AP Lit - Poetic Forms

narrative poetry

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

epic

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

ballad

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”)

lyric poetry

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

song

poems designed to be heard

English/Shakespearean sonnet

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)

Italian/Petrarchan sonnet

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”)

villanelle

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”)

dramatic monologue

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

elegy

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

ode

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

haiku

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

epigram

brief witty poem; often opens a chapter in a book

limerick

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

didactic poetry

a poem designed to teach something to the reader

pastoral poetry

a poem that idealizes the countryside

concrete poem

a poem where the words take the shape of the subject

parody

a poem that ridicules another through humourous imitation

open verse/free verse

unstructured poetry, no regular rhyme or rhythm

blank verse

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

closed form

regular rhythm and rhyme, opposite of free verse

stanza

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

couplet

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

tercet

a stanza of 3 lines

quatrain

a stanza of 4 lines

sestet

a stanza of 6 lines

octave

a stanza of 8 lines

volta

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

rhythm

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

iambic

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

trochaic

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

anapestic

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

dactylic

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

spondaic

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

pyrrhic

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

rhyme

the repetition of sounds in 2 or more words or phrases

rhyme scheme

the pattern of end rhymes in a poem

internal rhyme

rhyme within a line of verse

foot

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

iambic pentameter

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

enjambment

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

simile

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

metaphor

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

personification

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

apostrophe

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.”)

hyperbole

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

synecdoche

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”)

metonymy

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

allusion

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

paradox

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

assonance

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

alliteration

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.”)

consonance

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”)

onomatopoeia

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”)

repetition

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”)

dissonance

commingling of harsh or discordant sounds