AP Lit - Poetic Forms

longer poetry forcsed on the sequence of events in a plot; tells a story rather than exploring a narrow topic; often told by the storyteller/historian of ancient societies and passed down from generation to generation

a story told in verse which often includes heroes, wars, gods, monsters, and ancient historical events (e.g. Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, Beowulf)

a story told in extended song; often in quatrains with alternating eight and six syllable lines and a “abcb” rhyme scheme (e.g. Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”)

short poetry that explores a narrow topic, emotion, or scene

poems designed to be heard

14 line poem with 4 quatrains and 1 couplet; rhyme scheme = abab cdcd efef gg; used by Shakespeare and many others; ideas generally separate into quatrains and special emphasis given to couplet (e.g. any of Shakespeare’s sonnets)

14 line poem with 1 octave and 1 sestet; rhyme scheme = abbaabba cdcdcd or abbaabba cdecde; octave outlines a problem or idea and sestet solves it or emphasizes it further (e.g. William Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much with Us”)

19 line poem with 5 tercets (aba) and 1 quatrain (abaa)'; refrain 1 repeated in lines 1,6,12,18, refrain 2 repeated in lines 3,9,15,19 (e.g. Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”)

a poem where the speaker describes something to a listener; like a speech in poetic form (e.g. Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”)

a lyric abou death and/or mourning someone'; formal (e.g. Auden’s “Funeral Blues”)

a lyric which praises someone or something (e.g. Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”)

a lyric of three lines that captures the essence of a moment; syllables on each line = 5,7,5; no rhyme

brief witty poem; often opens a chapter in a book

humourous five line poem; rhyme sheme - aabba; lines 1,2,5 have 3 feet, lines 3,4 have 2 feet

a poem designed to teach something to the reader

a poem that idealizes the countryside

a poem where the words take the shape of the subject

a poem that ridicules another through humourous imitation

unstructured poetry, no regular rhyme or rhythm

unrhymed iambic pentameter (e.g. Shakespeare’s plays)

regular rhythm and rhyme, opposite of free verse

a poem’s paragraph (generally 2-8 lines in length)

2 consecutive lines of poetry that have the same rhythm and rhyme

a stanza of 3 lines

a stanza of 4 lines

a stanza of 6 lines

a stanza of 8 lines

the shift in ideas which occurs in beginning of the sestet of an Italian sonnet

the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse

unstressed stressed (e.g. “behold”, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all'“)

stressed unstressed (e.g. “forest”, “Should you ask me, whence these stories?”)

unstressed unstressed stressed (e.g. “reminisce”, “and the sound of a voice that is still”)

stressed unstressed unstressed (e.g. “murmuring”, “Half a league”)

stressed stressed (e.g. “bookmark”, “Out, out brief candle”)

unstressed unstressed (e.g. “…and a…”, “the season of mists”)

the repetition of sounds in 2 or more words or phrases

the pattern of end rhymes in a poem

rhyme within a line of verse

a grouping of 2+ syllables which is repeated in a line of verse

a line with 5 feet, where each foot has 1 unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

the flow of a phrase from one line of poetry to another with no punctuation

a direct comparison between two dissimilar objects, introduced by the words “like” or “as” (e.g. “He ran like a scared cat.”

implied comparison between 2 dissimilar objects, does not use “like” or “as” (e.g. “Elvira is a monster when she’s angry”)

kind of metaphor that gives human qualities to inanimate or non-human objects (e.g. “Fear crept through the tiny village.”)

special form of personification where someone absent or something non-human is spoken to as if it were present, alive, and able to respond (e.g. “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”)

an exaggeration or overstatement (e.g. “I have tons of homework!”)

when a writer uses a part of something to represent the whole thing (e.g. “He works hard because he has six mouths to feed at home”)

similar to synecdoche, but object is used to refer to something that is related but larger (e.g. “Tex always grumbles about City Hall.”)

reference to a historical or literary figure or event (e.g. “Ralph is such a Scrooge when he buys presents.”)

apparent contradiction that is actually true (e.g. “The more a man learns, the more he realizes how little he knows.”)

creation of a pattern of sound using repeated vowel sounds (partial rhyme) (e.g. “S__i__gn of the t__i__mes”)

creation of sounds patterns by repeating initial consonant sounds (e.g. “The __f__air breeze blew, the white __f__oam __f__lew,/The __f__urrow __f__ollowed __f__ree.”)

sound pattern formed by repeating consonant (not necessarily initial) (e.g. “To be a__ll__ a__l__one beyond my l__over’s ca__ll”)

aka imitative harmony; occurs when the word imitates the sound it describes (e.g. “The buzzing of the bees, the hiss of the snake, the crackle of the fire”)

occurs when words or phrases are repeated for emphasis (e.g. “And I have primises to keep,/And miles to go before I sleep/And miles to go before I sleep”)

commingling of harsh or discordant sounds