Flashcards
Poetic Forms
Cards in this deck (24)
- 1OpenDefinition:
Poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line length, and metrical form - 2ClosedDefinition:
poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern
Example:
Haiku, sonnet, cinquain, sestina, villanelle - 3Blank VerseBlank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones and five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. It is also known as un-rhymed iambic pentameter.
- Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.
- It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
- It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues - the poems in which a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
- Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iamb, trochee, spondee and dactyl. - 4Free VerseDefinition:
Free verse poems will have no set meter, which is the rhythm of the words, no rhyme scheme, or any particular structure. - 5Heroic CoupletDefinition:
a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (traditional heroic epic form) - 6Tercet3 Line Stanza
- 7Quatrain4 Line Stanza
Four kinds of fully-rhymed quatrain:
- abab is known as cross-rhyme (French rimes croisées or rimes alternées)
- abba as envelope-rhyme (French rimes embrassées)
- aabb is just a couple of couplets; the clerihew is one variety of this.
- aaaa is monorhymed; a particular case is the shairi, or Rustavelian quatrain. - 8Quintain5 Line Stanza
The best-known form of quintain in the English-speaking world is a particular heterometric form (i.e. not all the lines are the same length) called the limerick - 9SextetSix Line Stanza
- 10Septet7 Line Stanza
- 11Octave8 Line Stanza
- 12EnvoiAn envoi or envoy is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.
- 13BalladBallad: a narrative poem written as a series of quatrains in which lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with iambic trimeter with an xaxa, xbxb rhyme scheme with frequent use of repetition
and often including a refrain. The “story” of a ballad can be a wide range of subjects but
frequently deals with folklore or popular legends. They are written in a straight-forward manner, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing: “Barbara Allen” is an example.
Many of the oldest ballads were first written and performed by minstrels as court entertainment. Folk ballads are of unknown origin and are usually lacking in artistic finish.
Because they are handed down by oral tradition, folk ballads are subject to variations and
continual change. Other types of ballads include literary ballads, combining the natures of epic and lyric poetry, which are written by known authors, often in the style and form of the folk ballad, such as Keats’ ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci.” - 14BalladeDefinition:
A French form, it consists of three seven or eight-line stanzas using no more than
three recurrent rhymes, with an identical refrain after each stanza and a closing envoi repeating the rhymes of the last four lines of the stanza - 15Concrete PoetyDefinition:
Concrete Poetry: also known as pattern poetry or shaped verse, these are poems that are printed on the page so that they form a recognizable outline related to the subject, thus conveying or extending the meaning of the words. Pattern poetry retains its meaning when read aloud, whereas the essence of concrete poetry lies in its appearance on the page rather than in the words; it is intended to be perceived as a visual whole and often cannot be effective when read aloud. This form has had brief popularity at several periods in history. - 16EpigramDefinition:
a pithy, sometimes satiric, couplet or quatrain comprising a single thought or event and often aphoristic with a witty or humorous turn of thought
Example:
Candy
Is dandy,
But liquor
Is quicker - 17HaikuHaiku: a Japanese form of poetry consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. The elusive flavor of the form, however, lies more in its touch and tone than in its syllabic structure. Deeply imbedded in Japanese culture and strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, haiku are very brief descriptions of nature that convey some implicit insight or essence of a moment. Traditionally, they contain either a direct or oblique reference to a season
- 18SonnetDefinition:
a fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme; its subject
was traditionally love. Three variations are found frequently in English, although others are occasionally seen. - 19Shakespearian SonnetDefinition:
a style of sonnet used by Shakespeare with a rhyme scheme of abab
cdcd efef gg - 20Italian (Petrarchan) SonnetDefinition:
a form of sonnet made popular by Petrarch with a rhyme scheme of
abbaabba cdecde or cdcdcd - 21Spenserian SonnetDefinition:
a variant of the Shakespearean form in which the quatrains are linked with a
chain or interlocked rhyme scheme, abab bcbc cdcd ee. - 22Sonnet SequenceDefinition:
a series of sonnets in which there is a discernable unifying theme, while each
retains its own structural independence. All of Shakespeare’s sonnets, for example, were part of a sequence - 23TrioletDefinition:
a poem or stanza of eight lines in which the first line is repeated as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line as the eighth, with a rhyme scheme of ABaAabAB, as in Adelaide Crapsey’s “Song” (the capital letters in the rhyme scheme indicate the repetition of identical lines). - 24VillanelleDefinition:
a poem consisting of five 3-line stanzas followed by a quatrain and having only two rhymes. In the stanzas following the first stanza, the first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately as refrains. They are the final two lines of the concluding quatrain. The villanelle gives a pleasant impression of simple spontaneity, as in Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The House on the Hill.”
Information
- Description
- A level English Lit Flashcards on Poetic Forms, created by a.choi787 on 24/03/2015.
- Created by
- a.choi787
- Views
- 10
- Rating