Poetry Test - Poetic Devices & Form

accent

a syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors is said to be accented; stress

allegory

a narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one

alliteration

the repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

ex. map-moon, kill-code, preach-approve

allusion

a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history

anapest

a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable (u u /)

ex. understand, interrupt, comprehend

anapestic meter

a meter in which a majority of the feet are anapests

anaphora

repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines

ex. “We shall fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,

we shall fight in the hills”

apostrophe

a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

ex. “Oh my love, why did you have to die?”

approximate rhyme (slant, imperfect, near, oblique)

a term used for words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes

assonance

the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words

ex. vein-made, hat-ran-amber, “He’s a br**ui**sin’ l**o**ser.”

aubade

a poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn

ballad

a fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form

blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter

breve (u)

marks an unstressed syllable

cacophony

a harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

caesura

a speech pause occurring within a line

chiasmus

a rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures.

ex. 1. Each throat was parched, and glazed each eye.

2\. He came in triumph and in defeat departs.

3\. He went in, and out went she.

4\. Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike

connotation

what a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word's overtones of meaning

consonance

the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words

ex. book-plaque-thicker, coo**l** sou**l**

continuous form

that form of a poem in which the lines follow each other without formal grouping, the only breaks being dictated by units of meaning

couplet

two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme

dactyl

a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables (/ u u)

ex. strawberry, carefully, buffalo

dactylic meter

a meter in which a majority of the feet are dactyls

denotation

the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word

didactic poetry

poetry having as a primary purpose to teach or preach

dimeter

a metrical line containing two feet

dramatic framework

the situation, whether actual or fictional, realistic or fanciful, in which an author places his or her characters in order to express the theme

dramatic irony

a device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker (or by a speaker) in a literary work; when the reader understands events better than the character

duple meter

a meter in which a majority of the feet contain two syllables. ex. iambic, trochaic, spondaic

elegy

often a melancholy poem that laments its subject’s death but ends in consolation

end rhyme

rhymes that occur at the ends of the lines

end-stopped line

a line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

English (Shakespearean) sonnet

a sonnet rhyming *ababcdcdefefgg*; its content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet; but it is often structured, like the Italian sonnet, into octave and sestet, the principal break in thought (volta) coming at the end of the eighth line

enjambment

the continuation of the logical sense—and therefore the grammatical construction—beyond the end of a line of poetry; i.e. the sentence runs from one line of poetry to the next

epistrophe

repetition of the ends of two or more successive sentences, verses, etc.

euphony

a smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds

ex. Than Oars divide the Ocean,

Too silver for a seam—

Or butterflies, off Banks of Noon

Leap, splashless as they swim.

expected rhythm

the rhythmic expectation set up by the basic meter of a poem

extended (sustained) figure

a figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem

extended metaphor (conceit) / extended simile

extended figure specifically for metaphor/simile

extrametrical syllables

in metrical verse, extra unaccented syllables added at the beginnings or endings of lines; these may be either a feature of the metrical form of a poem or occur as exceptions to the form

ex. iambic lines: occur at the end of the line

trochaic lines: occur at the beginning of the line

feminine rhyme

a rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or the third-last syllable of the words involved

ex. ceiling-appealing, hurrying-scurrying

figurative language

language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally

figure of speech

broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly, a way of saying one thing and meaning another

fixed form

any form of poem in which the length and pattern are prescribed by previous usage or tradition, such as sonnet, villanelle, etc

folk ballad

a narrative poem designed to be sung, composed by an anonymous author, and transmitted orally for years or generations before being written down; it has usually undergone modification through the process of oral transmission

foot

the basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse; usually contains one accented syllable and one or two un-accented syllables (the spondaic foot is a modification of this principle)

form

the external pattern or shape of a poem, describable without reference to its content, as continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form (and their varieties), free verse, and syllabic verse

free verse

nonmetrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and formal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic forms

