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Reference to a familiar person or event, often from literature, religion, or mythology. Example: Feeling like Sisyphus, the young fry cook stared at his seemingly stopped watch and could not help but note the absurdity of his job. No matter how fast he worked, no matter how many Big Macs he stuffed into bags, new ones would always appear in their place. (In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a cruel king condemned forever to roll a huge stone up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again on nearing the top. In the above example, the Sisyphus example underscores the absurdity of the fry cook's job.) Allusions often help establish tone. Flip through your copy of MSND. Locate an allusion and write it here:
word choice. "There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words." (Dorothy Parker, 1956)
double entendre A clever use of words to create a double meaning. When Bottom becomes an “ass”
(hi-PURR-buh-lee) A deliberate overstatement. Example: Ma, is going to the dentist going to kill? or This book bag weighs a ton. “My mistress with a monster is in love.” (III.ii.)
Imagery Figurative language used to evoke particular mental pictures. But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. (I.i.)
v. To draw a reasonable conclusion from something that is suggested, implied, or not explicit. To “read between the lines.”
The act of placing two things close together for the sake of comparison. For example, Titania’s magical and beautiful presence is juxtaposed with Bottom’s ridiculous, hideous one.
A statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. An argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises. A person that possesses seemingly contradictory qualities or phases; "`I always lie' is a paradox because if it is true it must be false. Demetrius’s hate makes Helena love him more.
A paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun ("eloquent silence") or adverb-adjective ("inertly strong") relationship, and is used for effect, to emphasize contrasts, incongruities, hypocrisy, or simply the complex nature of reality. Examples: wise fool, ignorantly learned, laughing sadness, pious hate, jumbo shrimp.
Words whose spelling captures a sound associated with it. Example: sizzle, woof.
In literature, something that stands for, or means, something else and creates new, rich meaning.
Symbols • Dove is a symbol of peace. • Red rose or red color stands for love or romance. • Black color is a symbol that represents evil or death. • A ladder may stand as a symbol for a connection between the heaven and the earth. • A broken mirror may symbolize separation
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...”
Characterization Flat vs. Round Characters Flat: a character without complexities. Round: a complex, multi-dimensional character
Characterization con’t Dynamic versus Static Dynamic: a character who changes or reveals a changing theme Static: a character who does not undergo changes; stock-type character
Thus far, who are the flat/round characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
Sonnet A fourteen line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme focused on one theme.
From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
Rhyme Scheme Bid me to weep, and I will weep While I have eyes to see; And having none, yet I will keep A heart to weep for thee.
Lyric Poetry Poetry that expresses the poet’s innermost feelings, thoughts, and imagination. Turn back the heart you've turned away Give back your kissing breath Leave not my love as you have left The broken hearts of yesterday But wait, be still, don't lose this way Affection now, for what you guess May be something more, could be less Accept my love, live for today. (James DeFord, 1997)
Hymn A hymn is a song specifically written as a song of praise, adoration or prayer, typically addressed to a god.
Free Verse Poetry without standardized rhyme, meter, or structure. It is not formless, however, but relies on its own words and content to determine its best form.
The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. (Carl Sandburg)
Blank Verse a verse form consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's plays are largely in blank verse.
Couplet a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse; usually rhymed
Ballad A story told in verse and usually meant to be sung.
Ode a poem of celebration, originally dedicated to an individual or marking a particular event, but now a more personal expression of admiration or wonder. “Ode to My Socks” by Neruda
Apostrophe A figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something non-human is addressed as if alive and present and could reply. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?"
Assonance The repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. “The monster spoke in a low mellow tone” has assonance in its repetition of the “o” sound.
Consonance poetic device characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession, as in "pitterpatter" or in "all mammals named Sam are clammy"
Stanza stanza- a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
Octave Two stanzas of iambic pentameter of the rhyme scheme abba abba.An octave is seen at the beginning of a Petrarchan sonnet.
Octave example Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: - A England hath need of thee: she is a fen - B Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, - B Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, - A Have forfeited their ancient English dower - A Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; - B Oh! raise us up, return to us again; - B And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. - A “London, 1802” by William Wordsworth
Quatrain Usually a stanza or poem of four lines. However, a quatrain may also be any group of four lines. Unified by a rhyme scheme. Quatrains usually follow an abab, abba, or abcb rhyme scheme. The mountain frames the sky (a) As a shadow of an eagle flies by. (a) With clouds hanging at its edge (b) A climber proves his courage on its rocky ledge. (b) “The Mountain” Donna Brock
Sestet The last six lines of a Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet. The sestet, from the Latin word for six, usually has a rhyme scheme of cdecde. A thought or idea that is introduced in the first eight lines, octave, of the poem is sometimes further developed in the sestet.
Sestet Example Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; - C Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: - D Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, - D So didst thou travel on life's common way , - E In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart - C The lowliest duties on herself did lay. - E
Petrarchan Sonnet a fourteen line poem divided into an octave and a sestet. (see above; Wordsworth)
Volta volta, ( Italian: “turn”) the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or And yet. The volta occurs between the octet and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet and sometimes between the 8th and 9th or between the 12th and 13th lines of a Shakespearean sonnet, as in William Shakespeare’s sonnet number 130
Refrain a phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated throughout a poem, usually after every stanza.
“Annabelle Lee” by Edgar Allen Poe For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.
