Poetry

Question 1

Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet

Answer 1

• 14 lines
• Iambic
• First stanza is an octave (8 lines)
• Second Stanza is a sestet (6 lines)
• Octave has rhyme scheme: abbacddc
• Sestet can be: cdcdcd, cddcdc, cdecde, cdeced, cdcedc
• Topic is love

Question 2

English/Shakespearean Sonnet

Answer 2

• 14 lines (Iambic)
• 3 quatrains of four lines and one of two
• Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcdefefgg
• Shakespeare mocked love

Question 3

Ballad

Answer 3

• Has short narrative in 4 line stanzas with distinctive meter
• Meter is first and third line with 4 stresses then second and fourth has 3 stresses
• Rhyme scheme: abab or abcb
• Usually about communal stories of lost love, supernatrual happenings or recent events
• Use popular and local speech and dialogue to convey a story

Question 4

Elegy

Answer 4

• A lament that mourns for a dead person, lists his/her virtues and seeks further consolation/closure
• Often expresses personal loss and a cultural grief with the subject shown to have social virtues
• Can also be about a solemn theme

Question 5

Pastoral

Answer 5

• Imitates and celebrates the virtues of rural life

* Contemporary versions may mourn or celebrate rural life or idyllic settings

Question 6

Ode

Answer 6

• Originally a solemn, heroic and elevated form of poetry
• For a person, object or event
• Contemporary Versions examine a broader range of subjects (e.g. lyric crisis)

Question 7

Villanelle

Answer 7

• 19 lines
• 5 stanzas with 3 each but 4 in the last
• First line in first stanza is last line of second and fourth stanzas
• Third line in first stanza is last line of third and fifth stanzas
• These two lines become last two lines of poem
• Rhyme acheme is A-B-A

Question 8

Spenserian

Answer 8

• Variation of english sonnet
• Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
• Quatrains are linked by continuation of one end rhyme from previous stanza

Question 9

Miltonic

Answer 9

•Petarchan sonnet without volta