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AP - Poetry Terms Flashcards

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5703263606Abecedarian"poems most commonly used as mnemonic devices and word games for children, such as those written by Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey.."0
5703263607AnaphoraA rhetorical figure of repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated in (and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses, or sentences. "As one of the world's oldest poetic techniques, it is used in much of the world's religious and devotional poetry, including numerous Biblical Psalms."1
5703263608Ballada poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture. "Their subject matter dealt with religious themes, love, tragedy, domestic crimes, propaganda.?2
5703263609Ballade"One of the principal form of music and poetry in fourteenth and fifteenth-century France."3
5703263610Blues Poem"Typically takes on themes such as struggle, despair, and sex."4
5703263611The Bob"Not unlike the Shakespearean sonnet in trajectory, it is a form of poetic argument consisting of three stanzas."5
5703263612Cento"From the Latin word for 'patchwork,' it is a poetic form made up of lines from poems by other poets."6
5703263613Chance Operations"Can be almost anything from throwing darts and rolling dice, to the ancient Chinese deviation method, I-Ching, and even sophisticated computer programs." Structure of a piece created by chance. A piece that progresses through movement, a variable that will change, rolling of dice to create a sequence of pre-choreographed movements. This type of poem establishes a vocabulary and then, using a randomizing tool (like dice), creates a structured piece that uses chance to create said structure.7
5703263614CinquainA five line stanza "Examples can be found in many European languages and the origins of the form dates back to medieval French poetry."8
5703263615Dramatic Monologuea poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events. "The poet speaks through an assumed voice - a character, a fictional identity, or a persona."9
5703263616EkphrasisDescription is "a composition bringing the subject clearly before the eyes." Like the encomium, the subjects may be persons, actions, times, places, animals, and growing things. "These modern poems have generally shrugged of antiquity's obsession with elaborate descriptions, and instead have tried to interpret, in, inhabit, confront, and speak to their subjects."10
5703263617ElegyA poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. "The traditional poem mirrors three states of loss. First, there is a lament, then praise for the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace."11
5703263618EpicA long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society. "Elements that typically distinguish this type of poem include superhuman deeds, fabulous adventures, highly stylized language, and a blending of lyrical and dramatic traditions."12
5703263619EpigramA brief witty poem, often satirical.13
5703263620EpistleA letter or literary composition in letter form. "poems - means 'letter' - are, quite literally, poems that read as letters."14
5703263621Found Poemcreated by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning. "The literary equivalent of a collage, is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems."15
5703263622Ghazal(n) (in Middle Eastern and Indian literature and music) a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love, and normally set to music. "Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, these poems are often sung by Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani musicians."16
5703263623HaibunJapanese form, pioneered by the poet Basho, and comprising a section of prose followed by haiku. They are frequently travelogues - as in Basho's The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel (1688). In the best examples, the prose and haiku should work together to create an organic whole. "A journey composed of a prose poem and ending with a meaningful murmur of sorts: a haiku."17
5703263624Haiku3 unrhymed lines (5, 7, 5) usually focusing on nature. "Often focusing on images from nature, emphasized simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression."18
5703263625Limericka kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet. "A popular from in children's verse, this type of poem is often comical, nonsensical, and sometimes even lewd."19
5703263626Odea lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter "Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments."20
5703263627Oulipo"Although poetry and mathematics often seem to be incompatible areas of study, this type of poem seeks to connect them."21
5703263628Pantoum"This type of poem originated in Malaysia in the fifteenth-century as a short folk poem folk poem, typically made up of two rhyming couplets that were recited or sung."22
5703263629Prose Poema passage that makes such extensive use of poetic language that the line between spoken language and poetry becomes blurred. "Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so this type of poem plants one foot in spoken language, the other in poetry, both heals resting precariously on banana peels."23
5703263630PastoralOf relating to or being a literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life usually in an idealized way. "This tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that idealize rural life and landscapes."24
5703263631Renga"Began over 700 years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition of poems."25
5703263632RondeauA form of medieval French poetry set to music, usually with a refrain and a verse. "This type of poetry began as lyric form in thirteenth-century France, popular among medieval court poets and musicians."26
5703263633SapphicRelating to a poetic verse pattern associated with Sappho. "The type of poem dates back to ancient Greece and is named for the poet, who left behind many poem fragments written in an unmistakable meter."27
5703263634SestinaA poem composed of six six-line stanzas and a three-line conclusion called an envoi. Each line ends with one of six key words. The alternation of these six words in different positions - but always at the ends of lines - the poems six stanzas creates a rhythmic verbal pattern that unifies the poem. "The thirty-nine-line form is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, the Provencal troubadour of the twelfth century."28
5703263635SonnetA lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single, complete idea or thought with a reversal, twist, or change of direction in the concluding lines. "Means a 'little sound or song,' the sonnet is a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries."29
5703263636TankaA Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the rest of seven. "One of the oldest Japanese forms, tanka originated in the seventh century, and quickly became the preferred verse form in the Japanese Imperial Court."30
