Poetry Midterm

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paraphrase(*just for knowledge)

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-put into our own words
-never use "I"
-usually literal translation of line by line poem

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summary(*)

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brief condensation of the main idea of the poem

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theme(*)

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central idea of the poem

ex. "I yearn for an ideal place where i will find perfect peace and happiness"

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subject(*)

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the main topic, whatever the poem is "about"

ex. a wish to retreat to an island of Innisfree

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lyric poetry

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short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker

often written in the 1st person

describe an object or recall an experience

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narrative poetry

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one whose main purpose is to tell a story

usually follows a chronological order of events

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dramatic poetry

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presents the voice of an imaginary character speaking directly

aka dramatic monologue

ex. the duke in "My Last Duchess"

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tone

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writer is trying to covey an attitude toward the person addressed

communicates the feeling of the author

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persona

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fictitious character: not the poet, but the poet's creation

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ironic point of view

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if the mask says one thing and we sense that the writer is in fact saying something else

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verbal irony

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occurs whenever words say one thing but mean something else, usually the opposite.

ex. I just *love* to stay home and do my hair on a sat. night

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dramatic irony

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refers to a situation in a play wherein a character whose knowledge is limited says, does, or encounters something of greater significance than he or she knows.

ex. Oedipus

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diction

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choice of words

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concrete

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words that we can immediately perceive with our senses

ex. dog, actor, Clint Eastwood

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abstract

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those words which are ideas or concepts

ex. love, time, truth

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allusion

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indirect reference to any person, place, or thing

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denotation

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meaning of a word as defined by a dictionary

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connotation

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overtones or suggestions of additional meaning that a word gains from contextual evidence

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image

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suggests a thing seen, in poetry it is a word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience.

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figures of speech

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occurs whenever a speaker or writer, for the sake of freshness or emphasis, departs from the usual denotations of words

ex. a treetop like a turkey-foot

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simile

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comparison of two things, connected by "like, as, than," or a verb such as "resemble"

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metaphor

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statement that one thing is something else, in the literal sense,

ex. "your fingers are sausages"

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implied metaphor

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comparison of two things that uses neither a connective nor the verb "to be"

ex. If we were to say "John crowed over his victory," we imply metaphorically that John is a rooster but do not say so specifically

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personification

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a thing, an animal, or an abstract term (truth, nature) is made human.

ex. "the wind stood up and gave a shout"

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overstatement/hyperbole

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an exaggeration made to emphasize a point

ex. "Vaster than empires"
"I've told you a thousand times"

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understatement

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antonym of hyperbole, marked by implying more than is said

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apostrophe

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way of addressing someone or something invisible

"Spade!"
"Milton!"

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metonymy

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the name of a person or thing that is replaced by something closely related to it

ex. "the white house" meaning the President

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synecdoche

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is to use a part of something to stand for the whole of it or vice versa

"She lent a hand", meaning that she lent her entire presence

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paradox

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a statement that at first strikes us as self-contradictory but that on reflection makes some sense

"greater in spiritual values" vs. "greater in miles"

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pun

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a play on words, reminds us of another word of a similar or identical sound but with a different denotation

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transferred epithet

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a device of emphasis in which the poet attributes some characteristic of a thing to another thing closely related with it

"drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds" the author knows that sheep's bells do not drowse, but sheep do

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alliteration

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repetition of the same CONSONANT sound at the beginning of successive words

*may occur initially or internally*

ex. "liquor of your laughter"

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assonance

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repeat of a sound of a vowel sound

*may also occur initially or internally*

ex. "He stood, and heard the steeple"

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rhyme

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occurs when two or more words or phrases contain an identical or similar vowel-sound, usually accented and the consonant-sounds (if any) that follow the vowel-sound are identical:

ex. hay and sleigh, prairie schooner

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exact rhyme

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sounds following the vowel sound have to be the same:

red and bread, wealthily and stealthily

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slant rhyme

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if the final consonant sounds are the same but the vowel sounds are different

ex. sun, bone, moon, rain

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consonance

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type of slant rime in which the the rimed words or phrases have the same beginning an ending consonant sounds but a different vowel sound

ex. spoiled and spilled

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masculine rime

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rime of one-syllable words

or in words of two or more syllables, having stressed final syllables

ex. di-VORCE, re-MORSE

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feminine rime

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rime of two or more syllables wihth emphasis on the syllable other than the last

ex. TUR-tle, in-tel-LECT-u-al

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rhythm

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the recurrence of stresses and pauses in a poem.

For example, all the pauses and stresses when reading a poem aloud

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meter

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when stressed recur at fixed intervals in a line

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iambic meter

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a succession of unstressed and stressed syllables ( U ' )

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foot

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a unit of two or three syllables that contains one strong stress, a building block

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iambic pentameter

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a line of five iambs, a meter especially familiar in all blank verse, like Shakespeare

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blank verse

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"blank"-unrhymed

five iambic feet per line, just unrhymed

most common and well-known meter of unrhymed poetry in english.