Poetry Fundamentals Quiz

Poetry Fundamentals

• Poetry is different from prose, often featuring unconventional language and thought patterns.
• Poems have rules, albeit less obvious than those in prose.
• Studying poetry involves understanding key terms related to form, structure, and language.
• Poetry can be seen as a form of song, organized into verses and stanzas.

Technical Terms

• Verse: A section within a poem, akin to a stanza in a song.
• Stanza: A group of lines structured rhythmically.
  • Couplet: Two-line stanza, often rhyming.
  • Tercet/Triplet: Three-line stanza.
  • Quatrain: Four-line stanza.
  • Sonnet: Fourteen-line stanza.
• Line: A single line of verse within a stanza.
• Foot: The basic unit of measurement in poetry, based on rhythmic stress patterns.
  • Iamb: Unstressed-stressed syllable (da-DA).
  • Trochee: Stressed-unstressed syllable (DA-da).
  • Anapest: Two unstressed-stressed syllable (da-da-DA).
  • Dactyl: Stressed-two unstressed syllables (DA-da-da).
  • Spondee: Two stressed syllables (DA-DA).
• Meter: The pattern of stresses in a poem.
• Rhythm: The sound patterns created by meter.
• Iambic pentameter: A common meter in English poetry consisting of five iambs per line.
• Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
• Scansion: Analyzing the meter and rhythm of a poem by marking stresses.
• Free verse: Poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Literary Terms

• Denotation: A word's literal meaning.
• Connotation: A word's implied or associated meaning.
• Poetic tropes/wordplay: Techniques used to create richer meanings and effects in poetry.
  • Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.
  • Analogy: Comparison of dissimilar things.
  • Apostrophe: Addressing something not present as if it were.
  • Hyperbole: Exaggeration for effect.
  • Irony: The contrast between expected and actual meaning. Types include: verbal, dramatic, and situational.
  • Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds.
  • Pathetic fallacy: Attribution of human emotions to nature.
  • Synecdoche: Using a part to represent the whole.

Types of Poetry

• Ballad: Short, song-like poems on a single subject, often following a specific rhythmic pattern (iambic tetrameter/trimeter).
• Bucolic/pastoral: Focuses on rural life.
• Doggerel: Humorous, often bawdy poems.
• Elegy: Poem mourning a loss.
• Epic poetry: Long poems about heroic adventures.
• Narrative poem: Poems that tell a story.
• Sonnet: Fourteen-line poems, often about love and following specific rhyme schemes (Shakespearean, Petrarchan).