Poetry Test Flashcards
Apostrophe
Direct address in poetry. Yeat’s line “Be with me Beauty, for the fire is dying” is a good example.
Aubade
A love poem set at dawn which bids farewell to the beloved
Ballad
A simple narrative poem, often incorporating dialogue that is written in quatrains, generally with a rhyme scheme of a b C d
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Most of Shakespeare’s plays are in this form
Cacophony
Harsh and discordant sounds in a line or a passage of a literary work
Caesura
A break or pause within a line of poetry indicated by punctuation and used to emphasize meaning
Convention
A traditional aspect of A literary work, such as a soliloquy in a Shakespearean play or a tragic hero in a Greek tragedy
Couplet
Two lines of writing poetry; often used by Shakespeare to conclude a scene or an important passage
Diction
The authors choice of words
Dramatic Monologue
A type of poem that presents a conversation between a speaker and an implied listener. Browning’s “My last duchess “ is a perfect example
Elegy
A poem that lements the dead or loss
Enjambment
A technique in poetry that involves the running on of a line or stanza. It enables the poem to move in develop coherence as well as directing the reader with regard to form and meaning.
Epic
A Linklea, elevated palm that celebrates the exploits of a hero. Beowulf is a prime example
Epigram
A brief what are you poem. Pope often utilizes this form of satiric commentary
Foot
Metrical unit in poetry; a syllable measure of a line: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl and sponde.
Free verse
Poetry without a defined for meter or rhyme scheme
Iamb
A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllables followed by an accented one; the most common porch foot in the English language
Idyll
A type of lyric poem which extols the virtues of an ideal place or time
Lyric poetry
A type of poetry characterized by a emotion, personal feelings, and brevity; a large an exclusive category of poetry that exhibits rhyme, meter, and reflective thought.
Metaphysical poetry
Refers to the work of poets like Jon Donne who explore highly complex philosophical ideas through extended metaphors and paradox
Meter
A pattern of beats in poetry
Octave
An eight line stanza, usually combined with the sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet
Ode
A formal, lengthy poem that celebrates a particular subject
Quatrain
A four line stanza
Rhyme/rime
The duplication of final syllable sounds in two or more lines
Rhyme scheme
The annotation of the pattern of the rhyme
Rhythm
The repetitive pattern of beats in poetry.
Scansion
Analysis of a poems rhyme and meter
Sestet
A six line stanza, usually paired with an octave to form a Petrarchan sonnet
Sestina
A highly structured poetic form of 39 lines, written in iambic pentameter. It depends upon the repetition of six words from the first and then each of the six stanzas
Sonnet
A 14 line poem with the prescribed rhyme scheme in iambic pentameter
Spondee
A poetic for consisting of two accented syllables
Stanza
A unit of a poem, similar in rhyme, meter, and length to other units in the poem
Structure
The organization and form of a work
Syntax
The grammatical structure of prose and poetry
Tercet
A three- line stanza
Trochee
A single metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable
Villanelle
A highly structured poetic form that compromises six stanzas: five tercets and a quatrain. The poem repeats the first and third lines throughout
