Shakespeare's Verse & Prose

Front 1

Foot

Back 1

Two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem.

Example: "Whose woods these are I think I know"

Front 2

Iamb

Back 2

An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

Example: The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Front 3

Scan

Back 3

To go through each foot and indicate whether each syllable is stressed or unstressed.

Example: Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

Front 4

Prose

Back 4

Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

Example: The woods look lovely against the setting darkness and as I gaze into the mysterious depths of the forest, I feel like lingering here longer.

Front 5

Antithesis

Back 5

Two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.

Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

Front 6

List

Back 6

A series of actions or descriptive words that build to a climax.

Example: Prologue, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Conclusion

Front 7

Feminine Ending

Back 7

Is the final syllable or suffixed letters that mark words as feminine

Example: To be | or not | to be, | that is | the ques | tion

Front 8

Enjambed

Back 8

(of a line, couplet, or stanza of verse) ending partway through a sentence or clause that continues in the next.

Example: It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free; The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;