ENGL 311 Poetics

Anthimeria

the creation of a new word by using one part of speech without another

circumtocution

the use of many words when you could use few

metaphysical conceit

a far stretched comparison between a spiritual aspect of a person and a physical thing in the world

ekphrasis

the use of detailed description of a work of visual arts

kenning

a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single word noun

tenor (metaphor)

the person, place or thing being described

vehicle (metaphor)

represents the tenor

grounds (metaphor)

the relationship between the topic and the vehicle

paronomasia

the use of puns based on various meaning of a word that certain words sound the same

synaesthsia

one sense is described in terms of another

synecdoche

a part of something is substituted for a whole or a whole is substituted for the part

transferred epihet

a modifier qualifies a noun other than the person or thing its describing

anacoluthon

an unexpected discontinunity in the expression of ideas within a sentence leading to a form of words in which there is logical incoherence of thought

anadiplosis

a word located at the end of one clause is repeated at or near the beginning of the following

anastrophe

rearranging normal word order to create a new effect

aposiopesis

deliberately broken off sentence and left unfinished

apostrophe

a speech to a person who is not present or to a personified object

bathos

a sudden often humorous drop in tone during an anticlimax

chiasmus

reverse order

congeries

words that are piled up may be synonymous

epanorthosis

more empathic substitution

epistrophe

words repeating at the end

paralipsis

talking about a subject through denying it

parallelism

gramatically the same in construction

parenthesis

explanation by inserting into a passage

polyptoton

same root

polysyndeton

use of repeated conjunctions between words to emphasize

asyndeton

conjunctions are omitted to change tone

symploce

a word used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences and another word or phrase with similar wording is used at the end

zeugma

using one word to modify two other words in two different ways

decasyllabic / heroic couplet

imabic pentameter lines in rhyming pairs

popular / folk / traditional ballad

a song, transmitted orally which tells a story

ballad stanzas

a quatrain in alt four and three stress lines ; usually only the second and fourth line rhyme

a broadside ballad

printed on one side current issues, well known tune

literary ballad

deliberate imitation of the form, language, and spirit of the traditional ballad

ballad

• narrative species of folk songs

• dramatic, condensed and impersonal

• begins with climatic episodes, doesn’t have self-reference

• stock descriptive phrases

• refrain in each stanza

• incremental repetition

sonnet

lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of 14 imabic pentameter lines

italian / petrarchan sonnet

an octave (abba abba) than a sestset (cdcdcd)

shakespearen sonnet

3 quatrains and a couplet (abab cdcd efef gg)

spenserian sonnet

linked quatrain to the next (abab bcbc cdcd ee)

sonnet sequences / cycles

sonnets linked together through description of relationships

octosyllabic couplet stanza

8 syllables usually consisting of four iambic feet

terza rima

composed of tercets which are interlinked (aba bcb cdc)

heroic quatrain

iambic pentameter abab

rime royal

seven lines iambic pentameter ababbcc

ottava rima

8 lines, abab abcc

spenserian stanza

1st 8 lines iambic pentameter, last hexameter

villanelle

5 tercets, and a quatrain

sestina

six six line stanzas in which the end word is repeated

bursleque

parody, imitates the serious manner

lyric

any fairly short poem uttered by a single speaker who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception thought and feeling, first person

dramatic monologue

lyric poem, single person who is not the poet, address other people, controlling the poet’s choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader in a way that enhances its interest the speaker’s temperament and character

ode

long lyric poem that has a serious subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborated in its stanzaic structure

regular / pindaric ode

all the stropes and antistrophes written in one stanza pattern

irregular / cowleyan ode

each stanza to establish its own pattern of varying lengths number of lines and rhyme scheme

encomiastic ode

glorifying

horatian ode

calm, meditative, colloquial, modelled on roman horace, homostrophic

homostrophic ode

single repeated stanza

elegy

alt hexameter and pentameter, subject matter of change and loss

pastoral elegy

poet and the one he mourns

dirge

versified expression of grief on the occassion of a particular person’s death

monody

elegy or dirge

modernism

after WW1, avantgarde

automatic writing

freed from control by the conscious, purposive mind

free verse

short lines with no real regular metrical form

omniscent point of view

knows everything

intrustive narrator

comments

limited point of view

confined to a single character pov

self-conscious narrator

actually happened