Poetry Terms 2

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Iambic pentameter

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A type of meter in poetry, in which there are five iambs to a line. (The prefix penta- means "five," as in pentagon, a geometrical figure with five sides. Meter refers to rhythmic units. In a line of iambic pentameter, there are five rhythmic units that are iambs.) Shakespeare's plays were written mostly in iambic pentameter, which is the most common type of meter in English poetry. An example of an iambic pentameter line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is "But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?" Another, from Richard III, is "A horse!/ A horse!/ My king/dom for/ a horse!" (The stressed syllables are in bold.)

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Idyll, or Idyl

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Either a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene, or a long poem that tells a story about heroic deeds or extraordinary events set in the distant past. Idylls of the King, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

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Lay

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A long narrative poem, especially one that was sung by medieval minstrels called trouvères. The Lais of Marie de France are lays.

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Limerick

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A light, humorous poem of five usually anapestic lines with the rhyme scheme of aabba.

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Litotes

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A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. Litotes, which is a form of understatement, is the opposite of hyperbole.

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Lyric

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A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style.

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Masculine rhyme

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A rhyme that occurs in a final stressed syllable: cat/hat, endow/vow, observe/deserve.

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Metaphor

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A figure of speech in which two things are compared, usually by saying one thing is another, or by substituting a more descriptive word for the more common or usual word that would be expected. Some examples of metaphors: the world's a stage, he was a lion in battle, drowning in debt, and a sea of troubles.

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Meter

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The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables.

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Narrative

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Telling a story. Ballads, epics, and lays are different kinds of narrative poems.

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Ode

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A lyric poem that is serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure. John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a famous example of this type of poem.

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Onomatopoeia

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A figure of speech in which words are used to imitate sounds. Examples of onomatopoeic words are buzz, hiss, zing, clippety-clop, cock-a-doodle-do, pop, splat, thump, and tick-tock. Another example of onomatopoeia is found in this line from Tennyson's Come Down, O Maid: "The moan of doves in immemorial elms,/And murmuring of innumerable bees." The repeated "m/n" sounds reinforce the idea of "murmuring" by imitating the hum of insects on a warm summer day.

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Ottava rima

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A type of poetry consisting of 10- or 11-syllable lines arranged in 8-line "octaves" with the rhyme scheme abababcc. An example of ottava rima is "Isabella," by John Keats.

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Pastoral

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A poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way.

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Pentameter

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A line of poetry that has five metrical feet.

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Personification

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A figure of speech in which nonhuman things or abstract ideas are given human attributes: the sky is crying, dead leaves danced in the wind, blind justice.

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Quatrain

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A stanza or poem of four lines.

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Refrain

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A phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.

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Rhyme

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The occurrence of the same or similar sounds at the end of two or more words. When the rhyme occurs in a final stressed syllable, it is said to be masculine: cat/hat, behave/shave, observe/deserve. When the rhyme ends with one or more unstressed syllables, it is said to be feminine: vacation/sensation, reliable/viable. The pattern of rhyme in a stanza or poem is shown usually by using a different letter for each final sound. In a poem with an aabba rhyme scheme, the first, second, and fifth lines end in one sound, and the third and fourth lines end in another.

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Romanticism

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The principles and ideals of the Romantic movement in literature and the arts during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romanticism, which was a reaction to the classicism of the early 18th century, favored feeling over reason and placed great emphasis on the subjective, or personal, experience of the individual. Nature was also a major theme. The great English Romantic poets include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.

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Simile

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A figure of speech in which two things are compared using the word "like" or "as." An example of a simile using like occurs in Langston Hughes's poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?"

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Sonnet

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A lyric poem that is 14 lines long. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line "sestet," with the rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd). English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter

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Stanza

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Two or more lines of poetry that together form one of the divisions of a poem. The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same length and follow the same pattern of meter and rhyme.

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Verse

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A single metrical line of poetry, or poetry in general (as opposed to prose).

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Versification

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The system of rhyme and meter in poetry.