Poetry Flashcards
(53 cards)
What are the goals of poetry?
explore / confront / rationalise / intelectualise feelings
convey emotion directly or indirectly
What are the three types of poetry?
lyric
narrative
dramatic
What is lyric poetry?
originally sung / chanted
highly personal
subjective & melodic reflections - ideas, people or
places
Ode - longer lyric for serious occasion
Elegy - for someone’s death
What is narrative poetry?
tell stories
epic = longest of narrative poems
ballad = highly rhythmic narrative poem
What are dramatic poems?
invented speaker / persona who speaks in dramatic monologue (normally a sililoquy in a play)
What must be kept in mind when considering poems in translation?
that the diction of the translator may govern the result o the poem
What are the differences between speaker and persona?
persona - “I” pronoun
effect : personal, immediate, engaging
speaker - “he” “she” “they” (similar to 3rd person)
effect : less personal, less intimate
What are key factors that must be considered when reading a poem?
Time & Place
be aware of allusions
What is diction?
refers to the specific vocabulary used by a writer to express their point of view
AKA word choice
consider CONNOTATIONS - implied meanings
effect : add emotion = impact / intensity
What is syntax?
the way words & phrases are arranged to form phrases / clauses / sentences
syntax choice = possible rhythmic patterns /metric / rhyme changes
effect: changes the sound of words & their suggested meaning
What is inversion?
reversing accepted syntactic patterns e.g. subject, verb & object
effect : emphasis / stress on a word
What is figurative language / figures of speech?
attempt to define something in terms of comparison to something else which is more familiar
effect: convey meaning & emotion + access senses
What are metaphors?
comparison of two essentially unlike things expressed DIRECTLY
NO COMPARATIVE WORDS
What are similes?
comparison of two essentially unlike things expressed INDIRECTLY
“like” & “as”
What is personification?
abstraction defined with human qualities
comparison of inanimate to animate
effect : abstract now concrete
How can sound be affected?
onomatopoeia
assonance
consonance
alliteration
effect : stress words, intensify / break rhythms
What is onomatopoeia?
word sounds like what it describes
e.g. splat , bubble , gurgle , murmur
What is assonance?
repeated vowel sounds within a line or several lines
effect : adds rhythm
What is consonance?
repetition of a consonant sound within a line
What is alliteration?
repetition of a beginning consonant sound in a series of 2 or more words
What are possible poem structures?
narrative
discursive
descriptive
reflective / meditative
When is a descriptive framework used?
to create a clear portrayal
rely on visual detail
When is a discursive framework used?
to present an argument
needs to be convincing
dramatisize events that will argue a point more subtly
When is a narrative framework used?
when events are in chronological order
