Literary Terminology Describing Poetry
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AP English Literature and Composition › Literary Terminology Describing Poetry
1 Infer the wilds which next pertain.
2 Though travel here be still a walk,
3 Small heart was theirs for easy talk.
4 Oblivious of the bridle-rein
5 Rolfe fell to Lethe altogether,
6 Bewitched by that uncanny weather
7 Of sultry cloud. And home-sick grew
8 The banker. In his reverie blue
9 The cigarette, a summer friend,
10 Went out between his teeth—could lend
11 No solace, soothe him nor engage.
12 And now disrelished he each word
13 Of sprightly, harmless persiflage
14 Wherewith young Glaucon here would fain
15 Evince a jaunty disregard.
16 But hush betimes o’ertook the twain—
17 The more impressive, it may be,
18 For that the senior, somewhat spent,
19 Florid overmuch and corpulent,
20 Labored in lungs, and audibly.
(1876)
"Word" (line 12) and "disregard" (line 15) are an example of .
slant rhyme
true end rhyme
feminine rhyme
internal rhyme
sprung rhythm
Explanation
A "slant rhyme" is a rhyme which is almost a true rhyme, but not quite. That is, the ending sounds of the words are close to matching, but are not precisely the same. Here, "word" and "disregard" have the same ending consonant sounds: "rd." Their vowel sounds do not match, however. The "o" in "word" and the "a" in "disregard" are similar sounds, but not identical, so this is a slant rhyme and not a true rhyme.
Passage adapted from Herman Melville's epic poem Clarel (1876).
1 Yes, long as children feel affright
2 In darkness, men shall fear a God;
3 And long as daisies yield delight
4 Shall see His footprints in the sod.
5 Is't ignorance? This ignorant state
6 Science doth but elucidate --
7 Deepen, enlarge. But though 'twere made
8 Demonstrable that God is not --
9 What then? It would not change this lot:
10 The ghost would haunt, nor could be laid.
11 Yea, ape and angel, strife and old debate --
12 The harps of heaven and the dreary gongs of hell;
13 Science the feud can only aggravate --
14 No umpire she betwixt the chimes and knell:
15 The running battle of the star and clod
16 Shall run for ever -- if there be no God.
(1876)
Lines 1-10 exhibit .
tetrameter
dimeter
pentameter
free verse
tercets
Explanation
"Meter" refers to the rhythm of poetry. "Tetrameter" is a meter in which lines consist of four metrical "feet." A metrical "foot" is a unit usually containing two and sometimes three syllables, and usually containing only one stressed syllable. Lines 1-10 of this passage are written in tetrameter. For example, in line 3, "And long as daisies yield delight," there are four metrical feet (all iambs, in this case). Here is that same line of tetrameter divided out into its four metrical feet: "And long / as dai- / -sies yeild / delight."
Passage excerpted from the epic poem Clarel by Herman Melville (1876).
1 Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven
2 That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
3 And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
4 So wild that every casual thought of that and this
5 Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
6 With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
7 And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
8 Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
9 Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
10 Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
11 Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
12 By the injustice of the skies for punishment?
(1916)
"Ice" (line 2) and "this" (line 4) are an example of
slant rhyme
true end rhyme
internal rhyme
free verse
feminine rhyme
Explanation
A "slant rhyme" is a pair of words that almost rhyme (have identical ending syllables), but not quite. "Ice" at the end of line 2 and "this" at the end of line 4 are a good example of a slant rhyme. They have the same final consonant sound--the "s" sound. Their vowels, however, while being similar, are not the same. "Ice" has a long "i" sound while "this" has a short "i" sound. Therefore, the words sound very similar, but are not identical. They comprise a slant rhyme, and not a true rhyme.
Passage adapted from William Butler Yeats' "The Cold Heaven" (1916)
'Hard by yon Wood, now frowning as in Scorn,
'Mutt'ring his wayward Fancies he wou'd rove,
'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
'Or craz'd with Care, or cross'd in hopeless Love.
