1.
A literary work in which characters, events, objects,
and ideas have secondary or symbolic meanings. One of the most popular
examples from the 20th Century was George Orwell's Animal Farm, about farm animals vying
for power. On the surface, it is an entertaining story that even children can
enjoy. Beneath the surface, it is the story of ruthless Soviet totalitarianism.
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2.
Reference to a historical event or to a mythical or
literary figure. Examples: (1) Sir Lancelot fought with Herculean
strength. (Reference to the mythological hero Hercules). (2) "I have
met my Waterloo," the mountain climber said after returning from
a failed attempt to conquer Everest. (Reference to the Belgian town where
Napoleon lost a make-or-break battle).
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3.
Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the
beginning of word groups occurring one after the other. Examples: (1) Give
me wine, give me women and give
me song. (2) For everything there is a season . .
. a time to be born, and a time
to die; a time to plant, and a time
to pluck up what is planted.–Bible, Ecclesiastes. (3) To die, to sleep; to
sleep: perchance to dream.–Shakespeare, Hamlet.
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4.
Repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by
different consonant sounds. Use of "bite" and "like" in a
line of poetry would constitute this device. Examples: (1) There are no tricks in
plain and simple faith.–Shakespeare.
(2) But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall to make
oppression bitter. (3) John met his fate
by the lake.
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5.
A poetic form that has three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a
two-line unit called a couplet. The meter is iambic pentameter (except in Sonnet 145). The
rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
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6.
Lines of poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in form. Robert Frost also
routinely employs this technique.
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7.
A type of poetic foot characterized by
this pattern of accented syllables: (Stressed + Unstressed).
Examples: LOVE-ly;ONCE upON a MIDnight DREARy
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8.
A term to denote an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse shown in scansion by two vertical lines ( || ). In most cases, technique is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech: a comma, a semicolon, a full stop, a dash, etc. Punctuation, however, is not necessary for this technique to occur. Example: To err is human; || to forgive, divine.
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9.
The type of poetic
foot used in this line: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"
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10.
An Italian verse form invented by Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321). It consists of a series of three-line stanzas in which Line 2 of
one stanza rhymes with Lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. The rhyme scheme
progresses in the following pattern: aba, bcb, cdc, ded, efe, ghg, and so on.
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11.
Carrying
the sense of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause. In the
first four lines of "My Last Duchess," by Robert Browning, this technique joins the second and third lines (I call / That) and the third and fourth
lines (Pandolf's hands / Worked):
That's my
last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as
if she were alive. I call
That piece
a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked
busily a day, and there she stands.
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12.
A lyric poem on a serious subject that develops its
theme with dignified language, originally intended to be sung. Famous examples
are by Keats and Shelley.
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13.
The repetition of words with different
vowel sounds that have the same final consonants. Example: best, first.
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14.
The poetic form employed by the following poem is known as...
She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.
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15.
Stanza or poem of four lines. It usually has a
rhyme scheme, such as abab, abba, or abcb.
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16.
Words
in a second clause or phrase that invert or transpose the order of the first
clause or phrase. Here are examples:
- I come from the
rural north, from the urban south comes she.
- John is a good
worker, and a bright student is Mary.
- A fop their
passion, but their prize a sot.–Alexander Pope.
Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike–Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.
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17.
Poetry that presents the deep feelings
and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a story or presents a
witty observation. Sonnets, odes, and elegies are examples of these types of poems. William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake are among the poets who wrote
them. Shakespeare's sonnets are considered this type of poem, although
his verse plays are not; they tell a story. This type of poetry often has a pleasing
musical quality.
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18.
An extended metaphor with a
complex logic that governs a
poetic passage or entire poem.
The sonnet often employs this device in order to draw an exaggerated comparison
of a lover or a loving situation.
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19.
A long poem in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic figures. Homer's
Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the Old English poem Beowulf, are examples of this type of poem.
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20.
A type of poetic foot characterized by
this pattern of accented syllables (Stressed +
Unstressed + Unstressed). Example: MER-ril-ly
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21.
A poem or song composed especially as a
lament for a deceased person. Example: Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!,
written for Abe Lincoln.
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22.
Form of poetry that ignores standard rules
of meter and rhyme in favor of the rhythms of
ordinary conversation. In effect, this form liberates poetry from conformity
to rigid metrical rules that dictate stress patterns and the number of
syllables per line. French poets originated it in the 1880s, although earlier poems of Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and
other writers exhibited characteristics. Although this form generally contains no metrical patterns and end rhymes, it may contain other
types of patterns, such as cadence and repetition.
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23.
Unit of two rhyming lines in iambic
pentameter. Following is an example:
What dire
offence from am'rous causes springs,
What
mighty contests rise from trivial things
(Lines 1 and 2, The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope)
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24.
Poem that presents a moment in which a
narrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals his personal
feelings to a listener. During his discourse, the speaker
intentionally and unintentionally reveals information about himself. The main
focus of this device is this personal information, not the speaker's
topic. It is a type of character study. Perhaps the most
famous example in English literature is Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."
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25.
In verse and poetry, this is the recurring
pattern of stressed (accented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented, or short)
syllables in lines of a set length.
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