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61 terms

Brit Lit 2nd semester exam

a line of verse that has six iambic feet
a reference to another work of literature, person, or event
a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction
the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words
Byronic hero
the repetition of consonants (or consonant patterns) especially at the ends of words
Dramatic Monologue
a poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener
a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead
a moment of sudden revelation or insight
the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage
a poem usually addressed to a particular person, object or event that has stimulated deep and noble feelings in the poet
incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
A device in literature where an object represents an idea.
Spenserian stanza
a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern ababbcbcc
describing one kind of sensation in terms of another
Terza rima
Figurative language
the ability to form mental images of things or events
(logic) a self-contradiction
The Victorian Age
Victorian Sensibility: changing British landscape, Industrial Revolution, depression, England is THE power. Confidence leads to uncertainty
Literacy and artistic movement developed in early decatdes of the 20th centruy. Writers=crisis of identity. Uncertainty and rejection of traditional values and elevation of the individual.
A Tale of Two Cities
novel by Charles Dickens, 1859. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.
Dublin Ireland 1894, James Joyce, Theme: often times our dreams end in disillusionment, 1st person
Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold, The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world., in times of unertainty turn towards eachother and love
Kubla Khan
tone: enchanted, vivid, crazy

about: palace in Imperial City (paradise); dreams about experiencing paradise, nature


no meter; holy and enchanted city

"For he on honey-dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of Paradise"

"In Xanudu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree"

author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Tintern Abbey
William Wordsworth, Describes how nature influenced Wordsworth, written after a walk with his sister, Subject is memory from 5 years ago, reflecting on communion with natural beauty in childhood works upon mind even in adulthood when time has passed. 5 years later, WW is not one with nature anymore but knows his memories will serve him well. Current memories provide food and life for future; 5 years later returns with a change in perspective, more mature and experienced. Knowledge of mankind changes POV
Musee Des Beaux Arts
W.H Auden-believed in communism extreme intellectual, allusion refers to Icarus a myth Theme: one person's tragedies do not affect another
My Last Duchess
Dramatic monologue by Robert Browning. A duke speaks about his dead wife. Victorian Era
Ode to a Nightingale
John Keats; Worshiping a bird as a deity, wishes he were as carefree as the bird, not having to worry about mortality, time passage. realizes that writing poetry allows him to soar like the bird, transcending those fears
Porphyria's Lover
Robert Browning, by Robert Browning. starts out with external descriptions, then quickly moves inward. About a girl that he kills to preserve the moment and their "love"., o "That moment she was mine, mine, fair Perfectly pure and good."
Shooting an Elephant
george orwell, Kills an elephant because he wants to impress the people watching him and dosnt want them to make fun of him and be mean to him. the main character is a guard for English in India
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Romantic story of a mariner who is cursed to life forever and tell his story about the reason he got cursed(killing the albatross), Folk Ballad
The Second Coming
tone: dark, doomed, terror fear

about: the coming of white men to Africa; cultures and lives being destroyed; anarchy loosed upon the world


"Surely some revelation is at hand; surely the Second Coming is at hand."

author: William Butler Yeats
To a Mouse
A Pre-Romantic poem by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, in which the speaker concludes that mice are better off than humans, as they need not worry about the future
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Live Life with adventure instead of sitting around doing nothing
Ah, Are you Digging on My Grave
hardy - poem about the women who died and she wonders who is digging on her grave and it is her dog who didn't even know it was where she was lying, You think you are more important than you really are
Apostrophe to the Ocean
Lord Byron,vastness-> strength-> Destruction->Unchanging and sublime-> endlessness, awe and worship to nostolgic
Darkling Thrush
Thomas Hardy, Victorian-there is always reason to hope even when it looks bleek
- Author: Seamus Heaney
- Significance: This poem describes the occupation (digging) that the speaker's father and grandfather enjoyed. The speaker, however did not enjoy this as they did, he prefers to write. By the end of the poem the speaker relates his own work to that of his ancestors by saying "between my finger and my thumb a pen rests, i"ll dig with it "
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
tone: regretful, rage, pleading

about: author speaking to dying father asking him to stay alive; sees the regrets, the things the father never did

nighttime- metaphor for death

end of life

3 lined stanzas

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, rage, rage against the dying of the light."

author: Dylan Thomas
In Memoriam
-iambic tetrameter quatrains
-written over 17 years
-progress from bitter grief & doubt --> acceptance
-seen as the answer to the faith/science quarrel
-plays with the word "Type" (species, Hallum, Christ)
-Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode to Art, , tone: cynical, awestruck, beauty, story

about: speaker reveling about the artwork on an urn and how the stories from the paintings are timeless

around the urn (form and purpose) is a story, sometimes unknown

*one can form their own song and story about the urn


Greek theme- communion with nature

10 line stanzas


author: John Keats
Ode to the West Wind
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "If winter comes, spring is not far behind", going into a storm-in a storm-or coming out of a storm
The Chimney Sweeper
- Author: William Blake
- Time: 1789
- Significance: This poem describes the life of a child chimney sweeper who becomes an orphan, becomes a chimney sweeper, and loses his innocence. Many of his friends die around him,but they all go up to heaven. Every child's hope is to end up in heaven with their spiritual Father as they have grown up as orphans on Earth. A poem showing the social oppressions of Industrialization.
-Two different poems
The Rocking Horse Winner
D. H. Lawerence, What luck really is. Theme- Greed can never be satisfied. Exploitation of the boy to money. Explores the relationship between love, luck, happiness, and money
The Tyger
William Blake, 1794, Romantic, Uses common tools of the day to ask if God made tyger. Brings attention to exotic extremities -- what kind of god could create such a creature? Fundamental question is never answered. Tiger represents evil and violence, balances Lamb.
To a Louse
Robert Burns, Romantic- Sees lice in a woman's hair and has emotional response to its presence
To an Athlete Dying Young
by: A E Housman

1 stanza celebrates a race won
2 tone changes , dies young
3 the lad was smart to die young
4&5 death is good because he wanted to see the record borken... dies with fame
Romanticism Authors
Thomas Grey, William Blake, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats
Victorian Authors
Tennyson, Robert Browning, Arnold, A.E Housman, Thomas Hardy
Modernism Authors
Auden, Thomas, Keats, Brooke, Lawerance, Joyce, Greene, Orwell, Sasson, Heaney
a writer's or speaker's choice of words