5703263637Terza RimaAn arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs, that rhyme aba bcb cdc, etc., as in Dante's Divine Comedy. "Invented by the Italian poet Dante Allighiere in the late thirteenth century to structure his three-part epic poem, "The Divine Comedy"."31
5703263638TrioletA short poem of fixed form, having a rhyme scheme of ab, aa, abab, and having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line repeated as the eighth. The earliest poems were devotionals written by Patrick Carey, a seventeenth-century Benedictine monk."32
5703263639VillanelleA 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern. "Strange as it may seem for a poem with such a rigid rhyme scheme, this type of poem did not start off as a fixed form.33
5703263640DenotationThe dictionary definition of a word34
5703263641ConnotationAn implied meaning of a word. Opposite of denotation. The implied of suggested meaning connected with a word.35
5703263642Literal MeaningLimited to the simplest, ordinary, most obvious meaning36
5703263643Figurative MeaningAssociative or connotative meaning; representational. When writing is meant to be understood at a deeper level. Figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, personification, and other techniques are used to create more vivid, interesting images.37
5703263644MeterA regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a line of verse.38
5703263645RhymeCorrespondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.39
5703263646ApostropheA figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. A direct address of an inanimate object, abstract qualities, or a person not living or present. Example: "Beware, of Asparagus, you've stalked my last meal."40
5703263647HyberboleDeliberate exaggeration for effect (the opposite of understatement). Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."41
5703263648MetaphorA comparison that establishes a figurative identity between objects being compared. A comparison between essentially unlike things without using words or application of a name or description to something to which it is not literary applicable. Example: "[Love] is an ever fixed mark, /that looks on tempests and is never shaken."42
5703263649MetonymyA closely related term substituted for an object or idea. Example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown."43
5703263650OxymoronA combination of two words that appear to contradict each other. Example: "Bittersweet"44
5703263651ParadoxA situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering. Example: "In order to preserve peace, we must prepare for war."45
5703263652PersonificationThe endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities. Example: "Time let me play / and be golden in the mercy of his means."46
5703263653PunPlay on words or a humorous use of a single word or sound with two or more implied meanings; quibble. Example: "They're call lessons...because they lessen from day to day."47
5703263654SimileComparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as "like," "as," or "as though." Example: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"48
5703263655SynecdocheA part substituted for the whole. Example: "Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears"49
5703263656IronyA contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is meant (verbal) or what is expected in a particular circumstance or behavior (situational), or when a character speaks in ignorance of a situation known to the audience or other characters (situational) Example: "Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea"50
5703263657ImageryWord or sequence of words representing a sensory experience (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory) Example: "Bells knelling classes to a close (auditory)51
5703263658SynsthesiaAn attempt to fuse different senses by describing one in terms of another. Example: "The sound of her voice was sweet"52
5703263659SymbolAn object or action that stands for something beyond itself Example: White = innocence, purity, hope.53
5703263660AlliterationThe repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words. Example: "like a wanderer white" or "Peter Piper picked a pail of pickles."54
5703263661AssonanceThe repetition of similar vowel sounds. Example: "I rose and told him of my woe"55
5703263662ElisionThe omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry. Example: "Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame."56
5703263663OnomatopoeiaThe use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Example: "crack" or "whir"57
5703263664AllusionA reference to the person, event, or work outside the poem or literary piece. Example: "Shining, it was Adam and maiden"58
5703263665Open PoetryPoetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line, length, and metrical form.59
5703263666Closed PoetryPoetry that follows a particular shape, stanza count, meter, or rhyme scheme. Poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern.60
5703263667StanzaUnit of a poem often repeated in the same form throughout a poem; a unit of poetic lines ("verse paragraph")61
5703263668CoupletA pair of lines, usually rhymed62
5703263669Heroic CoupletA pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (tradition of the heroic epic form)63
5703263670Quatrainfour-line stanza or grouping of four lines of verse.64
5703263671SonnetFourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme; its subject is traditionally that of love.65
5703263673English (Shakespearean) SonnetA sonnet probably made popular by William Shakespeare with the following rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg66
5703263674Sestet6 line stanza67
5703263675Italian (Petrarchan) SonnetA form of sonnet made popular by Petrarch with the following rhyme scheme: abbaabba cdecde or cdcdcd Its first octave generally presents a thought, picture, or emotion, while its final sestet presents and explanation, comment or summary.68
5703263676StressGreater amount of force used to pronounce one syllable over another.69
5703263677Pause(Caesura) A pause for a beat in the rhythm of the verse (often indicated by a line break or a mark of punctuation)70
5703263678Rising MeterMeter containing metrical feet that move from unstressed to stressed syllables.71
5703263679Iambic (Iamb)A metrical foot containing two syllable-- the first is unstressed, while the second is stressed.72
5703263680Anapestic (anapest)A metrical foot containing three syllables--the first two are unstressed, while the last is stressed73
5703263681Falling MeterMeter containing metrical feet that move from stressed to unstressed syllables.74
5703263682Trochaic (Trochee)A metrical foot containing two syllables--the first is stressed, while the second is unstressed.75
5703263683Dactylic (dactyl)A metrical foot containing three syllables--the first is stressed while the last two are unstressed76
5703263684SpondeeAn untraditional metrical foot in which two consecutive syllables are stressed.77

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