Poetic Form Key Terminology

Question 1

What does Rhythm do to a poem

Answer 1

Rhythm gives a poem its sound

Question 2

Stress/Accent

Answer 2

Stress is the emphasis given to the syllable

Question 3

Foot

Answer 3

A foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Question 4

Foot- Iamb/Iambic

Answer 4

Within each two syllables across the line, the first is unstressed and the second is stressed

Question 5

Foot- Trochee/Trochaic

Answer 5

Within each two syllables across the line, the first is unstressed and the second is stressed

Question 6

Foot-Spondee/ Spondaic

Answer 6

Within two syllables, both are stressed. Usually found within a line. Uses spondaic metre emphasises specific words created heightened feeling

Question 7

Foot- Anapest/Anapestic

Answer 7

A foot with three syllables, two stressed one unstressed

Question 8

Foot- Dactyl/Dactylic

Answer 8

Opposite of anapest- A foot with three syllables one stressed two unstressed

Question 9

Metre

Answer 9

Number of feet in a line of poetry

Question 10

What is a monometer?

Answer 10

A line with 1 foot

Monometer is the simplest metrical form.

Question 11

What defines a trimeter?

Answer 11

A line with 3 feet

Trimeter often has a rhythmic and lyrical quality.

Question 12

What is a pentameter?

Answer 12

A line with 5 feet

Pentameter is commonly used in English poetry.

Question 13

What characterizes a heptameter?

Answer 13

A line with 7 feet

Heptameter is less common in English poetry.

Question 14

Define dimeter.

Answer 14

A line with 2 feet

Dimeter is often utilized in children’s verse.

Question 15

What is tetrameter?

Answer 15

A line with 4 feet

Tetrameter has a balanced rhythm and is frequently used.

Question 16

What does hexameter refer to?

Answer 16

A line with 6 feet

Hexameter is a standard meter in classical epic poetry.

Question 17

What is an octameter?

Answer 17

A line with 8 feet

Octameter is rare and often serves dramatic purposes.

Question 18

What is a stanza?

Answer 18

A group of lines in a poem, similar to a paragraph.

Question 19

What is a quatrain?

Answer 19

A stanza of four lines.

Question 20

What is a couplet?

Answer 20

A stanza of two lines.

Question 21

What is a ballad?

Answer 21

A poem that usually tells a story similar to a folktale, often written in quatrains and in iambic trimeter.

Question 22

What is an elegy?

Answer 22

A poem that is sad and thoughtful, often lamenting a person who has died.

Question 23

What is an epic?

Answer 23

A long narrative poem.

Question 24

What is a lyric poem?

Answer 24

A poem that expresses the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker.

Question 25

What is a narrative poem?

Answer 25

A poem that tells a story.

Question 26

What is a sonnet?

Answer 26

A poem that generally has 14 lines, with many different types.

Question 27

What is a Petrarchan sonnet?

Answer 27

A sonnet with 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, consisting of an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines).

Question 28

What is a Shakespearean sonnet?

Answer 28

A sonnet with 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, consisting of three quatrains and ending with a couplet, with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, G-G.

Question 29

What is a caesura?

Answer 29

Most commonly, a caesura is punctuation somewhere else other than at the end of a line of poetry.

Question 30

What is enjambment?

Answer 30

When the idea or phrase in a poem is carried over from one line into the next.