ENGL 311 : Poetics Midterm

How is Poetry Made?

forms and techniques

Quantitative

• one of the four main types in european language

• in classical greek and latin

• established by the relative duration of the utterance of a syllable and consisted of recurrent patterns of long and short syllables

Syllabic

• one of the four main types in european language

• in french and other romantic languages

• depending on the number of syllables within a line of verse without regard to the fall of the stresses

accentual

• one of the four main types in european language

• older germanic languages (old english)

• depending on the number of stressed syllables within a line without regard to the number of intervening unstressed syllables

accentual-syllabic

• one of the four main types in european language

• combining features of the two preceding types

• the metric units consist of a recurrent pattern of stresses on a recurrent number of syllables

bathos

a literary work that builds up to what promises to be a satisfying and artistically accomplished conclusion only to resolve in a particularly absurd or insignificant way, anti-climax

aposiopesis

when you dont finish your sentence

antithesis

positions opposite ideas parallel to each other

Iamb

• unstressed, stressed

• e.g today, cannot

spondee

• stressed, stressed

• e.g downtown

feminine ending

extra unstressed syllable at the end

masculine ending

no extra unstressed syllable at the end

prosody

• latin prosodia = accent

• analysis in which poetry makes sound

verse paragraphs

divisions in blank verse poems used to set off a sustained passage

anastrophe (hyperbaton)

the writer will rearrange the normal word order to create a new effect with the sentence, saying, or idea, inverted syntax

anaphora

same beginning repetition

anadiplosis

chaining on, ending the statement with one word which starts the next

trochee

• stressed, unstressed

• e.g speaker decent

pyrrhic

unstressed, unstressed

mnemonics

• imabs and anapest both start with a vowel and are rising meters

• trochees and dactyls both start with consonant and are falling meters

cataletic

when syllable get dropped

dactyl

• stressed, unstressed, unstressed

• e.g poetry, simmering

paralipsis (apophasis)

false denial

epistrophe

opposite of anaphora

blank verse

• consists of unrhymed lines of imabic pentameter

• closest to the natural rhymes of english speech yet flexible and adaptive

• introduced by the earl of surrey in his translation of book 2 and 4 of virgil’s the Aenard

anapest

• unstressed unstressed stressed

• e.g understand, gasoline

epanorthosis

writing something then correcting

chiasmus

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

rhetorical question

question without expecting an answer

polysyndeton

many connections and repetitions of the word

polyptoton

repetition of the root of the word

parenthesis

curved marks which adds less importance information / emphasizes

parallelism

same grammatical syntax

symploce

interwining of anaphora and epistrope

zeugma

one word is yolked to two different sentences

deixis

moments in a text that refer to a speaker in a moment of speech

metaphysical poets

• poets in the 17 c

• Donne

• used startling concepts and real dialogue vigorous language and broke away from the smooth and lovely pattern of the Elizabethan society

ethos

the values and ethics of person giving the text

lyric

• a short poem

• single speaker

• first person

• hear someone speaking to themselves

• situation of solitude

• part sympathy part judgement

• Poses the question who is speaking, what are they thinking, what are their emotions

• Sonnet counts, ballad does not

epic

heroic long poem, elevated style, centered on an archetypical hero with cosmic importance, vast setting, in medias res, argument / epic question is stated, oral form, two forms traditional and literary, rooted in folk culture, gods = machinery,

alliterative meter

in old english, its the principal organizing device of the verse line, the verse is unrhymed each line is divided into two half lines of two strong stresses by a decisive pause or caesura and at least one but usually both of the two stressed syllables in the first half line alliterative with the first stressed syllable of the second half line

alliteration

• repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words

• usually only applied to consonants and one when the recurrent sound is made emphatic because it begins a word or a stressed syllables within a word

consonance

the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants but with a change in the intervening vowel

assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowels, especially in stressed syllables

six feat in english prose

• two stress

• stress unstress

metonymy

associating one thing with another

paradox

a seeming contraction that harbours a truth

enjambment

incomplete syntax at the end of a line

anthimeria

• Taking of one part of speech and forcing it to play another

• Comes from greek, means one part for another

petrarchan sonnet

• love poem with a certain rhyme scheme

• abba, abba, cdcd, cdcd,

• a the middle it has a volta or turn

diacope

a gashing/division of a phrase

word play / pun / double entrang

a single word having more than one meaning and multiple meanings working in the poem

asyndeton

no connections

decasyllabic couplets

• imabic pentameter lines rhyming in pairs

• also called heroic couplets

• aa, bb, cc

ballad

• medieval form

• rhyme 2nd and 4th lines

• oral, social

• use the ballad to tell a story of the lower class and that often goes against common ideas politically or socially

• story/narrative

• repetitions

• condensed/impersonal

• quatrains (alternate 4 and 3 stress lines)

• sung

allegory

• rhyme scheme :ABCB

• quatrains

• imabic tetrameter

popular / folk / traditional ballad

• A song transmitted orally, which tells a story

• The narrative species of folk songs, which originate and are communicated orally among illiterate and only partly literate people

• Initial versions of a ballad were composed by a single author

• Probably originiated in the later middle ages

• Not collected and printed until the 18th c first in england then in germany

ballad stanza

• Most common stanza form

• A quatrain in alternate four and three stress lines

• Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme

broadside ballad

• Printed on one side of a single sheet (called a broadside) dealt with a current event or person or issue

