poetry Flashcards
what is an acrostic poem?
when the letters of each line spell out something
ex.
L is for “laughter” we had along the way.
O is for “optimism” you gave me every day.
V is for “value” of being my best friend.
E is for “eternity,” a love that has no end.
what is a limerick?
A fixed light-verse form of five generally anapestic (in syllables) lines rhyming AABBA. Edward Lear, who popularized the form, fused the third and fourth lines into a single line with internal rhyme. Limericks are traditionally bawdy or just irreverent;
There was a young lady of Lynn,
ex.
Who was so uncommonly thin
That when she essayed To drink lemonade
She slipped through the straw and fell in.
what is a shakespearean sonnet?
The variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare used—comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg—is called the English or Shakespearean sonnet form, although others had used it before him. This different sonnet structure allows for more space to be devoted to the buildup of a subject or problem than the Italian/Petrarchan form, and is followed by just two lines to conclude or resolve the poem in a rhyming couplet
what is a haiku
A Japanese verse form most of
ten composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time.
composed of five, seven, and five syllables, adding up to seventeen syllables total.
ex. floating downriver
a cricket, singing.
what is a free verse?
Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition. Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman explored the possibilities of nonmetrical poetry in the 19th century. Since the early 20th century, the majority of published lyric poetry has been written in free verse.
ex.Nature is wrature
Swimming in a pool its like nature
Nature like the trees leaves and grass
Nature comes in all sorts
what is a ballad?
A popular narrative song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Folk (or traditional) ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event.
what is a sestina?
Summarised: a poem where end words are repeated in a strict pattern in each of the six stanzas. Each stanza has six lines, except the last, the “envoi”, which repeats the words within three lines.
A complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a three-line envoi. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order as end words in each of the subsequent five stanzas; the closing envoi contains all six words, two per line, placed in the middle and at the end of the three lines. The patterns of word repetition are as follows, with each number representing the final word of a line, and each row of numbers representing a stanza:
ex.1 2 3 4 5 6
6 1 5 2 4 3
3 6 4 1 2 5
5 3 2 6 1 4
4 5 1 3 6 2
2 4 6 5 3 1
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3)
what is a villanelle?
A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.
