Poetry Fundamentals Quiz

Study Notes

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).

Description

Explore the essential elements of poetry, including its unique language and structural rules. Test your understanding of key terms like verse, stanza, and foot while diving into different poetic forms such as couplets and sonnets.