Poetry Flashcards
What is a sonnet ??
The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word “sonetto,” which means a “little song”
how many lines has a sonnet ?
In poetry, a sonnet has 14 lines, and is written in iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter (/aɪˌæmbɪk pɛnˈtæmɪtər/ eye-AM-bik pen-TAM-it-ər) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in each line.
Pentameter
Pentameter is a literary device that can be defined as a line in verse or poetry that has five strong metrical feet or beats. There are different forms of pentameter: iamb, trochaic, dactylic, and anapestic.
Edmund Spencer
Elizabethan Era1558 to 1603
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
‘Vain man,’ said she, ‘that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.’
‘Not so,’ (quod I); ‘let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.’
What did Spencer’s Beloved ?
Spenser’s beloved chastises him for his hubris and arrogance in seeking to immortalize her in this way, when she is but a woman, and only mortal.
What is a Volta ?
A turn of thought or argument in poetry is called the volta. It is a rhetorical shift. In some ways, it is a dramatic change in emotions or thoughts that the poet is expressing in the poem. Some call ‘volta’ as ‘turn’ ‘fulcrum’ ‘the center.’ ‘swerve’ or ‘focus’ or ‘emotional pitch’.
D.H Lawrence
I never saw..
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
D.H. Lawrence
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Coleridge Samuel Taylor
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner
IT is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
‘By thy long beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.’
He holds him with his skinny hand,
‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.
‘Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!’
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
‘The ship was cheer’d, the harbour clear’d,
The ship was cheer’d, the harbour clear’d,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Bellow the lighthouse top
Demain dès l’aube V Hugo
Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne, Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la forêt, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.
Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées.
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées, Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.
Je ne regarderai ni l’or du soir qui tombe, Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur, Et quand j’arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur.
Victor Hugo
Les Contemplations (1856)
Prudent, réservé dans mes actions et mes jugements.
Circonspect
