AP Lit: How to Read Poetry Like a Professor Test
What is a prose poem?
a body of poetry that has no lines
Define simile.
a comparison using "like" or "as"
Define metaphor.
a comparison without using "like" or "as"
What is a stanza?
a grouping of lines that will be repeated throughout the poem
What is an elegy?
a poem memorializing someone recently deceased
What is the "sound of sense"?
a poem should have a certain sound that conveys a sense of what is being said
What is ekphrastic poetry?
a poem that strives to capture an object or scene
What is a metrical foot?
a repeatable pattern of stresses
What is end rhyme?
a rhyme at the end of a line
What is an independent clause?
a sentence that can stand on its own
What is assonance?
a series of uses of the same vowel sound in close proximity
What is consonance?
a series of words in close proximity employing the same or related sounds
What is alliteration?
a series of words in succession all beginning with the same sound
What are liquid sounds?
a vowel-like consonant due to the tongue partially closing
What is a participle?
adds an 'ing' to make a verb a noun or adjective
What is a conceit?
an extended metaphor
What is a symbol?
an object, action, or phrase that stands for something beyond itself
What is an enjambed line? How do you treat it when reading poetry?
an unpunctuated line-end; treat it like it's nothing, keep reading smoothly
What is blank verse?
an unrhymed verse
Where can consonance appear in words?
anywhere
For most of its history, English poetry has been built on a foundation of lines that in turn...
are built out of words arranged to form rhythmic patterns
How is blank verse different from free verse?
blank verse still follows the poetic conventions
What is one cause of a poem's vertical arrangement?
causes the poem to last longer
What four forms of punctuation make you pause?
commas, colons, semicolons, dashes
What is a kenning?
compound nouns that describe a third thing
What are nasal consonants?
consonants that cause us to push air out of our nostrils when we say them (m or n)
What is a prepositional phrase?
contains a preposition and its object
"Line breaks introduce ______."
drama
What is iambic pentameter?
five iambs laid end to end to make a line (five metrical feet)
What is common measure?
four metrical feet in lines one/three three metrical feet in lines two/four
"Meter isn't law, it's ___________."
framework
Define an ode.
great length, serious tone/subject, formal structure
What should you do with stresses when you read a poem? Why?
ignore them because they will make their sound naturally
What are strophes?
irregular divisions in stanzas
What is a masculine ending?
last syllable of a line is stressed
What is a feminine ending?
last syllable of a line is unstressed
What is one critical difference between poetry and prose?
lines
What is the basic tension of poetry?
meaning lies in words, melody in sounds
What is an iamb?
metrical foot composed of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
How long is a stanza?
no more than 10 lines
What is the name of a 10-line stanza?
no name
Define dactyl.
one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
Whatever the form, the poem will be aimed at giving readers some sort of ___________.
pleasure
Rhyme is not _________.
poetry
What is "closed form poetry"?
poetry with really strict rules
Rule number five: Obey all ___________, including its _________.
punctuation, absence
What three forms of punctuation make you stop?
question marks, exclamation marks, periods
What is the basic concept of reading that remains intact while reading poetry?
read from a capital letter to the first following period
What is one last rule?
read it again
What is one obvious example of a way to create rhythm in a poem?
repetition
Define internal rhyme.
rhymes within lines
What is an identical rhyme?
rhyming something by using repetition
"When we assume that the said personage is the poet" while talking/writing about a poem, we "______________________________"
run the risk of missing the point
Virtually all poems are written in ____________. The policy to follow is to _____ ___ ____________.
sentences, read the sentences
What is the structure of a sestina?
six 6 line stanzas
When we discuss poems, we refer to __________ rather than _____________.
speakers, narrators
What is prosody?
the broader study of technical matters involving meter and form
How is page placement just as much part of rhythm as the pattern of the words?
the pauses caused by spatial leaps help us to slow down and serve as a form of punctuation
Define diction.
the words, modes of phrasing, and use of figurative language
Why are poems easier to talk about than define?
there are so many exceptions
What is a lyric poem?
they are relatively short and slightly musical
What is a narrative poem?
they tell a story
What is meant by semantic level of words?
thinking in terms of meaning
What is meant by syntactic level of words?
thinking in terms of words' relationships with each other
Define anapest.
three-syllable foot; two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed
What does it mean to "own your reading"?
to be confident in your own interpretations because everyone's will be different
Define spondee.
two stressed syllables in a row
An elegy is a _____ rather than a _____.
type, form
Define idiosyncratic.
unique to an individual
free verse
verse where there is no regular metrical pattern
Why should poems be read aloud?
we will learn to feel the poetry
What is sprung rhythm?
when a poet moves stresses onto syllables or words not normally stressed, which achieves idiosyncratic effects
What is feminine rhyme?
when two or more syllables rhyme
What is scansion?
where the stresses fall in lines of poetry
A good way to think of figurative language is to think of the devices as...
word-pictures
What matters most in metrical counting?
words don't matter, syllables do
What is onomatopoeia?
words that sound like things they describe
quintain
5 lines, very rare
What is a verset?
small verses
What is Terza Rima?
"third rhyme" (rhyming words occur 3 times) an interlocking rhyme, where the second line rhyme becomes the first/third line rhyme in the next stanza
What are the three rules?
1. Read the words 2. Read ALL the words 3. Read sentences
What are three things poetry does?
1. seeks to explore our deepest thoughts, feelings, and experiences 2. create intensity 3. helps us look at the world in a new way
How many lines are in a sonnet?
14
What is the structure of a rondeau?
15 lines divided unevenly between 3 stanzas
How many lines does a villanelle have?
19
couplet
2 lines, often rhyming
tercet
3 lines
Rule number four says to ignore lines on first reading. Why are lines enemies of meaning?
They cause us to pause...only pause for punctuation, not ends of lines!
Foster writes that we should think of diction as the 5Ws of journalism. What are the questions we should be asking?
Who, what, where, when, why
What is another way to create rhythm?
alliteration
What is tetrameter?
four metrical feet per line
What is a caesura?
indicates some sort of break in the middle of a line
What is poetic license?
the freedom we give poets to abuse grammar and word order rules in order to achieve a desired effect
What is a haiku?
3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables, two images juxtaposed
quatrain
4 lines, most commonly used
sestet
6 lines
rime royal
7 lines
What is a triolet?
8 lines with the wording of line 1 repeated in lines 4 and 7, and the wording of line 2 repeated in line 8
octave
8 lines, rhyme scheme = ABABABCC
spenserian stanza
9 lines, rhyme scheme = ABABBCBCC
