Poetry

Question 1

what are the basic characteristics of a poem

Answer 1

• realive brevity
• compression of subject matter
• subjective perspective of speaker (lyric persona)
• specific form (metre, rhyme, stanzas..)
• deviation from everday language
• no plot necessary
• musicality

Question 2

whats the essence of poetry?

Answer 2

no propper answer possible, because of:

• the high degree of diverstiy
• poems themselves and our conception of poetry (+characteristics) is subject to historical change
• the system of genres & media is continually being transformed/changing

Question 3

metre

Answer 3

refers to the scheme of stressed & unstressed syllables

Question 4

rhyme scheme

Answer 4

establishes connections between lines and between individual words

Question 5

deviation from everyday language

Answer 5

tendency towards structural, phonological, morphological and sytactic complexity

Question 6

explicit subjectivity

Answer 6

• clearly perceptible and present lyric persona, who refers to him/herself in the first person singular
• appears as a communicating individual
• expresses his/her innermost feelings/thoughts/impressions

Question 7

implicit subjetivity

Answer 7

the textual speaker appears not as an individualised lyric persona

Question 8

foot

Answer 8

smallest unit of a verse 
iamb -/
trochee /-
dactyl /--
anapaest --/
spondee // 
amphibrach -/-

Question 9

caesura

Answer 9

A break in metre which divides up a line of verse into parts

Question 10

metonymy

Answer 10

replacement of one word with another to which it is onotlogically, logicall or causally linked (e.g. the pen is mightier than the sword; Noch eine Maß).

Question 11

synecdoche

Answer 11

• particular form of metonymy
• one term is replaced by a narrower one (pars pro toto / totum pro parte)
  (e. g. I would like to be sourrounded by leafs; I need 4 hands on the stage)

Question 12

synaesthesia

Answer 12

a link/ mix between senses (e.g. hear the colours; the scream was like thick blood running down the wall)