to praise the beloved’s beauty in extravagant terms.
What is the communicative situation in Petrarchan sonnets?
(male) speaker as lover and poet
The speaker often addresses a beloved who is portrayed as unattainable or of higher social status.
In Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18’, what natural phenomenon is used for comparison?
a summer’s day
The sonnet explores the theme of beauty and the passage of time.
What is the main narrative focus in a sequence of Petrarchan poems?
particular moments in the life of the beloved
These moments include birth, love (innamoramento), and death.
What are the four steps in a functional analysis of poetry?
- Text-internal pragmatics (enunciation)
- Semantics of the text
- Syntax / form
- Text-external pragmatics
What is the difference between poetics and hermeneutics?
Poetics refers to steps 1-3 (textual analysis), while hermeneutics refers to step 4 (interpretation)
What are the levels of communication in a model of literary communication?
- L1: context (empirical author and reader)
- L2: text (novel, play, poem)
- L3: enunciation (fictional situation of enunciation)
- L4: enounced (depicting some object at a certain time and place)
What is a perfect rhyme?
The stressed vowels have the same sound and the sounds following those vowels are the same, while the consonants preceding the vowels are different
Define imperfect rhyme.
Variations where the stressed vowels do not have the same sound or the sounds following those vowels differ
What is an identical rhyme?
When the rhyming words are in fact the same
What is isotopy?
A term to account for the semantic consistency of a text, allowing for a coherent global understanding
Who first introduced the term isotopy?
Algirdas Julien Greimas in 1966
What does the term isotopy literally translate to?
‘Single level’ or ‘same plane’
What is deixis?
The function or use of deictic words whose meaning depends on the context of use
What are the three types of deixis?
- Personal deixis (Who speaks to whom?)
- Local deixis (Where?)
- Temporal deixis (When?)
Fill in the blank: The poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ was written by _______.
William Wordsworth
What is the primary theme of Wordsworth’s poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’?
The beauty of nature and the emotional response it evokes
