Unit 4

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

A fictional story or narrative poem that conveys a message, idea, or concept that exists outside of the text; the message can’t be found in the literal meaning of the story.

Question 2

allusion

Answer 2

A brief reference to a person, place, or event that readers are expected to recognize. Through the association with the reference, the meaning of the work becomes enhanced.

Question 3

aubade

Answer 3

A poem written about the morning (usually a love song). This type of poem sings to the situations of lovers in the morning.

Question 4

ballad

Answer 4

The ballad was originally a narrative song. The speaker of a ballad relates a story in stanza form, usually in quatrains. Ballads often have a consistent meter (same rhythm pattern in each stanza) and repeat key phrases.

Question 5

dramatic monologue

Answer 5

A type of poem that is delivered by a speaker who describes himself or herself or relates an event he or she saw or participated in.

Question 6

elegy

Answer 6

A lyric poem that praises a dead person or persons. It may focus on the subject’s significance as an individual or treat the subject as a symbol of larger themes such as sorrow or human mortality. The subject may or may not be personally known to the poet.

Question 7

epic

Answer 7

A long narrative poem on a momentous subject in which divine, semidivine, or human characters perform heroic actions.

Question 8

free verse

Answer 8

A type of verse that isn’t constrained by a rhythm or rhyme scheme. Free verse is the predominate form for poetry now being written.

Question 9

lyric

Answer 9

The term “lyric” is used to classify poems that aren’t clearly narrative. In a lyrical poem, a single speaker conveys a thought, emotion, or sensory impression. Originally meant to be sung, a lyric poem can be any length.

Question 10

ode

Answer 10

A lyric poem that celebrates its subject. It is an elaborate, emotional poem about a single theme, topic, or person.

Question 11

sonnet

Answer 11

A fixed verse form that is defined by its length and rhyme scheme. The two most well-known forms are Elizabethan and Petrarchan.

Question 12

Elizabethan sonnet

Answer 12

A type of sonnet that contains 14 lines and follows the rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg.

Question 13

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 13

A type of sonnet that contains 14 lines and follows the rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde.

Question 14

speaker

Answer 14

One who speaks in a conversation or is the voice of narration in a written text.

Question 15

attitude

Answer 15

The feeling or disposition presented in the poem.

Question 16

blank verse

Answer 16

A type of poetry that has a meter but no rhyme scheme.

Question 17

colloquial

Answer 17

Language found in everyday speech.

Question 18

continuous form

Answer 18

In continuous form, the lines follow each other without formal grouping. Visual concrete poems fall in this category.

Question 19

dramatic monologue

Answer 19

A type of poem that is delivered by a speaker who describes himself or herself or relates an event he or she saw or participated in.

Question 20

ellipsis

Answer 20

The omission of clearly implied words.

Question 21

fixed form

Answer 21

A pattern that applies to the entire poem. Rondeaus, villanelles, sestinas, ballads, sonnets, and limericks are all fixed forms since they have a designed structure.

Question 22

inverted sentence

Answer 22

A type of sentence that follows object-verb-subject or complement-verb-subject, which is the opposite of normal syntactic order for English sentences. Sometimes, word order is inverted to call attention to the idea the sentence expresses.

Question 23

irony

Answer 23

The use of words to describe contradictions between what is expected and what actually happens. When a discrepancy exists between what words say and what they really mean, irony is present.

Question 24

dramatic irony

Answer 24

In this type of irony, the characters have only a partial or incorrect understanding of their situation. In plays, dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more than the characters; in poems, there is a discrepancy between what the speaker says and what the poem means.

Question 25

situational irony

Answer 25

This type of irony occurs when there’s a discrepancy between the actual circumstances and what one would anticipate.

Question 26

verbal irony

Answer 26

Characters use this type of irony when they deliberately say something that they don’t mean — something that reveals through their tone what they really feel.

Question 27

juxtaposition

Answer 27

The act or an instance of placing items side by side.

Question 28

mood

Answer 28

The feeling or atmosphere in the work that is created by the author’s choice of details, images, and sounds.

Question 29

parallel/parallelism

Answer 29

Repetition of the same grammatical forms.

Question 30

rhyme

Answer 30

The repetition of an end sound.

Question 31

sound devices

Answer 31

Examples include alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Question 32

stanza

Answer 32

A group of lines that form a division of the poem.

Question 33

stanzaic form

Answer 33

This type of form designates four things: the rhyme scheme, the position of the refrain, the prevailing metrical foot, and the number of feet in each line.

Question 34

syntax

Answer 34

An element of tone that refers to the grammatical structure of one’s writing. Like diction, it can be formal or informal.

Question 35

tone

Answer 35

A story’s tone reflects the author’s attitudes toward the people, places, and events in the story. It is important for establishing ethos or persona. Diction and syntax are two important elements of tone.

Question 36

alliteration

Answer 36

The re-echoing of sounds to create effect and meaning in poetry.

Question 37

assonance

Answer 37

The repetition of a vowel sound that can occur either initially or internally.

Question 38

caesura

Answer 38

A natural pause within a line of poetic verse.

Question 39

consonance

Answer 39

The repetition of a consonant sound that can occur at the beginning or in the middle of words (referred to as initially or internally, respectively).

Question 40

couplet

Answer 40

A pair of lines of verse that rhyme and are of the same length.

Question 41

foot (feet)

Answer 41

A group of syllables with a fixed metrical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Question 42

iambic pentameter

Answer 42

The most natural metrical pattern in the English language. It consists of an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. The two are then repeated five times in a row: da DAH, da DAH, da DAH, da DAH, da DAH.

Question 43

imagery

Answer 43

Figurative language that asks the reader to create associations between the words on the page and his or her experience.

Question 44

meter

Answer 44

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is measured by feet.

Question 45

octave

Answer 45

A stanza with eight lines.

Question 46

Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet

Answer 46

This type of sonnet has one octave and one sestet. It is named for the 14th-century poet Petrarch.

Question 47

quatrain

Answer 47

A stanza that contains four lines of verse.

Question 48

rhyme scheme

Answer 48

The pattern of rhymes in a poem in which a letter is assigned to each ending word sound.

Question 49

rhythm

Answer 49

An ordered recurrent alteration of strong and weak elements that depends on the establishment of a pattern and its return. In a poem, rhythm has two main effects: It gives pleasure, and it reveals the speaker. Overall, rhythm helps determine a poem’s mood and, along with other elements, the poem’s meaning.

Question 50

scansion

Answer 50

The process of labeling stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Question 51

sestet

Answer 51

Stanzas with six lines.

Question 52

Shakespearean (or English) sonnet

Answer 52

A sonnet that contains three quatrains (stanzas of four lines of verse), followed by a rhymed couplet. It follows the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

Question 53

Spenserian sonnet

Answer 53

A sonnet that is characterized by three linked quatrains, abab/bcbc/cdcd, and ends with a rhymed couplet, ee. It is named after the 16th-century English poet Edmund Spenser.

Question 54

stressed

Answer 54

The emphasis of a syllable.

Question 55

synedoche

Answer 55

A type of symbolism that uses a part of an object or idea to stand for, or “symbolize,” the whole, or a whole to symbolize a part.

Question 56

tercets

Answer 56

Three-lined stanzas.

Question 57

unstressed

Answer 57

The unemphasized syllable.

Question 58

villanelle

Answer 58

A verse form that weaves together a tightly constructed rhyme scheme of five tercets (three lined stanzas) of “aba” and ends with a quatrain of “abaa.”