Form & Function
This poetic structure, frequently used by Wilbur, reinforces emotional control and formal restraint.
What is regular meter (or structured rhyme)?
This is the tone created by Dickinson's choice to personify Death as "kindly."
What is calm, gentle, or serene?
The emotional attitude of the speaker toward the subject
What is tone?
One kind of internal change (besides a tonal shift) you should always look for when analyzing a poem.
What is a perspective shift, structural shift, or imagery shift?
The theme shared by both Dickinson and Shelley, though approached differently, dealing with the end of all things.
What is inevitability of death/time?
This is the Whitman structural device that involves the frequent use of lists, supporting his theme of democratic inclusiveness.
What are catalogues?
The main thing the carriage ride symbolizes in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death."
What is the journey from life to eternity (or the process of dying)?
The author's intention or the message they want to convey (never confuse it with tone).
What is purpose?
The first of the two required elements for a defensible FRQ #1 thesis statement.
What is a literary device (or technique)?
The specific Wilbur poem element that uses precise, elevated diction to create an intellectual and objective tone.
What is diction?
The term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, which Whitman uses to build momentum.
What is anaphora?
This is the ultimate effect of Dickinson's frequent use of the dash on the poem's pacing and rhythm.
What is stuttering, breathless, or halting pacing?
The term for the arrangement of words and phrases that shapes a speaker’s persona (like Whitman's long lines).
What is syntax?
The second of the two required elements for a defensible FRQ #1 thesis statement.
What is a meaningful claim about the poem's message/meaning/theme?
In Ozymandias, this literary device is created when the king's inscription ("Look on my works... and despair!") contrasts with the ruined state of his empire is...
What is irony?
This is the primary functional difference between Wilbur’s structured rhyme (which gives closure) and Whitman’s free verse.
What is free verse supports freedom/expansiveness, while structured rhyme supports balance/order?
The theme illustrated by the sequence of imagery: school- fields-setting sun.
What is the passing of the stages of life (or the journey through the temporal world)?
A sophisticated adjective to describe the speaker's emotional stance in Shelley's "Ozymandias."
What is reflective, detached, philosophical, or temporal?
The feeling of overwhelming, awe-inspiring terror and grandeur experienced in the face of immense, untamed Nature, a central ideal of Romanticism often seen in Shelley's setting.
What is the sublime?
Whitman’s style supports his theme of democratic identity by rejecting this element of traditional poetic structure.
What is rhyme, meter, or rigid form?
The overall goal, or function, of Wilbur’s use of precise, elevated diction rather than common language
What is to prioritize intellectual observation (or create a refined/objective tone)? Highlights the theme of nature versus machine and the human impact on the environment
The literary term for the abrupt, sometimes ungrammatical, shift in thought or focus between stanzas, often created by Dickinson's dashes and challenges the reader's expectation of narrative flow.
What is rupture (or disjunction or fragmentation)?
This is why commentary is considered more important than merely providing evidence on the FRQ #1 essay.
What is commentary explains how the evidence supports the argument and creates meaning (or evidence without commentary doesn't earn credit)?
This philosophical movement (or the poets associated with it, like Wordsworth) believed that Nature was a moral teacher and living presence that could restore the spiritual health of the individual.
What is Romanticism (or the Romantics)?
What two types of shifts should you always look for when analyzing a poem?
What is tonal & structural?
Can also look for :
Theme and Topic.
Rhyme Scheme and Meter.
Author's Background and Historical Context.