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Poetry Terms
Quiz on Poetry Terms
85
English
12th Grade
11/25/2007

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Term
Abstract, Abstraction
Definition
qualities and characteristics isolated as pure ideas; dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention
Term
Allegory
Definition
extended metaphor where the objects and persons are equated with meanings lying outside the narrative itself (underlying meaning).
Term
Alliteration
Definition
The recurrence of initial consonant sounds.
Term
Allusion
Definition

A reference to some event, person, or place of literary or historical significance.

Term

ambiguity

Definition
aka richness; doubtful or obscure.
Term
anapaest
Definition

a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.

 

uu/

Term
anticlimactic
Definition
characterized by a flatness and falling off in intensity
Term
assonance
Definition
The recurring of initial vowel sounds.
Term
atmosphere
Definition

The general pervasive (spreading) feeling which may be said to condition the treatment of the subj of any literary work; rhythm and imagery.

Term
attitude
Definition
The author's way of regarding his materials, especially as it reflects his understanding and interpretation of them.
Term
ballad
Definition
a song that tells a story.
Term
ballad stanza
Definition
one of the divisions of a poem and is usually in the form of a song. the four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad. This form consists of alternating four- and three-stress lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (an abcb pattern).
Term
blank verse
Definition
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.
Term
cacophony
Definition
harshness or dissonance
Term
caesura
Definition
the main pause within a line of verse
Term
climax, climactic
Definition
the peak of interest or intensity.
Term
concentration
Definition
An effect of compactness and intensity-->a result of its highly organized form. This concentration does not depend on logical succinctness. It depends on the functional relationships exisiting among a nunber of complex factors--rhythm, imagery, theme.
Term
connotation
Definition
an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing.
Term
consonance
Definition
the repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of words or accented syllables.
Term
convention, conventional
Definition
techniques and modes of treatment that are accepted by common agreement.
Term
couplet
Definition
two consecutive lines of verse rhyming together
Term
dactyl
Definition

a metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

 

/uu

Term
denotation
Definition
literal definition of a word.
Term
diction
Definition
the choice of words in poetry, etc.
Term
double rhyme
Definition
two syllables rhyme. Ex. brightness/tightness
Term
drama, dramatic
Definition

presents its materials concretely and thru action justifies the use of the term.

Term
elegy
Definition
The term is used loosely for any poem of subjective and meditative nature, but more specially for a poem of grief.
Term
end-stopped lines
Definition
lines of verse in which both the grammatical structcure and the sense reach completion at the end of the line.
Ex: She ran into the street / Before she was hit by the car.
Term
enjambment
Definition

The continuation of a complete idea (a sentence or clause) from one line or couplet of a poem to the next line or couplet without a pause.

Ex: "I think that I shall never see/A poem as lovely as a tree..."

Term
epic
Definition
a long narrative poem dealing with persons of heroic proportions and actions of great significance.
Term
euphony
Definition

pleasing/agreeable to the ear.

Term
exposition
Definition
the process of giving the information necessary for the understanding of an action (first part of a play.)
Term
feminine ending
Definition

The line ends with an extra unstressed syllable, giving 11 syllables instead of 10.

Term
feminine rhyme
Definition
two syllable rhyme consisting of stressed syllable followed by unstressed.
Ex: pleasure/leisure, longing/yearning.
Term
figurative language
Definition

not literal but metaphorical: language, tone, symbol.

 

Term
focus
Definition

How a poet concentrates and unifies various elements of a poem.

Term
foot
Definition
the unit in which meter is counted. A foot consists of one stressed syllable and its one or more unstressed syllables.
Term
form
Definition

organization of the rhythm of a poem. the discussion of the organization of other elements in relation to the total effect.

Term
free verse
Definition
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set meter
Term
heroic couplet
Definition
two consecutive lines of iambic pentameter rhyming together
Term
iamb
Definition

a metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.

u/

Term
image,imagery
Definition
Language that appeals to any sense or any combination of the senses.
Term
intensity
Definition

result of the highly organized form of poetry; a meaningful relatoinship among all the factors involved in a poem.

