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108 Cards in this Set

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The regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable reptition of accented and unaccented syllables of poetry.

The measured arrangement of words in poetry (Metrical lines are measured by naming the # of feet; Monometer = 1 foot, Dimeter = 2 feet, etc.)
The external pattern or shape of a poem, describable without reference to its content, as continuous form, stanzaic form, fixed form (and their varieties), free verse, and syllabic verse.

Ex. "stroke of luck"
A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Figurative Language
Language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally. Figurative is key, as this language employs figures of speech; says something other than literal meaning of words.

Ex: Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" uses figurative language.
Continuous Form
Free Verse
Nonmetrical poetry in which the basic rhythmic unit is the line, and in which pauses, line breaks, and fromal patterns develop organically from the requirements of the individual poem rather than from established poetic forms
Expected rhythm
The rhythmic expectation set up by the basic meter of a poem


Examples: 1.) Washington for the United States Government 2.) Sword for military power
A group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem.

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the sea and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be..." Churchill

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas
Two successive lines, usually in the same meter, linked by rhyme.
Paradoxical Situation
A situation containing apparently but not actually incompatible events; Something that does not seem like it could be true but it really does have a logical explanation
Example: the celebration of a fifth birthday of a twenty-year-old man (the man was actually born on February 29).
Stanzaic form
The form take by a poem when it is written in a series of units having the same number of lines and usually other characteristics in common, such as metrical pattern or rhyme scheme.
Extended figure
A figure of speech (usually metaphor, similie, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem
A metrical foot consisiting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

Ex. mer-ri-ly
The basic definitioin or dictionary meaning of a word

ex:The words childlike and childish both mean "characteristics of a child" but childlike suggests meekness, and innocence, where childish suggests pettiness and and temper tantrums.
Grammatical pause
(also known as caesura) A pause introduced into the reading of a line by a mark of punctuation, Heard Rhythm. The actual rhythm of a metrical poem as we hear it whn it is read naturally. The heard rhythm mostly conforms to but sometimes departs from or modifies the expected rhythm
Dactylic Meter
A meter in which a majority of the feet are dactyls.
def:a metrical foot sonsisting of two unaccented sylllables followed by one accented syllable

ex. se-ven-teen
ex. in a line of vers:
"Twas-the-night be-fore-Christ mas-and-all through-the-house
A metrical line containing 6 feet
1) four line stanza
ex: Quatr- 4
train goes.. stanza..stanza..stanza..stanza..STANZAA!

2) A 4 line division of a sonnet marked off by its rhyme scheme
A restatement of the content of a poem designed to make its prose meaning as clear as possible. It would likely be used to condense a piece of a poem that is very difficult to understand or hard to comprehend.
Same as accent. A syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors.
End-Stopped line
Emily Dickinson uses this alot...for example:
A Clock stopped --
Not the Mantel's --
Geneva's farthest skill
Can't put the puppet
bowing --
That just now dangled still

The end-stopped lines you see end with this: -- .
The internal organization of a poem's content.
In poetry, a metrical line containing five feet.
A three-line stanza exhibited in terza rima and villanelle as well as in other poetic forms.
Run-on line
A line which has no natural speech pause at its end, allowing the sense to flow uninterruptedly into the succedding line.

example: basically a poem without punctuations(think run on sentences).
Departures from or variations of the basic metrical pattern.


1. Substitution: replacement of the regular foot with another one

2. Extra-Metrical Syllables: added at the beginning or ending of lines

3. Truncation: omission of an unaccented syllable at either end of a line
A fairly short narrative poem written in songlike stanza form.
Figure of Speech
Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly (and for the purposes of this bhook), a way of saying one thing and meaning another. Basically, saying one thing and meaning another.

Ex: "Don't have a cow" -Bart Simpson
Bart doesn't really really mean you shouldn't be in possession of a cow, but rather that you should take it easy.

"He's got beef wit you" -Gangster
The gangster is not really sharing processed cow meat with you, but rather, has a problem with you.
Triple meter
A meter in which a majority of the feet contain 3 syllables. (Actually, if more than 25 percent of the feet in a poem are triple, its effect is more triple than duple, and it ought perhaps to be referred to as a triple meter.) Anapestic and dactylic are both triple meters
A metrical line containing one foot, which usually consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables

Example: In-ter-vene

(Dimeter = 2 feet, Trimeter = 3 feet, etc.)
Didactic Poetry
Poetry having as a promary purpose to teach or preach

Ex: Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and
In metrical verse, the replacement of the expected metrical foot by a different one (for example, a trochee occurring in an iambic line).
A figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object or a concept.

