Poetry Flashcards
What is prose?
spoken or written words which do not follow a specific metrical pattern. Written words appear in sentence or paragraph form
What is verse?
Poem; typically written in metrical pattern
What is a simile?
A comparison of two unlike things using ‘‘like’’ or ‘‘as’’
What is a metaphor?
A comparison of two unlike things without using ‘‘like’’ or ‘‘as’’
What is an extended metaphor?
A metaphor is repeatedly used throughout the poem to develope the poem’s theme (ex. prison = school, teachers = wardens)
What is onomatopoeia?
The use of a word whose sound imitates, suggests, and reinforces its meaning
What is personification?
Giving human qualities to inhuman things
What is hyperbole?
An extreme exaggeration
What is alliteration?
the repetition of teh same sound at the start of words
What is assonance?
The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a line of poetry
What is consonance?
The repetition of similar consonant sounds in a line of poetry
What is cacophony?
the use of harsh, discordant sounds for poetic effect
What is euphony?
the use of smooth, pleasant sounds for poetic effect
What is an oxymoron?
Word or a phrase that combine contradicting or opposite ideas (jumbo shrimp)
What is a paradox?
An apparently contradicting statement with an element of truth in it (this is the beginning of the end)
What is aesthetic?
artistic; sensitive to beauty (literature, music are aesthetic arts)
What is symbolism?
something representing something else (gun = violence)
What is repetition?
repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas for four possible reasons:
- rhyme
- emphasis
- rhythm
- continuity
What is incremental repetition?
A specific type of repetition involving the repetition of whole lines or stanzas with small but significant changes to a few words from one to the next
What is a refrain?
Key lines of a poem (stanza) that are repeated at regular intervals within a song (chorus)
What is parallelism?
the repetition of key components in a line that have similar gramattical structure. Adds balance, rhythm, and emphasis. Can be very persuasive and memorable
What is an allusion?
An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, thing, or event from history, literature, mythology, or the Bible
What is an apostrophe?
A direct address to a person, place, thing, or idea in a line of poetry (O world, embrace my fears)
What is a pun?
play on words with 3 forms:
- a word with two different meanings
- similarity of meaning in two words that are homonyms
- two words pronounced and spelled similarly but have different meanings
What is a denotation?
the literal or dictionary meaning of a word
What is a connotation?
the implied meaning of a word based on emotional associations with it
What is a free verse?
A poem with no rhyme or rhythmic pattern
What is synecdoche?
a part represents a whole
What is juxtaposition?
The placing of two or more words side-by-side in a line of poetry which are unrelated
What is a stanza?
A group of lines seperated by a line space for four possible reasons:
- different ideas
- rhythm
- thyme
- emphasis
What are the main types of stanzas?
rhyming couplet- 2 line stanza that rhymes
quatrain- four line
sestet- six line
octave- eight line
What is a metre?
a system for determining the rythmic pattern of a poem according to its stressed and unstressed syallables
What is a foot?
a recurrent metric that is measured in units of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
What are the standard types of feet?
- Iambic (unstressed, stressed)
- anapestic (two unstressed, one stressed )
- trochaic (stressed, unstressed)
- dactylic (stressed, two unstressed)
- spondaic (two unstressed)
- pyrrhic (two unstressed)
What are the different types of metrics?
- monometre (one foot )
- dimetre (two feet)
- trimetre (three feet)
- tetra metre (four feet)
- PENTAMETRE (five feet)
- etc
What is an iambic penta metre?
five feet of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (10 syllables in total)
What is scansion?
the process of analyzing a poem to determine its metre and line length
What is blank verse?
unrhymed imabmic pentametre
What are litotes?
An understatement in which an affirmative is conveyed by stating a negative (ex. Elvis isn’t a bad singer)
What is archaism?
The use of words and expressions in literature that have become obsolete in common speech (ex. in sooth)
What is metonymy?
One term is a direct substitute for another (The crown for King)
What is satire?
