English Poetry Test

End rhyme

Words rhyme at the end of the line

Ex: The wind blew

and the leaves flew

Internal rhyme

Words rhyme within the line

Ex: Standing brave in secret caves

Full (exact) rhyme

Words have the same sounds

Ex: Sit + legit

Slant (near) rhyme

Words have similar sounds

Ex: Time + swine

Aliteration

Initial consonant sound repeated

Ex: The sly snake slithers slowly in the sand

Consonance

Consonants sounds repeated

Ex: A bond that transcends the beyond

Assonance

Repeated vowel sounds

Ex: He claps his hands and stamps his feet

Onomatopea

Words that sound like their meaning

Ex: Boom, zap, and buzz

Repetition

Repeating of a word or a phrase

Ex: “Oh no, no, no”

Theme

A full sentence that discusses a truth about life

Ex: Those who work hard will be rewarded

Symbol

An object with multiple meanings

Ex: Paths in a forest

Symbolic action

When a character preforms a symbolic action upon a symbol

Ex: Stomping on a wedding ring

Allusion

Reference to something outside of the work

Ex: “Don’t act like a scrooge”

Oxymoron

Two contradictory words used side by side

Ex: Jumbo shrimp

Irony

• Situational: when the outcome of a situation is opposite to what is expected

• Verbal: literal meaning contrasts the intended meaning

• Dramatic: when the audience knows more than the characters

Allegory

An event or character that stands for something

Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things

Ex: Remus is a pig when he eats

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things that uses “like” or “as”

Ex: They fought like cats and dogs

Personification

Gives human characteristics to non-human things

Ex: The trees danced in the wind

Metonymy

When idea x is referred to as idea y

Ex: We will swear loyalty to the crown

Synecdoche

When you substitute part of a concept for a whole

Ex: Thats a nice set of wheels you have!

Litotes

An ironic understatement

Ex: My mom wasn’t too mad…

Apostrophe

When the speaker is talking to someone that is not physically there or can’t hear her, or an inanimate object (Ex: nature)

Ex: Oh my Romeo where are you

Hyperbole

An extravagant exaggeration

Ex: Mile high ice cream cones

Antithesis

Device that positions opposite claims next to each other

Ex: This ice cream is nutritionally deficient but spiritually nourishing

Meter

Rhythm of lines of poetry

Ex: Fire burn and cauldron boil

Free verse

Poetry that doesn’t use any strict meter or rhyme scheme

Blank verse

Poem that has a regular meter but no rhyme scheme

• unrhymed iambic pentameter

• gives rhythm to a poem

Cesura

A stop or pause at the end of a metrical line, often marked by punctuation

Ex: It is for you we speak, not for ourselves:

Enjambment

The continuation of one line to the next without any punctuation

Ex: I’m feeling rather sleepy

but, I don’t know why. I guess…

Stanza

“room” in italian, paragraph in a poem named for number of lines

2 = couplet

4 = quatrain

6 = sestet

8 = octave

Sonnet

“little song” in Italian (English and Italian sub-categories)

• 14 lines

• iambic pentameter (10 syllable lines) (5 groups) stressed then unstressed

• A,B,C rhyme scheme

Shakespearean/English Sonnet

A poem 14 lines long and the first quatrain rhymes ABAB

• 3 quatrains (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF)

• they present situation or conflict

• turn in story at line 9 or 13

• ends with couplet (GG) discusses so what

Ballad meter

Common in a ballad (a narrative song)

• Pattern: Quatrains

  • ABCB rhyme scheme (or ABAB)

  • Iambic tetrameter in 1st and 3rd lines

  • Iambic trimeter 2nd and 4th lines

Petrarchan/Italian sonnet

14 line poem with first octave rhymes ABBAABBA

• divided into 8 (octave)

• introduces problem

• (ABBAABBA) rhyme scheme

• then 6 (seset)

• (CDECDE) (CDDCEE) (CDCDCD) rhyme scheme

• solution is presented

Turn

Shift in the Sonnet, signaled by change in the rhyme scheme or transition word

Eternalizing theme

Life is too short and were hot

Solution A: I’ll write poems about how hot you are an you’ll live forever in my poems

Solution B: Let’s make babies so your hotness live on

Carpe diem poem

We could die tomorrow so lets have fun (or sex)

Pastoral poem

Shepherd Core, life is crazy lets be carefree country folk

Spurned lover poem

Expressing heartbreak through an emo poem

Terza rima

A triplet stanza with interlocking rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.)