Term
internal rhyme
Definition
rhyme occurring within a line unit
Term
irony
Definition
an ironical statement indicates a meaning contrary to the one it professes to give; an ironical event or situation is one in which there is a contrast b/w expectation and fulfillment.
Term
metaphor
Definition
comparison without using "like" or "as"
Term
meter
Definition
the arrangement of words in a rhythmical pattern of verse.
Term
mock epic, mock heroic
Definition
a long narrative poem that lightly parodies or mimics the conventions of classical epic.
Term
objective
Definition

the person who perceives or experiences a thing and the thing perceived or experienced.

Term
octave
Definition
A poem or stanza composed of eight lines. The term octave most often represents the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.
Term
ode
Definition
An extended lyric poem with complex stanza forms involving a serious theme.
Term
onomatopoeia
Definition

the use of words that imitate sounds.

Ex: buzzing-->bees

Term
ottava rima
Definition
An eight-line stanza of poetry composed in iambic pentameter (a five foot line in which each foot consists of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable), following the abababcc rhyme scheme.
Term

paradox

Definition
a statement which seems on the surface contradictory, but which involves an element of the truth.
Term
pastoral
Definition
A pastoral is a literary composition on a rural theme, mainly shepherd life/characters. In a pastoral, characters and language of a courtly nature are often placed in a simple setting.
Term
personification
Definition

when an inanimate object performs something human-like.

Ex: the stars danced across the sky.

Term
petrarchan convention
Definition
This convention stems from the love sonnets of hte Italian poet Petrarch. His sonnets represented his mistress as more than humanly beautiful, but cold and disdainful, and himself as completely abased before her. The imager is frequently elaborate and far-fetched.
Term
quatrain
Definition
a stranza consisting of four lines
Term
realism, realistic
Definition
ordinary, easily observable details, which give an impression of fidelity to the facts of ordinary life.
Term
rhetorical variation
Definition
variation in rhetorical terms used.
Term
rhyme, rhyme scheme
Definition
The pattern of rhymes in a poem. The rhyme scheme is indicated by a different letter of the alphabet for each new rhyme of the stanza.
Term
rhythmical movement
Definition
movement with recurrent beat or stress
Term
rhyme royal
Definition
A stanza of seven lines composed in iambic pentameter and rhymed ababbcc
Term
romantic, romanticism
Definition
a literary movement in late 18th- and early 19th-century. an exciting and mysterious quality (as of a heroic time or adventure); impractical romantic ideals and attitudes
Term
run-on line
Definition
when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning
Term
sentimentality
Definition
emotional response in excess of the occasion; emotional response not prepared for nor justified by the poem in question
Term
sestet
Definition
a six-line poem/stanza
Term
simile
Definition
comparison using "like" or "as"
Term
slant rhyme
Definition
occurs when the final consonant sounds are the same, but the vowels are different: green and gone, that and hit
Term
sonnet
Definition

A fourteen line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme. The two main types of sonnet are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean.

Petrarchan- octave and sestet

Shakespearean- 3 quatrains and a couplet

Term
spondee
Definition

in classical metrics, a foot of two accented syllables.

//

Term
stanza
Definition
a group of lines whose pattern is repeated throughout the poem
Term
structure
Definition
arrangement/relationship among episodes, statements, scenes, and details of action.
Term
style
Definition
arrangement of words
Term
subjective
Definition
Based on personal feeling or interpretation; not objective. represents the response of a person, the poet, to an obj or to a body of objs
Term

substitution

Definition
a poet replacing one type of foot for another.
Term
symbol
Definition
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, sounds or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Term
terza rima
Definition
A three-line stanza. The rhyme scheme is: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.
Term
tone
Definition
The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic.
Term
triple rhyme
Definition
3 syllables rhyme. Ex. Pollution/solution
Term
trochee
Definition

a metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed byan unaccented syllable.

/u

Term
understatement
Definition
saying less than might be expected.
Term
unity
Definition
establishing meaningful relationships among its apparently discordant elements--> might give a revelation or new insight. The poet ties together the items of ordinarily disordered experience into a new, and perhaps unsuspected, pattern.
Term
metrical feet
Definition

monometer- one foot

dimeter- two feet

trimeter- three feet

tetrameter- four feet

pentameter- five feet

hexameter- six feet (or alexandrine)

heptameter- seven feet

Term
masculine rhyme
Definition
the rhymed syllables are the last syllables of the words in question, as in surmount and discount
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