Poetry Flashcards
a 14-line poem that includes three, four-line stanzas and a concluding couplet. It follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Shakespearean sonnet
In this rhyme scheme, the first and third lines rhyme at the end, and the second and fourth lines rhyme at the end following the pattern ABAB for each stanza. This rhyme scheme is used for poems with four-line stanzas.
Example:
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!— For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.
Alternate rhyme
a lyric poem that follows the rhyme scheme ABABBCBC. These typically have three, eight-line stanzas and conclude with a four-line stanza. The last line of each stanza is the same.
Example:
And, sometimes on a summer’s day To self and every mortal ill We give the slip, we steal away, To walk beside some sedgy rill: The darkening years, the cares that kill, A little while are well forgot; When deep in broom upon the hill, We’d rather be alive than not.
Ballade
a two-line stanza that rhymes following the rhyme scheme AA BB CC, or a similar dual rhyming scheme.
Example:
William Shakespeare, “Sonnet18”
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Coupled rhyme,
In this rhyme scheme, all the lines in a stanza or entire poem end with the same rhyme.
Example:
Silent Silent Night Quench the holy light Of thy torches bright
For possess’d of Day Thousand spirits stray That sweet joys betray
Why should joys be sweet Used with deceit Nor with sorrows meet
But an honest joy Does itself destroy For a harlot coy
Mono rhyme
In this rhyme scheme, the first and fourth lines and the second and third lines rhyme with each other in an enclosed rhyme scheme. The pattern is ABBA.
Example: (John Milton, “Sonnet VII”)
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! My hasting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.
Enclosed rhyme
These poems follow a rhyme scheme of ABCB throughout the entire poem.
Example: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (excerpt)
It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. ‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
Simple 4-line rhyme
a set of three lines in a stanza that share the same end rhyme.
Example:
William Shakespeare, “The Phoenix and the Turtle”
Truth may seem, but cannot be Beauty brag, but ‘tis not she Truth and beauty buried be
Triplet
An Italian form of poetry that consists of tercets. It follows a chain rhyme in which the second line of each stanza rhymes with the first and last line of the subsequent stanza. It ends with a couplet rhyming with the middle line of the penultimate stanza. The pattern is ABA BCB CDC DED EE.
Terza Rima
A five-line poem with rhyme scheme AABBA.
Limerick
A type of poem with five three-line stanzas that follow a rhyme scheme of ABA. It concludes with a four-line stanza with the pattern ABAA
Villanelle
contains two-line stanzas with the “AA” rhyme scheme, which often appears as “AA BB CC and DD…
Couplet
often repeats like a couplet, uses rhyme scheme of “AAA.
Triplet
Poetry term for stanza
Tercet
A verse or full poem with 4 lines
Quatrain
a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse, or within the lines of a poem
Meter
Sonnets use what type of rhythmic pattern?
Iambic Pentameter
Describe Iambic Pentameter.
the line has 10 syllables in 5 pairs. In each of these pairs the emphasis is on the second syllable like a heartbeat.
formation of a word which describes its sound’. Examples of onomatopoeic words include sizzle, clap, moo, roar, etc.
Onomatopoeia
a series of words, occurring close together in the phrases or lines of poetry, that have the same first consonant sound. Peter Piper is a good example.
Alliteration
The repetition of the vowel sound across words within the lines of the poem creating internal rhymes.
Examples include: crying time; hop-scotch; great flakes; between trees; and, the kind knight rides by.
Assonance
the author’s use of description and vivid language, deepening the reader’s understanding of the work, by appealing to the senses.
Imagery
This term names something by describing it’s qualities in a two word compound expression (often consisting of a noun and a verb made into a noun using an -er ending) for example: mouse catcher = cat.
Ankle biter = dog
Kenning
A poem in which the calligraphy, the formation of the letters or the font selected, represents an aspect of the poem’s subject, as in: thin (written in a very thin font), ancient (looking crumbling and old) or growth (with each letter written in a progressively larger font size). A poem about fear might be written in shaky letters to represent trembling. This font choice supports the reading of the poem by emphasising the meaning of particular words.
Calligram
poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed, followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed.
For example: “‘Twas the night before Christmas”
Ana-East
English poetry use what 5 types of meter?
Iambic, Trochaic, Spondaic, Anapestic, & Dactylic
Describe Iambic meter.
First syllable unstressed, second syllable stressed.
Example:
Example #1: Twelfth Night (By William Shakespeare)
“If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets …”
Meter that has stressed first syllable, unstressed second syllable:
Example:
The Explosion (By Philip Larkin) “Shadows pointed towards the pithead: In the sun the slagheap slept. Down the lane came men in pitboots Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke Shouldering off the freshened silence.”
Trochaic
Meter that has stressed first and second syllable. You can easily identify this type of meter because it contains both stressed syllables: “Cry, cry! Troy burns.”
Spondaic
Meter that has unstressed first and second syllables and stressed third syllable
Example:
“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Anapestic
Meter that has stressed first syllable, unstressed second and third syllables.
Example:
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade!
Dactylic
a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure, rather than rhythmic structure, such as in the case of traditional poetry.
Prose
