Poetic Flashcards

[Erika S]

In my quest for knowledge, and in accordance with my perfectionist nature, I have decided to compile my own set of poetic terms and their definitions. I have a good list, but I'd like some suggestions. So anyone got some essential poetic terms they'd like to throw out?

Here's a small sample of what I've got so far:
cliche
assonance
consonance
onomatapea (sp)
alliteration
rhyme
feminine rhyme
masculine rhyme (etc, etc, etc on the rhyme bit)
sonnet
ballad
ode (etc, etc, etc on the forms)
stanza
strophe
antistrophe
epode

These are all things I know, so the more obscure the seggestion, the better. Even if I don't understand it now, it will be there when I'm ready for it.

http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/smile.gif Thanks

Erika

[Rachel Lindley]

You could also add the names of meter and line length:

iamb (weak-strong)
trochee (strong-weak)
anapest (weak-weak-stong)
pyrric (weak-weak)
spondee (strong-strong)
dactyl (strong-weak-weak)
amphimacer (strong-weak-strong)
amphibrachys (weak-strong-weak)

unimeter (one metric foot)
dimeter (two)
trimeter (three)
tetrameter (four)
pentameter (five)
etc. etc.

Rachel

[Erika S]

Rachel -

I've never heard of the last two feet. Thanks!

-Erika

[clive]

Can I draw your attention to Lewis Turco's "The New Book Of Forms - A Handbook Of Poetics"(University Of New England Press), which is chock full of stuff like this, including some obscure forms like the gwawdoddyn, the rispetto, the rondine and (my personal favourite) rimas dissolutas.

[Erika S]

Clive -

Thanks! I have a book called Poetry an Introduction Through Writing also by Lewis Turco. He's definitely full of vocab http://www.everypoet.com/poetry/poetry_forums/smile.gif

I'll try to get my hands on The New Book of Forms

-Erika

[RainKing]

I'm currently taking a linguistics course and am struggling to comprehend how a word or part of word gets labeled with a weak or strong stress. Can anyone explain in terms that a monkey might understand, because that's what I feel I need. Does if have anything to do with how the word is spoken?
Chip

[Rachel Lindley]

RainKing, it has everything to do with how a word is spoken. A "stressed" syllable is one where the pitch of the voice is raised. For example, let's look at the word "monkey". Hee. The pitch of your voice increases on the first syllable, drops on the second. Therefore, the stress/unstress pattern is MONkey. Let's take a word which, when stressed differently, has two different meanings. A perfect example is "contract". If your pitch rises on the first syllable, so that you have "CONtract", the word means a legally binding document or agreement. If, however, the pitch of your voice lands on the second syllable, so that you have "conTRACT", the word means to come down with an illness, to become infected.

Unstressed syllables are the ones you seem to slide over when you speak them. They don't seem to have as much importance to the vocal chords. What's more, you can have varying degrees of stressed and unstressed syllables in one word. Let's take a really long word -- sesquipidalianism. The stress/unstress pattern is SES/quip/id/A/li/an/IS/m. The first stress on "SES" is not as strong as the one on "A", but it is slightly stronger than the one on "IS", and they are all stronger than the unstressed ones. That's because on all three syllables, the voice will pitch itself higher than it will on the rest of the word.

Rachel

[RainKing]

Rachel

Thanks for such a quick and thorough response. I need to trust my instincts more. I guess I knew all along what you were saying, but just needed it to be clarified. I guess that's a trait of an undergrad.
Chip