'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd Hill, (5)
'Along the Heath, and near his fav'rite Tree;
'Another came; nor yet beside the Rill,
'Nor up the Lawn, nor at the Wood was he.
'The next with Dirges due in sad Array
'Slow thro' the Church-way Path we saw him born. (10)
'Approach and read (for thou canst read) the Lay,
'Grav'd on the Stone beneath yon aged Thorn.
(1751)
Which line in the passage contains an aside?
Line 11
Line 9
Line 7
Line 5
Line 3
Explanation
In line 11, we have a short parenthetical statement that interrupts the flow of the sentence. This technique is known as an aside and can perform a variety of functions in poetry.
Excerpt adapted from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. (1751)
I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.
With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.
I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.
(1918)
Line three makes use of .
Apostrophe
Metonymy
Indirect Address
Directionality
All of these
Explanation
An apostrophe is the address of someone or something not directly present in the scene. In this case, the speaker addresses the line in the second person ("you") to his heart.
In a different context, this line might have offered an example of metonymy had "heart" been used as a stand-in for "love." Since that's not the case, there's no metonymy here.
Passage adapted from "\[I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day\]" (1918) by Gerald Manley Hopkins.
I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. (5)
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
What literary device can be seen in line 1?
Apostrophe
Allegory
Metonymy
Pun
Jocularity
Explanation
An apostrophe is a direct address by a narrator to a reader or to another character, and that is the device seen with “O my love.” Allegory is the use of a story or extended metaphor to make a philosophical or moral point (e.g. George Orwell’s Animal Farm). Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word that’s commonly associated with it (e.g. using “throne” to discuss a monarchy). A pun is a play on words, and jocularity is the quality of being jovial.
Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.
… It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And tie my tie once more.
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight
Crash on a white sand shore.
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair:(5)
How small and white my face!—
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea... (10)
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me....
(1919)
Lines 10 and 12 both display what literary technique?
Aposiopesis
Synesthesia
Paradox
Aphorism
None of these
Explanation
Aposiopesis is the sudden, deliberate breaking-off of a line of writing or speech for deliberate effect, as seen here. Synesthesia is the conflation of different sensory perceptions (e.g. a velvety sound, a bright flavor). Paradoxes are contradictory statements, something that seems impossible (e.g. Odysseus’ “I am no man” in The Odyssey). An aphorism is a pithy saying or adage (e.g. “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”).
Passage adapted from Conrad Aiken’s “Morning Song From ‘Senlin.’” Modern American Poetry, ed.Louis Untermeyer. (1919)
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, (5)
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
What literary technique can be found in line 9?
Anastrophe
Enjambment
Consonance
Assonance
Prolepsis
Explanation
This convoluted or inverted syntax (“Speak will I of the other things I saw there”) is a prime example of anastrophe, the purposeful inversion of normal sentence structure for dramatic effect or metrical harmony. Enjambment is a poetic technique in which the meaning and syntax of one line are carried over and finished in the next line (e.g. Robert Frost’s “And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it”). Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (e.g. “a bitter debtor”), while assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds (e.g. Edgar Allan Poe’s “the mellow wedding bells”). Prolepsis is another word for flash forward, the literary technique of telling the reader what’s going to happen in the story’s future.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton. (1920)
1 O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
2 The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
3 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
4 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
5 But O heart! heart! heart!
6 O the bleeding drops of red,
7 Where on the deck my Captain lies,
8 Fallen cold and dead.
(1865)
What literary technique is used in the first line of the poem?
Apostrophe
Allegory
Metaphor
Allusion
Metonymy
Explanation
An apostrophe is a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if that person or thing were alive, present, and able to reply. Here, the speaker is talking to his captain, who is longer alive.
(Passage adapted from "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman, ln. 1-8, 1865)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
"I shall but love thee better after death," (line 14) can be described as .
hyperbole
alliteration
metonymy
asyndeton
a simile
Explanation
"I shall but love thee better after death," (line 14) can be described as hyperbole, as it is an exaggerated figure of speech.