Poetry Flashcards
Nature and characteristics of Poetry (6)
tendency towards:
- relative brevity (mostly short)
- compression of thoughts
- musicality
- structural and phonological complexity
- morphological and syntactic complexity
- deviation from everyday language
Structural Elements
(Poetry)
stanza, verse, …
Stylistic Devices (poetry)
- phonological devices (rhyme, metre, alliteration,…)
- syntactic devices (parallelism,…)
- Morphological devices (anaphora,…)
- semantic devices (simile, metaphor,…)
Phonological figures
- Alliteration: following words starting with the same letter/sound
- Rhyme: a consonance between all phonemes following the last stressed vowel
- Sull/perfect/true Rhyme: exact consonance of phonemes in the rhyming syllables
Rhyme schemes
Rhyming couplets > aa bb cc
Cross rhyme > abab cdcd
Embracing rhyme > abba cddc
Chain rhyme > aba bcb cdc
Tail rhyme > aab ccb
Stanzas
Poetry
Couplets (2 lines)
Tercets
Quatrain
Quintet
Sestet
Septet
Octave (8 lines)
syntactic figures
poetry
- Ellipsis = words being left out of a sentence, but it is still understandable
- Inversion = reversal of normal word order
- Parallelism = Succession of sentences of same structure
morphological figures
Poetry
- Anaphora = repitition of words at the beginning of successive clauses
- Epiphora = Repitition of words at the end of successive clauses
semantic figures
most significant:
- Metaphor
- Simile
- Metonymy
- Synecdoche
=> all types of metaphors but specialized versions
Metaphor
something stands for something else
“Eye of heaven” = the sun
Metonymy
something casually/logically connected stands for something else
- “The pen (writing) is mightier than the sword (war)”
Synechdoche
a metonymy but a part stands for the whole
- Sail -> ship
- Motor -> car
- Hands -> workers
Simile
comparison that is shown by the use of “like”, “as”,…
- Thou art like a toad, ugly and venomous.”
communication model poetry
Intra textual lvl = Characters & story (fictive speaker, lyric persona -> subject matter of speech -> fictive addressee)
Extra textual lvl = Narrative Transmission (real-author; real-reader)
Lyric Persona/
Lyrical “I”
fictive speaker in the text (not the real author)
Lyric “Thou”
fictive addressee in the text (not the real reader)
Explicit vs. Implicit
Poetry
Explicit: direct, fully stated, clearly perceptible, feelings and thoughts -> ouvert
Implicit: hidden, indirect, does not appear as an indfividualized lyric persona -> covert
English vs. Italian sonnett
English: Shakespeare
- 3 quatrains + 1 couplet
- abab cdcd efef gg
- volta before climax in couplet
Italian: Petrach
- 1 octave (2 quatrains) + 1 sestet
- abba abba cdccdc
- volta after octave
=> two typical features of a sonnet:
14 lines
Subject: love, beauty
Volta
Poetry
turn of thought within a sonnet/poem
Important metrical feet
- Trochee: stressed - unstressed (e.g. metre, double)
- Iamb: unstressed - stressed (e.g. destroy, compare)
- dactyl: stressed - unstressed - unstressed (e.g. pleasantly, literature)
- anapeast: unstressed - unstressed - stressed (e.g. seventeen, understand)
- spondee: stressed - stressed (e.g. football, heartbreak)
