Romanticism Vocab

Lyric poetry

Comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state.

Elegy

Formal lament for the death of a particular person/passing of earlier times.

Ode

Formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea. - long poem with serious subject.

Sonnet

Fixed-verse 14-line poem. They propose a problem in their opening section and resolve it later. The shift into resolution is called a volta, or “turn.”

Pastoral poetry

Literary work dealing with the lives of the shepherds or rural life in general and drawing a contrast between simple life and city life.

Narrative poem

Form of poetry that is used to tell a story.

Epic poem

Large-scale both in length and topic.

Ballads

Storytelling songs, usually follows a form of rhymed quatrains about tragic, comic, or heroic stories. Literary ballads are not meant for singing.

Dramatic poetry

Poem that employs a dramatic form or some elements of dramatic techniques to achieve poetic ends.

Dramatic monologue

Poem written as a speech made by a character t a critical moment.

Denotation

Literal word meaning

Connotation

Overtones and contextual meaning

Euphony

Sound of words working together with meaning pleases the mind and ear.

Cacophony

Opposite of euphony, harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds or tones. Can create chaos, dark emotions, violence, mystery…

Alliteration

Repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of successive words.

Assonance

Repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds.

Consonance

Near rhyme consists of identical consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds.

Rhyme

Repetition of similar sounds in two or more words.

Masculine rhyme

Rhyming single-syllable words or end-syllables rhyming

Feminine rhyme

Unstressed two syllable rhyme followed by another unstressed syllable rhyme. A double rhyme, like fashion and passion. First syllables are stressed rhyming while - “sion” sound similar and are unstressed.

English Sonnet (Shakespearean)

14-ine poem with 3 quatrains and a couplet.

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

14-line poem with an octave and a sestet.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza

Sestet

6-line stanza

Octave

8-line stanza

Sapphic

Verse composed of quatrains with specified syllables following a prescribed metrical pattern

Sestina

Poetry consisting of 36 lines of any length divided into six sestets and 3-line concluding stanza

Rhythm

Recurrence of stresses and pauses in a poem.

Stress (accent)

Greater force given to one syllable over another.

Cadence

Refers to measured, rhythmical movement in either poetry or prose.

Meter

Stresses that occur at fixed intervals

Poetic foot

Group of syllables in a verse usually consists of 1 accented and 1 or 2-3 unaccented syllables associated with it.

Iamb/Iambic

Unstressed syllable followed by stressed

Anapestic

Metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

Trochaic

Stressed Unstressed…songs, chants, magic spells.

Dactyl/Dactylic

A foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

Pyrrhic

Two unstressed syllables

Spondaic

Two stressed syllables

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Free verse

Poetry organized by stanza, not written in verse.

End-stop

Metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break-such as a dash or closing parenthesis.

Enjambment

Running-ver of a sentence or phrase from one poeti line to the next.

Couplet

Two successive lines, usually same meter, inked by rhyme.

Heroic couplet

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines, rhymed aa, bb, cc. Thought is usually completed in the 2-line unit.