• Sung to a well known tune

• Beginning in the 16c the broadsiddes were hawked in the streets or country fairs in great britian

literary ballad

• Narrative poem written in diliberate imitation of the form, language, and spirit of the traditional ballad

historical or political allegory

The characters and actions are signified literally in their turn represent or allegorical historical personages and events

allegorical imagery

the personification of abstract entities who perform a brief allegorical action

sustained allegory

• a favourite form in the middle ages

• when in produced masterpieces

• esp in the verse-narrative mode of the dream vision, in which the narrator falls asleep and experiences an allegorical dream

fable / apologue

• Short narrative in prose or verse that exemplifies an abtract moral thesis or principles of human behaviour usually at its conclusion either the narrator or one of the characters states the moral in the form of an epigram

• Most common is a beast fable – animals act and talk like humans

a trickster

A character in a story who persistently uses his wiliness and gift of gab to achieve his ends by outmaneuvring or outwitting other characters

a parable

Very short narrative about human beings presented so as to stress the tacit analogy, or parallel with a general thesis or lesson that the narrator is trying to bring home to his audience

an exemplum

A story told as particular instance of the general theme in religious sermon

proverb

Short, pithy statements of widely accepted truths about everyday life

blazon

• Poem that takes a lovers part and praises them one by one, often comparing them to gems

• Comes from the bible

elisim

Dropping a vowel to make the rhythm work

deductive reasoning

reason from the general to the particular

sonnet

• 14 lines

• Iambic pentameter

• Octave + sestet with a turn/volta btw both

• ABBA ABBA, CDE CDE/CDC CDC

• Invented by Petrach

• Imported in England by Wyatt

• Modifications in the form

• Shakespearian form: 3 quatrains + 1 couplet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

• French form: 2 quatrains + 2 tercets

• Usually about love

courtly lyric poem

• For upper classes (≠ ballad)

• Built on a CONCEIT (metaphor which establishes a difference btw 2 concepts)

• Pattern is not symmetrical

• Rhyme scheme makes it a Petrarchan sonnet

• No recurrent meter

• Love for a king or knight

• 3 characters: master/speaker/woman to create conflict bc of loyalty (love as confused)

petrarchan conceit

• Used in love poems that had been novel and effective in the italian poetry of petratch

• Became hackneyed in some of his imitators among the elizabethan sonneteers

• Detailed, ingenious and often exaggerated comparison

metaphysical conceit

• Characteristic figure in the works of john donne and other metaphysical poets of the 17c

• Expolited all knoweldge for the vehicals of these figures and their comparisons

• Fell out of favour in the 18th c considered strained and unnatural

italian / petrarchan sonnet

• Named after the 14th c poet petrarch

• Contains an octave (eight lines, rhyming abba, abba) followed by a sestet (six lines rhyming cdecde)

• First imitated in england by sir thomas wyatt in the early 16th c

• Later used by Milton, Wordsworth etc

• Abbaabba

english / shakespearen sonnet

• The early of surrey in the 16c

• Three quatrains and a concluding couplet

• Repetition of a statement or a slight change in each quatrain – slight development

• Abab, cdcd, efef, gg

• Variant – spenserian sonnet – linked each quatrain to the next by a continuing rhyme abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

ottava rima

• imabic pentameter

• abababcc

congenies

disorder heap of nouns

stanza

• Grouping of lines offset by typographical spaces that can but don’t have to rhyme nor have a specific meter, so block of text on a page

• Latin “stare” meaning to stand, Italian “chamber” or “stopping place”

• Stanzas allow easier memorization

• Stanzas act as contract btw author and reader (intelligent design)

• Stanzas can connect new poems to the traditions of poetry so poets can invoke authors and perspectives

spenserian stanza

• 8 lines in iambic pentameter + 1 in iambic hexameter written in ABABBCBCC

• Final aspect to each stanza because of the cadence and sounds of the last 2 lines

• Perceptible organization: each stanza focuses on 1 thing

• Typographical layout points out the different meters

• Each stanza is linked to the next through the B rhyme

villanelle

• 5 tencets

• 1 quatrain

• 19 lines

• A'BA2

• Similar to a square dance

paronomasia

• Pun / play on word

• Parrot parody – parsley

• Word and world

sestina

• Comes from root meaning 6

• 6 stanzas all six lines, then a envoi (three lines) - 39 lines

• Repeition

• The last word of each line repeats

Transferred epithet  

An adjective that is stuck to a noun it doesn’t belong to  

dramatic monologue

• Not a poem but a character within the poem

• Comes from the dramatic lyric

• Browning started written like Percy Shelley who was known for his passion/vision, removed his speakers from himself

persona

person who speaks the text in the first person, speaks with the pronoun i

genre

• kind of category

• something that is out there based on the literary or artistic development

• three types of classical genre : narrative/epic, drama and lyric

kenning

a word/phrase that is a metaphor for something similar

conceit

writer established a comparison between two very different concepts or objects

symbol

something concrete or discrete that has a signification

burlesque

incongruous imitation which is comic, subject matter is not writing manner

high burlesque

form and style are high, parody, mock epic

low burlesque

form and style are low

satire

comes from a root meaning attack so its not necessarily meant to be fun?, satire derives, evokes laughter, scorn to teach a lesson, moral attack, didactic

high burlesque epic characteristics

• Elevated style

• Questions

• Lyric

• Wordplay/puns

epic simile

long description of the vehicle

periodic sentence

a long sentence in which subject and verb are delayed to create suspense, gravity and pressure

carpe diem poem

seize life now because time is slipping away

voice

governing intelligence of the text