Wilkerson Fate and Free Will Test

how much land does a man need

tolstoy

death of a tsotsi

paton

an irish airman foresees his death

yeats

hay for the horses

snyder

bamboo trick

gupta

dante's inferno

alighieri

ode on a grecian urn

keats

the terrorist, he watches

symborska

alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

ode

a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter

scansion

the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm

foot

a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables

paradox

a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true

oxymoron

a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

parable

a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson

motif

recurring theme or idea in a story

fatalism/libertarianism

the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable

syntax

the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language

juxtaposition

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

terza rima

an arrangement of triplets, especially in iambic, that rhyme aba bcb cdc, etc., as in Dante's Divine Comedy

antithesis

a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other

consonance

the recurrence of similar sounds, especially consonants, in close proximity

allegory

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

diction

an author's word choice

tercet

a set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together

apostrophe

when a character speaks directly to someone who is not present or is dead or speaks to an inanimate object

pastoral

a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life

anastrophe

the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses

anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

existentialism (intro discussion)

a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will

romanticism

a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual

understatement

a form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than it is

iambic pentameter

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable

quatrain

a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes

chiasmus

a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form

iambic rhythm

unstressed then stressed

trochaic rhythm

stressed then unstressed

couplet

two lines of a poem that normally rhyme

cinquain

five-line stanza

sestet

six final lines of a sonnet (six-line stanza)

septet

seven-line stanza

octave

poem or stanza of eight lines

theme: hay for the horses

- one's fate is chosen for them even though they do not choose it themselves... ex: narrator gets stuck doing the job he doesn't want

theme: hmldmn

- temptation seals one's own fate
- those who test their fate with greed causes fate to test them
- the misunderstanding of realizing one's greediness is often overlooked

theme: death of a tsotsi

- those who wish to predict their fate end up surrendering their own free will choices
- free will choices don't matter when the structure of their society determines their fate
- one is powerless against death, especially in an oppressive environment

theme: an irish airman

- when one lacks cultural individuality, their fate is predetermined
- when people don't like their useless life, they choose to have a useless death

theme: bamboo trick

- for some, the cycle of hunger/poverty only ends in death and/or changes when they die

theme: ode on a grecian urn

- the fate of mankind is temporary, but art lives on eternally
- if we never choose to change, then we will constantly be faced with unfortunate circumstances

theme: the terrorist

- seemingly insignificant choices can have significant effects
- there is a certainty about our existence that can be caused by random choices

theme: dante's inferno

- the ultimate choice of morality will determine one's fate, which then provides justice