Poetic Devices and Structure Quiz

Poetic Devices and Structure

• Poetic devices are special literary techniques to enhance meaning in poetry, using sound, form, and function.
• Common devices include rhyme, meter, alliteration, caesura, simile, metaphor, irony, and allusion.
• Caesura creates dramatic pauses for reader reflection.
• Devices enhance enjoyment, understanding, and experience of poems.
• Rhyme and meter improve memorability and transmission of poems.

Poetic Structure

• Poem structure combines all formal elements.
• Elements include meter and rhythm (regular beat), rhyme scheme (rhyming words), and form (stanza length).
• In plays, structure prioritizes different elements like:
  • In medias res: Starting in the middle of the action.
  • Flashbacks: Showing events before the play's start.
  • Varying scene length: Supporting the author's message and engaging the audience.
• Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his poems and shorter final-act scenes in plays to build tension.

"Ozymandias" Summary

• "Ozymandias" is a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
• It describes a destroyed statue of Ozymandias.
• The poem examines the impermanence of empires.
• Shelley suggests that art, like his poem, endures over time, resisting decay.

"Sonnet 18" Summary

• "Sonnet 18" by Shakespeare uses a metaphor to compare the youth's beauty with summer.
• The poem suggests that the youth's beauty will last longer than a fleeting summer day.
• The poem's structure includes three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, predominantly in iambic pentameter, with some variations.
• Shakespeare uses repetition and personification to amplify themes.

"Sonnet 73" Summary

• "Sonnet 73" by Shakespeare follows the Elizabethan sonnet form with 3 quatrains and a couplet.
• The speaker compares himself to a fading tree, setting sun, and dying fire.
• Underlying the speaker's aging through nature is the theme of love for the person addressed.
• The poem then pivots to his enduring love for the other, illustrating the resilience of love amidst aging.
• The sonnet explores themes of mortality, nature, old age, and enduring love.

Reading for Understanding (General)

• Writers use main ideas, themes, plots, and supporting details to convey meaning.
• Main idea is a one/two-sentence summary of the writing's central point.
• Theme is an overall message or moral of a piece.
• Supporting details are the details used to explain or demonstrate the main idea.

Identifying the Main Idea

• The main idea is the author's central point.
• Main ideas can be stated or implied.
• Identifying implied main ideas involves:
  • Determining the passage's topic.
  • Connecting specific details.
  • Using clues in the text to clarify the main point.

Sequencing and Ordering Information

• Authors use sequencing to order events.

• Types of sequencing include chronological order (events as they occurred), instructional order (events in order of completion), and foundational order (building on assumed previous knowledge).

• Recognizing these sequencing types is important to comprehending the author's choices.

Test your knowledge of poetic devices and structural elements in poetry. Explore how various techniques like rhyme, meter, and caesura enhance the experience and meaning of poems. Challenge yourself with questions that cover both the sound and form of poetry as well as examples from famous playwrights.