Vocab + Concepts Flashcards
Idiosyncratic
Dickinson’s use of captialisation and punctuation, particularly dashes, is highly idiosyncratic. Synonyms: unique, unusual, quirky
Appropriate
In the first half of Because, Dickinson appropriates contemporary Christian views around death. Synonyms: harnesses
Nihilistic
rejecting all religious and moral principals in the belief that life is meaningless
By the end of Because poem, the speaker’s view of death is much more nihilistic.
Sentimentalise
In the first half of Because, Dickinson sentimentalises death. Synonyms: idealise, romanticise
American Transcendentalism
- Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, - Stimulated by English Romanticism, the transcendentalists operated with the sense that a new era was at hand.
- They were critics of their contemporary society for its unthinking conformity, and urged that each person find, “an original relation to the universe”
- this relation was sought in solitude amidst nature and in writing.
Deathbed Vigils
-Deathbed vigils were particularly important to those with religious faith, since this was believed to be the moment when the soul left the body for another world, to meet the Redeemer.
- The moment of death was of particular interest to Calvinists, who believed the behaviour of the dying provided an indication of whether or not the soul was saved.
- If the dying person demonstrated acceptance and died calmly, the soul would could be sure of its election; if the dying person struggled against death, he or she was not likely to be destined for heaven.
- The Victorian cult of Death was born - honouring a ‘Good death’ / ‘Ars Moriendi’
Bathetic
The fly’s instruction creates a bathetic end to the speaker’s deathbed vigil. Synonyms: anticlimactic
Corporeal
The fly represents the corporeal aspects of death. Synonyms: carnal, fleshy
Mundane
The fly symbolises mundanity in what it supposed to be the speaker’s most poignant moment. Synonyms: pedestrian, monotonous, banal
Inured
If you are inured to something unpleasant, you have become used to it so that it no longer affects you.
It seems that many of the people in opp house are quite inured to death, treating it in a very clinical and business-like fashion.
Macabre
You describe something such as an event
or story as macabre when it
is strange and horrible or upsetting, usually because it involves death or injury. Similar in meaning to gothic.
Obfuscate
To obfuscate something means to deliberately make something seem confusing, or alternatively, to deny, or dissipate, or deliberately obscure something’s true meaning.
Officious
If someone is officious, they are assertive of authority in a domineering way, especially with regard to trivial matters.
Perfunctory
A perfunctory action is done quickly and carelessly and shows a lack of interest in what you are doing.
Ubiquitous
If you describe something as ubiquitous, you mean that it seems to be everywhere. When you put a strong chilli into a dish, some people might say that the flavour of the chilli becomes ubiquitous.
Ars Moriendi
In which the last moments of a person’s life are recounted and mourners seek out in the dying person’s conduct signs that they are one of the ‘elect.’
Gnomic
A gnomic remark is brief and seems wise but is difficult to understand.
Ineffable
You use ineffable to say that something is so great or extreme that it cannot be described in words.
Mutable
Able to or tending to change.
Periphrasis or Circumlocution
A roundabout way of expressing something; elliptical expression.
Vate Poets
- The poet as ‘vate’ means that the poet believes themselves to have seer or prophet-like capacities
- ‘a man…endued with a more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among human kind.’
- They believed through their work, they touched the Divine.
Sepentine
Having the qualities of a snake/serpent. This word always has negative connotations – if someone or thing has serpentine qualities, they are
evilly cunning or subtle; treacherous.
- Death is represented as a serpent in Frost
Gelid
Means freezing.
Encroach
If one thing encroaches on another, it spreads or becomes stronger, and
slowly begins to restrict the power, range, or effectiveness of another thing.
Inimical (to)
Conditions that are inimical to something make it difficult for that thing to exist or do well.
Insidious
Something that
is insidious is unpleasant or dangerous and develops gradually without being noticed.
Lacuna/lacunae
a gap or space, esp in a book or manuscript
- Dickinson’s dashes can sometimes be thought of as lacunae, as empty gaps or spaces.
Abnegate/Abjure
renounce or reject
Ancillary
providing necessary support to the primary activities or operation of an
organization, system, person etc.
Foray (into)
If you make a foray into a new or unfamiliar type of activity, you start to become involved in it. You can refer to a short journey that you make as a foray if
it seems to involve excitement or risk, for example because it is to an unfamiliar place or because you are looking for a particular thing.
Pugnacious
someone who is pugnacious is always ready to quarrel or start a fight
Quandary
a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation
Subsumed
include or absorb (something) in something else
Indefatigable
persisting tirelessly
Catalexis
omission or incompleteness usually in the last foot of a line in metrical verse
Belie
If one thing belies another, it hides the true situation and so creates a false idea or image of someone or something.
Lugubrious
If you say that someone or something is lugubrious, you mean that they
are sad rather than lively or cheerful.
Perturbation
Perturbation is a state of anxiety and agitation.
Plangent
A plangent sound is a deep, loud sound, which may be sad.
Precarious/ Precarity
If your situation is precarious, you are not
in complete control of events and might fail in what you are doing at any moment.
Epizeuxis
the repetition of words in succession within a same sentence.
Polysyndeton
coordinating conjunctions—words such as “and,” “or,” and “but” that join other words or clauses in a sentence into relationships of equal importance—are used several times in close succession, particularly where conjunctions would normally not be present at all.
Amorphous/ Amorphousness
Something that is amorphous has no clear shape or structure.
Sisyphean
A task/predicament that is laborious, futile and pointless
