Poetry Flashcards
1
Q
Petrarchan Sonnet
A
An octave and a sestet
2
Q
Octave
A
Eight lines rhyming abbaabba
3
Q
Sestet
A
Six lines commonly rhyming cdecde
4
Q
Volta
A
“Turn”
The rhetorical decision and shift between the opening 8 lines and concluding 6
5
Q
Shakespearean Sonnet
A
Three quatrains and a couplet, usually rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg
6
Q
Sonnet Meter
A
Follows the prominent meter of the language in which it’s written, in English this is iambic pentameter
7
Q
Spenserian Sonnet
A
Abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee
8
Q
Traditional sonnet length
A
14 lines
9
Q
Foot
A
One complete unit of some metrical pattern, constructed of one heavy stress and whatever light stresses are needed for the chosen pattern
10
Q
Scansion
A
The mechanical notation of the metrical pattern of a poem; syllables are marked as heavy or light to reveal the prevailing pattern
11
Q
Metrical poem components
A
Rhyme, line length, pattern
12
Q
Scansion ‘
A
Heavy stress (breve)
13
Q
Scansion ^-
A
Light stress (macron)
14
Q
Monometer
A
One-foot line
15
Q
Dimeter
A
Two foot line
16
Q
Trimeter
A
Three foot line
17
Q
Tetrameter
A
Four foot line
18
Q
Pentameter
A
Five foot line
19
Q
Hexameter
A
Six foot line
20
Q
Heptameter
A
Seven foot line
21
Q
Octameter
A
Eight foot line
22
Q
Iamb
A
Light stress heavy stress: ^- ‘
23
Q
Trochee
A
Heavy stress light stress: ‘ ^-
24
Q
Dactyl
A
Heavy stress 2 light stresses: ‘ ^- ^-
25
Anapest
2 light stresses heavy stress ^- ^- ‘
26
Spondee — —
Foot pattern that’s an accommodation for multi-syllable words with no inflection, where the emphasis within the foot is equally balanced “heartbreak”
27
Feminine ending
A line of verse having an unstressed and usually extrametrical syllable at the end
28
Masculine ending
A line ending in a stressed syllable
29
Pure meter
Totally regular meter
30
Impure meter
Where in one or more feet there is substantial alteration from the very specific recognizable pattern
31
Catalexis
A truncation of the final foot in a line, the foot is called catalectic
32
Lame foot
When a foot within or at the beginning of the line lacks a syllable (a light one)
33
Hypersyllabic foot
An irregular foot with an overabundance of syllables
34
Anacrusis
A hypersyllabic foot at the beginning of a line
35
Pyrrhic foot
Two light stresses
It’s always followed by a spondee, and together they’re called a double ionic
36
Caesura
A pause within the line at a logical break. It is not counted in scansion.
37
Alexandrine
Hexameter made up of only iambic feet
38
Couplet
Rhyme that occurs in consecutive lines
39
True/perfect rhyme
Words that rhyme exactly
40
Masculine rhyme
One syllable (so heavily stressed) true rhyme: bright, night
41
Feminine rhyme
Words of more than one syllable that end with a lightly stressed syllable (story, glory)
42
Heroic couplet
Two consecutive lines which rhyme and which express within them a single completed thought; at the end of the two lines some punctuation will appear. Traditionally in iambic pentameter.
43
Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza
44
Slant rhyme (off, imperfect)
Rhyming words with a similar but not identical inner vowel sound.
Clack, bleak
Blade, blood
45
Double rhyme
Story, glory
46
Triple rhyme
Remember, December
47
Multisyllabled rhymes
They can be made up of words of unequal syllabic length so long as the syllabic stresses work out correctly:
Pleasure fills, daffodils
48
Stanza
In metrical poetry, the initial groups of lines sets the design to be followed, establishing the metrical pattern, line length or lengths, and the system of rhyme.
49
Quatrain
Four-line stanza, the most common stanza. Often abab, abcb, or abba. No one rule about line length.
50
Blank verse
Iambic pentameter without rhyme.
51
Ballad form
Loose form
4 line stanzas, often lines 1,3 tetrameter and lines 2,4 trimeter.
Sometimes one or two pairs of rhymes.
52
Refrain/burden
An additional line attached to the end of a stanza in a ballad
53
Tercet
Three rhyming (or non or partially) lines for a stanza
54
Terza rima
Three line stanza in iambic pentameter, rhyming pattern aba bcb cdc with no need of statement or grammatical completion between tercets
55
Villanelle
French form, 19 lines with 5 tercets and a final quatrain, usually in iambic pentameter. Only two rhymes and the first and third lines of the initial stanza are repeated throughout the rest of the stanzas.
56
Spenserian stanza
9 lines, 8 in iambic pentameter and the final line an alexandrine. Ababbcbcc
57
Assonance
repetition of vowels without repetition of consonants (clasps, crag)
58
Similie
Makes a comparison by saying something is like or is as something else.
59
Metaphor
Makes a comparison by saying something is something else.
60
Conceit
An extended metaphor that compares two very dissimilar things through large sections or an entire poem.
Modern lit criticism it refers to a (usually genre fiction) short phrase of a non (or rarely) existent situation needed for a plot.
61
Metaphysical conceit
An imaginative, unusual or fanciful leap made to compare two very unlike things and explore their similarities.
62
Petrarchan conceit
A conceit that makes use of more natural and less surprising comparisons, usually the beloved compared hyperbolically to extreme experiences or things.
63
Major kinds of rhythm in poetry
Common/running rhythm, and speech rhythm
64
Common/running rhythm
Assumes that comparable lines have an even number of syllables, arranged in a regular pattern of one stressed syllable alternating with one or two unstressed syllables.
65
Speech rhythm
Disregards any count of syllables, but rests on an overall symmetrical recurrence of heavy stresses, given to words or syllables according to natural speech or the sense of the line.
66
Hopkin’s sprung rhythm
Often with the same number of beats in comparable lines without an even arrangement of the unaccented syllables. A type of speech rhythm.
67
Consonance
Repetition or agreement of consonant sounds, the same consonant in any location