Villanelle (fixed form)

• 19 line poem

• all triplets except for the final stanza which is a quatrain

• lines 1 and 3 are repeated alternately in each stanza and forms the the final 2 lines of the poem

Pantoum (fixed form)

• quatrain stanzas (4)

• each containing 2 repeated lines of the previous stanza

• the even lines repeat as odd lines

Sestina (fixed form)

A poem in which 6 words are used over and over to end the lines

• final triplet contains all 6 words

• usually 6 stanzas of 6 lines

Heroic couplet

Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter

Ballad stanza

Quatrains rhyming abcb, with the a and c lines being longer than the b lines

• written in ballad meter

Ode

A poem that pays tribute to something

Elegy

A poem of mourning

Lyric

The general term for a poem that has one speaker expressing their thoughts or feelings

• often has song-like qualities

• often short

Narrative

A poem that tells a story

• often multiple characters

• ballad is a sub-category of this

Descriptive

Describes the world from the point of view of the author

• vivid imagery

• people, places, or events

Dramatic monologue

A poem in which only the speaker talks but the listener is implied

ere

before

issue

issue

wherefore

why

livery

uniform, or dress up

save

except

want

lack of something

brier

a prickly plant

anon

soon, straight away

won’t

used to, typical behavior

whither

to which place, where

Feminist lense application

• Hermia: defines feminism as she defies her father and lords commands invoking her power as a strong woman

• Women are controlled through: mirage (need to be possessed by one man, Egeus trying to force her to be married)

• Titania: given love juice and forced to fall in love with bottom, demeaning and makes women seem frivolous (takes away her independence and right to a choice, at the hands of Oberon)

• Fight between two women is very visible with very demeaning insults that perpetuates the idea that women will be nasty with each other especially pertaining to situations involving a man

Marxist lense application

• workers put on a play for the higher up class folk, they get laughed at and ridiculed for such a poor performance

• class system (king vs. plebeians)

Puck

• Oberons fairy jester

• many antics that drive the plot

  • applies love potion to lysander

  • turns bottoms head into that of an ass

Oberon

• fairy king (pucks master)

• Titania’s husband

  • fighting over Indian child

  • instructs Puck to giver her love potion and fall in love with Bottom

Titana

• beautiful queen of fairies

• wife of Oberon

  • fighting over Indian child that Oberon wants to make a warrior

Lysander

• young man in lover with Hermia

• forbidden from marrying Hermia because of her father (Egeus)

• falls in love with Helena after Puck applies love potion

Demetrius

• in love with Hermia and forced to marry her by her father (Egeus)

• was in a relationship with Helena (she is still in love with him)

Hermia

• Eugeus’s daughter who is in love with Lysander

• set up to marry Demitrius

• childhood friend of Helena and jealous when both men fall in love with her due to the potion

Helena

• in love with Demitrius

• abandoned by Demitrius for Hermia

• insecure about her looks and thinks that Lysander and Demitrius are making fun of her when they complement her

Theseus

• heroic duke of Athens

• betrothed to Hyppolyta

• he represents power and order and only appears at the end and beginning of the play

Nick Bottom

• overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus

• often makes silly mistakes and misspeaks

• foolishly arrogant

• head turned into a donkey and Titania in love with him

Egeus

• Hermia’s father who complains about her marriage to Theseus

• he wants Hermia to abide by his wishes to marry Demetrius or be punished by law

Hippolyta

• legendary queen of the Amazons

• engaged to Theseus

Peter Quince

• a carpenter who tires to organize a play for the wedding

• he plays the prologue

• he is often interrupted

Francis flute

• plays Thisbe in the play

• forced to play a young girl in love so he speaks in a squeaky voice

Robin Starveling

• tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother

• also plays moonshine

Tom Snout

• the tinker chosen to play Pyramuses father

• he also plays the wall

Snug

• the joiner chosen to play the lion

• he worries his roaring will scare the women

Philostrate

• Theseus’s master of the revels

• organizes the entertainment for the wedding

4 Faries

• ordered by Titania to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him