English 3033 Mercer

Terms for Analysis of Poetry (Revised 2-12-07)

“What Is Poetry?”

Definitions of poetry:

• AInitially, poetry might be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language@ (647[b]).
• ["If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"--Emily Dickinson, as quoted by Thomas Wentworth Higginson]

focus, concentration, organization of experience

AWorks of art focus and organize experiences of all kinds, conveying the broad spectrum of human life . . .@ (653[t]).

multidimensional language

“Reading the Poem”

speaker

occasion

central purpose

[central idea / theme]

paraphrase / prose meaning

“Denotation and Connotation”

diction

denotation

connotation

“Imagery”

imagery

[literal imagery]

[figurative imagery]

visual imagery

auditory

olfactory

gustatory

tactile

organic

kinesthetic

synesthesia (873)

“Figurative Language 1”

figure of speech

figurative language

metaphor, extended metaphor

simile [note correct spelling!]

literal term / [tenor]

figurative term / [vehicle]

named term vs. implied term

personification

apostrophe

synecdoche

metonymy

“Figurative Language 2”

symbol

symbolism

underinterpretation

overinterpretation

allegory

“Figurative Language 3”

paradox [vs. oxymoron]

overstatement / hyperbole

understatement

verbal irony

satire

sarcasm [Do NOT use this as a literary term!]

dramatic irony

irony of situation / [situational irony]

“Allusion”

allusion / to allude [vs. illusion, to elude]

“Meaning and Idea”

total meaning

prose meaning / paraphrase

“Tone”

tone

“Musical Devices”

repetition vs. variation

alliteration

assonance

consonance

rhyme

masculine rhyme vs. feminine rhyme

internal rhyme vs. end rhyme

perfect rhyme vs. imperfect rhyme

approximate rhyme / slant rhyme / [half rhyme]

[eye rhyme]

refrain

“Rhythm and Meter”

rhythm [note correct spelling!] vs. meter

verse vs. prose

free verse vs. metrical verse

scan / scansion

rhetorical stress

accented or stressed syllable /

unaccented or unstressed syllable u

end-stopped line vs. run-on line

caesura

free verse

foot / feet

duple meters

iamb / iambic foot u /

strict iambic vs. loose iambic / iambic-anapestic

trochee / trochaic foot / u

spondee / spondaic foot / /

triple meters

anapest / anapestic foot u u /

dactyl / dactylic foot / u u

line

monometer

dimeter

trimeter

tetrameter

pentameter

hexameter

heptameter

octameter

stanza

metrical variations:

substitution

extra-metrical syllables

truncation

blank verse

“Sound and Meaning”

onomatopoeia

phonetic intensives

euphony / euphonious

cacophony / cacophonous

“Pattern”

structure

form

continuous (may use verse paragraphs)

stanzaic / stanza [but a "verse" is a line of poetry, not a stanza!]

couplet

tercet

quatrain

fixed

sonnet

Italian / Petrarchan

octave (abbaabba)

sestet (some combination of cd or cde rhymes)

English / Shakespearean

4 quatrains (abab cdcd efef)

couplet (gg)

villanelle

ballad stanza

pattern poem / shaped verse

“Evaluating Poetry 1”

Criteria for evaluation of poetry

(1) accomplishment of purpose; unity, integration of materials

(2) importance, significance of purpose

poetry vs. verse

inferior poetry

sentimental

rhetorical

didactic

“Evaluating Poetry 2”

good poetry

great poetry

[Types of poetry:

narrative

epic

dramatic

lyric

didactic]