grammatical pause (caesura)

a pause introduced into the reading of a line, usually by a mark of punctuation

haiku

a Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables

heard rhythm

the actual rhythm of a metrical poem as we hear it when it is read naturally; mostly conforms to but sometimes departs from or modifies the expected rhythm

hexameter

a metrical line containing six feet

hyperbole

an exaggeration or overstatement used to get the reader’s attention

iamb

a metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable (u /)

ex. behold, amuse, arise

iambic meter

a meter in which the majority of feet are iambs; the most common English meter

ictus (/)

marks a stressed syllable

imagery

the representation through language of sense experience

ex. visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory

internal rhyme

a rhyme in which one or both of the rhyme words occur(s) within the line

irony

a situation, or a use of language, involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy

Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet

a sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming *abbaabba* and of a sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as *cdcdcd* or *cdecde*

limerick

a fixed form of five generally anapestic lines rhyming *aabba*; traditionally bawdy or irreverent. 

ex. “There was an Old Man of Quebec,

A beetle ran over his neck;

But he cried, 'With a needle,

I'll slay you, O beetle!’

That angry Old Man of Quebec.”

masculine (single) rhyme

a rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel sound is in the final syllable of the words involved

ex. dance-pants, scald-recalled

metaphor

a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike (1. that in which the literal term and the figurative term are both named 2. that in which the literal term is named and the figurative term implied 3. that in which the literal term is implied and the figurative term named 4. that in which both the literal and the figurative terms are implied)

ex. “My love IS a bird.”

meter

the regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in poetry

metonymy

a figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience; the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant

metrical variations

departures from the basic metrical pattern

monometer

a metrical line containing one foot

octave

an eight-line stanza; the first eight lines of a sonnet, especially one structured in the manner of an Italian sonnet

onomatopoeia

the use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound

ex. boom, click, plop

overstatement

a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth

oxymoron

a compact paradox in which two successive words seemingly contradict each other

ex. a pointless point of view; bittersweet

paradox

a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements

paradoxical situation

a situation containing apparently but not actually incompatible elements

paradoxical statement (verbal paradox)

a figure of speech in which an apparently self-contradictory statement is nevertheless found to be true

paraphrase

a restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible

pentameter

a metrical line containing five feet

personification

a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

phonetic intensive

a word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggests its meaning

ex. **fl**icker, **fl**ame, **fl**are, **fl**ash (moving light)

poet

the person who wrote the poem

prose meaning

that part of a poem's total meaning that can be separated out and expressed through paraphrase

prose poem

usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse

quatrain

a four-line stanza; four-line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme

quintet

a five-line stanza

refrain

a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form

rhetorical pause (caesura)

a natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing or syntax

rhetorical poetry

poetry using artificially eloquent language; that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience

rhetorical stress

in natural speech, as in prose and poetic writing, the stressing of words or syllables so as to emphasize meaning and sentence structure

rhyme

the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words

ex. perfect rhyme: old-cold, vane-reign, court-report

identical rhyme: hill-hill, aisle-isle, manse-romance

rhyme scheme

any fixed pattern of rhymes characterizing a whole poem or its stanzas

rhythm

any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound

run-on line

a line that has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succeeding line

sarcasm

bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed

satire

a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the ostensible purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice

scansion

the process of measuring metrical verse, that is, of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern

sentimental poetry

poetry that attempts to manipulate the reader's emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than the poem itself really warrants

ex. a “tearjerker”

septet

a seven-line stanza

sestet

a six-line stanza; last six lines of a sonnet structured on the Italian model

sestina

a complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a three-line envoy; end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order as end words in each of the subsequent five stanzas; the closing envoy contains all six words, two per line, placed in the middle and at the end of the three lines

simile

a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as *like*, *as*, *than*, *similar to*, *resembles*, or *seems*

situational irony

a situation in which there is an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate, or between what is anticipated and what actually comes to pass