Example: Life dealt him a heavy blow.
Bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed

example: (person 1 sees person 2 with a bad test score) person 1 says: wow your are really smart!
A situation or use of language involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy
Three kinds of irony include:
(a) verbal irony
(b) dramatic irony
(c) irony of situation
An eight-line stanza or the first eight lines of a sonnet (esp. one structured in the manner of an Italian sonnet)
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
(Rehearse the Blank Verse five times)
In this book, the same as stress. A syllable given more prominence in pronunciation than its neighbors is said to be accented.
This often comes up when discussing the meter and rythem of a poem.
English Sonnet
A sonnet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. It's content or structure ideally parallels the rhyme scheme, falling into three coordinate quatrains (stanzas of four lines) and concluding couplet (a two-lined stanza; but it is often structured, like the Italien sonnet, into octace and sestet, the principle break in thought coming at the end of the eighth line.

The word sonnet means "little song".
ex: page 237
Fixed Form
A form of poem in whicfh the length and pattern are prescribed by usage or tradition, such as sonnet, limerick, villanelle, and so on. It's basically a poem catergorized by a pattern of lines, meter, rhythm.

Ex: A sonnet MUST have 14 lines. Limericks MUST be in the same form, etc.
Sustained figured
Same as Extended figure. A figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.
def: the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses

ex: The poem, "O Captain! My Captain" (the repeat of the phrase " ")

clue: the root ANA means again or to repeat
A kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the ostensible purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice

example: most of Mark Twain's novels, like "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
Extra-metrical syllables
In metrical verse, extra unaccented syllables addd at the beginnings or endings of lines; these may either be a feature of the metrical form of a poem (example, "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries," (p203) on even-numbered lines) or occur as exceptions to the form (example, "Virtue," (page 192), in lines 9 and 11). In iambic lines, they occur at the end of a line. In trochaic, they occur at the begining.
Poetic metre in which there are four metrical feet per line.

Let her /live to /earn her /dinner.
/ U / U / U / U
In metric verse, the omission of an unaccented syllable at either end of a line.

(To "Truncate" means to "shorten" or "cut off")
A harsh, discordant sound, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds
Used to contrast euphony.
(The cacophony of the screeching crows)
Verbal Irony
A figure of speech that includes either sarcasm or overstatement. Used in booth literature and everyday speech.

Example: Someone tells an off-color joke about his grandmother, a prim and proper lady, then relized his grandmother happened to be standing right behind him. "I literally died," he says.
Def: the exact
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth; or for emphasis or effect. A figure of speech in which the expression is an evident exaggeration of the meaning intended to be conveyed, or by which things are represented as much greater or less, better or worse, than they really are.

Ex: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!

Ex: That man is a giant.

Ex: The girl who was late for class flew down the hallway.
Syllabic verse
Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line.
The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse. A foot usually cotnains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables. Basically, it's the unit that measures poetry. It usually has one or two unstressed syllables.

Hint: Think of it as poetry's "metrical unit".
Double rhyme
A rhyme in which the repeated vowel is in the second to last syllable of the words involved

Ex: Polietly-rightly-spritely
Petarchan Sonnet
a sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abbaabba sestet using any arrangement of two or three additional rhymes, such as cdcdcd or cdecde.

like an Italian sonnet (page 192)
Feminine rhyme
A rhyme in which the repeated accented vowel is in either the second or third last syllable of the words involved. (example, ceiling-appealing, hurrying-scurrying)
The process of measuring metrical verse--of marking accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern

example: what we did in class with Mr. Budden
A narrative or discription having a second meaning beneath the surface one.
Verbal Irony
A figure of speech in which what is meant is the opposite of what is said. Sarchastic.
(example): Here's some BAD news, you all got A's on your test!
What a word suggest beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones of meaning.
(A revolver reminds people of the old west)
A metrical line containing three feet.

Ex: When here the spring we see,
Fresh green upon the tree.
Sentimental poetry
Poetry that attempts to manipulate the reder's emotions in order to achieve a greater emotional response than th epoem itself really warrants

example: you read a book and cries, but the book is not really sad (better example in some movies).
The use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound/formantion of a word from a sound associated with what is named/imitate sounds associated with objects and actions
ex. boom, click, plop,cuckoo, babble, sizzle, buzz, crackle, hiss
def: the direct address of an abesent or imaginary person

ex: In this poem, the poet directly scolds the sun;

Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why doust thou tus,
Windows, and through curtains call on us?
A speech pause occurring within a line used to vary the rhythm of the poem.
(While reading the line I had a seizure and paused)
A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, or a short syllable followed by a long syllable.

Ex: delay
Ex: forget
Ex: impair
Phonetic Intensive
A word whose sound, by an obscure process, to some degree suggests its meaning. As differentiated from onomatopoetic words, the meanings of the phonetic intensives do not refer explicitly to sounds (page 213)
ex: fl- usually connotates moving :
flow, flame
Dramatic Irony

Picture a soap opera, where the characrters are going through a dilemma and only the audience really knows the whole scenario, or like in star wars, where we know that Darth Vader is Luke's father but Luke doesn't know. (assuming we watched the first episode which is coming out, or read the books)
1) A six-line stanza
2) The last six lines of a sonnet structured on the Italian model

(The pronounciation is very similar to "six sets".)
The writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, audience, or him or herself; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work.
Rhetorical Pause
Def: a natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line by its phrasing or syntax

Synonym: caesura; often shown by the parallel symbol

Sorrow is my own yard
Where the new grass
As it has flamed
Often before
But not
With the cold fire
that close round me this year.

Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye;
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die. Herbert
Onomatopoetic Language
Language employing onomatopoeia or using onomatopoeia words.
Def: the resemblace and repetition of sound, especially vowel sounds in words

Ex: free and easy
mad as a hatter
tilting at windmills
Prose meaning
That part of a poem's total meaning that can be separated out and expressed through paraphrase
Dramatic Framework
The situation, whether actual or fictional, realistic or fanciful, in which an author places his of her characters in order to express the theme.
Ex: "The Man He Killed"
"Terrence, this is stupid stuff"
Dramatic Irony
A device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker in a literary work.
(example): "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake on page 117.
A figurative speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explict by the use of some such word or phrases as like, as, tan, similar to, resembes, or seems.

Example: He is like a bottle.
Single rthme
The same as Masculine rhyme
Presentation of one sense experience in terms usually associated with another sensation.
(Such as the color blue may incite other senses such as your mood or how you feel rather than just the color you see)
Prose poem
usually a short composition having the intentions of poetry but written in prose rather than verse.
Duple Meter
A meter in which a majority of the feet contain two syllables. Iambic and trocahic are both duple meters.

Round about the cauldron go,
In the poisoned entrails throw.

Ex: map-moon,preach-approve

Important words and accented syllables beginning with vowels may also be said to alliterate with each other inasmuch as they all have the same lack of initial consonant sound.
A fixed form of fourteen lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to o rapproximating one of two main types--Italian or the English.

Example: try search for some of Shakespeare's works online.
Terza rima
An interlocking rhyme scheme with the pattern aba bob cdc

Ex: Dante's Inferno
A referance, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history.
A metrical foot consisting of two syllables equally or almost equally accented

Example: true blue; fast fact, etc
End Rhyme
Rhyme in which the rhyming words occur at the ends of lines. Also known as terminal rhyme.

My weekend was like nay other,
I went to a movie with my Mother.
Rhetorical Poetry
Def: poetry using artificially eloquent language; that is, language too high-flown for its occasion and unfaithful to the full complexity of human experience

Whereat with blade, with bloody, blameful blade,
He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast. Shakespeare

"From the rocky coast of Maine to the sun-washed shores of California."
Approximate rhyme
Def: words in a rhyming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rhymes.

Ex: Daylight Saving-Dorothy Parker

My answers are inadequate
To those demanding day and date
And ever set a tiny shock
Through strangers asking what's o'clock;
Those days are spent in whittling rhyme...
Iambic meter
A meter in which the majority of feet are iambs.

Examples of this are iambic dimeter(2 feet), iambic trimeter(3 feet), iambic tetrameter(4), iambic pentameter(5)

Literary example: "Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,/ The bridal of the earth and sky;/ The dew shall weep thy fall to night,/ For thou must die." - Virtue by George Herbert
Irony of Situation
A situation in which there is an incongruity between actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate
between what is anticipated and what acutally happens.
Overstatement (hyperbole)
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth, An exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally, to exaggerte

if something is OVER the top it is an OVERstatement

ex. a thousand apologies, this book weighs a ton, I could sleep a year
Rhetorical Stress

"I don't believe you."
This phrase can have different meanings depending on which word is stressed.
A figure of speach in which something (object, person, situation, or action) means more than what it is.
A symbol, in other words, may be read both literally and metaphorically.
Def: A pem about love; a morning love song

Ex: look at page 372 in Sound and Sense Book

Clue: Think Aubade...serenade (to serenade someone with a love song)
The representation through language of sense experience. A set of mental pictures or images. The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects.
Italian Sonnet
A sonnet consisting of an octave, abbaabba, and a sestet, cdcdcd or cdecde.
A compact paradox in which two successive words seemingly contradict each other,two words that seem to contradict one another
greek word formed from the words SHARP and DULL
ex. deafening silence, cheerful pessimist, sophomore comes from the words wise and foolish
Def: when one uses a part as a whole

Ex: *"Give me a hand" when you just want help
*the song "Hotel of California" throughout the song, the use of california is meant to represent the United States in general
Def: any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound; found in all forms of language

Synonym: Stream

Eight Types:

TELL me NOT in MOURNful NUMbers.

THIS is the FORest priMEval, the MURmuring PINES and the HEMlock.
Internal rhyme
A rhyme in which one or both of the rhymed words occurs within the line. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH END RHYME!

Ex: "the grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother" - Dylan Thomas

~~grains rhymes with veins~~
A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement even if it is well-founded, a person or thing conflicting with preconceived notion of what is possible or reasonable
ex. I always lie, wild civility
A figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrents, statement below the truth
ex. Ms. Rinker is cool
Masculine Rhyme
When the last syllable of the word is the rhyming one and it is a vowel sound.
i like to dance
in my new pants