poetry Flashcards
aubade
a poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn
ballad
a poem that recounts a story- generally some dramatic episode- and that has been composed to be sung; traditional ballads often have simple stanzas, abrupt transitions between stanzas,refrains, stock descriptive phrases, incremental repetition, dialogue and impersonal language
blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter
couplet
two successive lines usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme
elegy
reflective, formal poem that laments death, sometimes loss
foot
basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of verse; one accented syllable and one-two unaccented syllables
free verse
poetry that lacks a regular meter, does not rhyme, and use as a regular and sometimes very short line lengths
lyric poetry
a brief melodic and imaginative poem characterized by the fervent but structured expression of private thoughts and emotions by a single speaker in first person
meter
the patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables
narrative poetry
verse that tells a story (ex: ballad or epic)
ode
a lyric poem with a dignified tone in praise of someone, something, or an important occasion
refrain
line(s) that recur(s) throughout a poem or lyrics of a song; may vary slightly but is generally the exact same (like a chorus)
rhyme
the repetition of sounds
end rhyme
repetition of the same sound at the end of lines
initial rhyme
repetition of the same sound at the beginning of lines
internal rhyme
rhyme that occurs within limes
slant/off rhyme
inexact but close rhyme
sight rhyme
words that look like they should rhyme but don’t
rhyme scheme
the pattern of rhyme in a poem; lower case letter is typically assigned to each new rhyming sound
rhythm
a measured flow of words and signifying the basic beat or pattern in a language that is established by stressed syllables, unstressed syllables, and pauses
scansion
the analysis of verse to show its meter
sonnet
a lyric poem that almost always consists of 14 lines and follows one of the several conventional rhyme schemes; may address a range of issues/themes, but love is most common
italian/petrarchan sonnet
14 lines, 2 parts: the octave (8 lines, abbaabba) and sestet (cdecde or cdcdcd)
shakespearean/english sonnet
3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg
stanzas
a group of set lines in a poem, usually physically set off from the other such clusters by a blank line
sestina
a type of fixed form poetry consisting of 36 lines of any length divided into 6 sestets and a three-line concluding stanza called an envoy. the six words at the end of the first sestet’s lines must also appear at the ends of the other five sestets, in varying order. these six words must also appear in the envoy, where they often resonate important themes
villanelle
a 19-line fixed form consisting of 5 tercets (3-line stanzas) rhymed aba and concluding quatrain rhymed abaa, with lines 1 and 3 of the first tercrt serving as refrains in an alternating pattern through line 12 and then repeated as lines 18 and 19
terza rima
an interlocking rhyme scheme with the pattern aba bcb cdc, etc.