Any work in which ridicules people, ideas, institutions to make a point for reform
What is parody?
any work in which humourously ridicules a particular style or literary composition through imitation purely for entertainment
What is rhyme?
similar sounds in words positioned closely together
What is beginning rhyme?
the rhyme occurs at teh beginning of two or more lines
What is internal rhyme?
the rhyme occurs within a single line
What is end rhyme?
the rhyme occurs at the end of two or more lines
What is masculine rhyme?
the rhyme consists of a single syllable
What is feminine rhyme?
two syllables rhyme
What is triple rhyme?
three syllables rhyme
What is eye/sight rhyme?
words appear to rhyme based on sight but don’t sound the same
What is perfect rhyme?
the stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent sounds (sky and high)
What is half/imperfect rhyme?
words in which the final consonants are identical, but the proceeding vowels differ, etc (leave and believe)
What is a rhyme scheme?
an alphabetical labelling system used to describe the rhyming pattern in a poem
What is figureative language?
the use of figures of speech
What is poetic diction?
the words a poet selects to express his/her meaning (poet may adapt the level and type of diction to create certain types of poems)
What is pathetic fallacy?
nature reflects teh emotions of characters and teh mood of eevents in teh story or poem
What is ambiguity?
uncertainty produced by words or phrases that have two or more possible meanings
What is dysphemism?
the use of a crude or shocking word or expression used in place of socially accepted language
What is euphemism?
the use of pleasant sounding words or phraes to avoid talking about the unpleasant reality
What is end-stopped verse?
The flow of the poem is stopped at the end of each line by punctuation mark or by the phrasin gof the line
What is enjambment?
the syntax or cadence of a line of poetry (carries the reader into the next line) (ex. then grinning, he reached wit his freckled wrist/ And drew me up after)
What is a caesura?
a short but definite pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such a phrase or clause (occurs at beginning = initial, occurs at end = terminal)
What is dramatic monologue?
the narrator typically uses the stream-of-consciousness technique to speak to one or more people who are silent listeners
What is stream-of-consciousness/ interior monologue?
a series of the narrator’s unedited thoughts
What is a persona?
The character who narrates the poem that is not the author
What is rhythm?
the recurrent beat or stress of teh line
What is mood?
the feeling the reader gets from reading the work
What is tone?
the writer’s attitude towards the subject and audience
What is voice?
the distinctive personality of the speaker or persona (or author) coming through in a work
What is poetic license?
allows the poet to depart from standard grammatical choices and word choices to create a unique poem
What is archetype?
plots, themes, characters, or images which are identifiable in a wide variety of literature, myths, dreams, and ritualized modes of social behaviour
What is poetic justice?
Character recieves their just reward or punishment for deeds done
What is imagery?
figurative language using the 5 sensed to create metaphors, similes, personification, vivid descriptions to produce mental pictures
What is narrative poetry?
tells about people involved in a sequence of important events and contains characters, settings, and plots
include ballads and epics
What is traditional/popular/folk ballad?
- belong to early periods before much was written
- one of the ealiest forms of folk literature
- usually several variations
- usually anonymous (passed through generations)
- strong rhythm
- usually has repetition
- usually sung
- simple rhyme scheme
- often tragic
What is modern/literary/art ballad?
- name of author is given
- composed by a persona who considers themselves to be a poet
- highly polished, artistic, and detailed
- literary devices carefully chocsen
- not much repetition
- not composed to be sung
What is an epic?
long, serious, narrative poem recounting the deeds of heroes from legends or history
What is the lyrical poetry class?
Poet expressed desires, feelings, emotions, or ideals
has long and short ones
What are the types of short lyrical poetry?
epigram- brief, witty statement expressed in two to four lines
epitaph- two to four line poetic inscription on a tombstone
What are the types of long lyrical poetry?
elegy- a dignified poem expressing poet’s sorrow or praise for the dead
ode- entire poem is addressed to some person, crate, or object; is serious and dignified style
sonnet- has 14 lines, written in iambic pentametre, has a complicated rhyme scheme
What is the shakespearean/English sonnet?
- ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme
- three quatrains and one rhming couplet
What is the petrarchan/Italian Sonnet?
- ABBA ABBA CDECDE rhyme scheme
- one octave and one sestet
What is the dramatic poetry class?
intended to be read aloud or performed in front of an audience. Usually revealed through monologue or dialogue
What is social commentary class?
commnets on society’s social habits, customs, and problems to promote much needed changes in teh individual or in society
