Character Terms
Getting Started
Name That Poem
Name That Poem
Name Those Poems
100
Implied voice of the poem, not necessarily the poet's, perhaps that of an invented character.
What is speaker or persona?
100
Two words: The opening tensions -- and subsequent changes -- in a poem's "plot."
What are situation and shifts?
100
"..he scooped pink animals into the palm of his hand."
What is the central image of "My Father's Song"?
100
..."The food from our mouths, I said, righteously/ thrilling to the feel of the .22, the bullets’ neat noses./ I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace/ puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing" and the musical devices and their effect.
What is "Woodchucks" and alliteration on the "n" in "neat noses" or "puffed" "pieties"; consonance on "lapsed pacifist" and others; assonance on the "i" in "Darwinian pieties for killing"; rhyme in "killing/thrilling."
100
The lines "All you have is heavy: hat, glasses, badge, shoes, gun. I know this desert, where to rest, where to drink. Oh, I am not alone." from this poem illustrate this type of poem and these musical devices.
What is "La Migra" and slant rhyme (hat, desert, rest) alliteration (have heavy hat) assonance (Oh, not alone).
200
A type of poem in which an invented character, clearly not the poet, "speaks" the poem.
What is dramatic monologue or persona poem.
200
A poem that tells a chronological story.
What is a narrative poem?
200
"I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking/When the rooms were warm..."
What is the central image in "Those Winter Sundays"?
200
"the hair flapping/behind you like a/handkerchief waving/goodbye."
What is ending image in "To a Daughter Leaving Home"?
200
"Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee" refers to the eponymous subject of this poem and illustrates this common figure of speech.
What is daffodils in "I Wandered Lonely as Daffodils" and personification?
300
The implied listener of a poem.
What is auditor?
300
An often used poetic theme that celebrates the intensity of mortality.
What is carpe diem.
300
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Poem and poetic term lines illustrate.
What is "The Second Coming" and allusion (to the Bible in this case)?
300
A mother who feels "omnipotent" but like a "powerless" God.
Who is the speaker of "Eden."
300
"I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core." from this poem is an illustration of this figure of speech to represent a larger whole.
What is "Lake Isle of Innisfree" and synecdoche in which the "pavements grey" means all urban cares and landscapes?
400
A reference outside the poem to an historical event, a person, a myth.
What is an allusion?
400
Using imaginative tropes, "special effects" to images, to add meaning to an otherwise literal situation.
What are figures of speech?
400
"The first, thing he must do, now that he is home, is decide who/This woman is..."
What is the ending image in "Alzheimer's"?
400
A newborn baby in this poem is the auditor as we can tell with the line and figure of speech "Love set you going like a fat gold watch."
What is "Morning Song" (by Sylvia Plath) and simile?
400
"Wild Nights" or "Marks are examples of this figure of speech.
What is an extended metaphor or conceit.
500
A poem expressing deep personal feelings as if thinking (poetically) out-loud.
What is a lyric?
500
Two terms: Appealing to the senses, taste, touch, smell, sound, sight and the term that refers to words that imitate a real-life sound.
What is imagery and onomatopoeia.
500
"Waltzed" and "romped" and effect of this diction.
What are two words from "My Papa's Waltz" that suggest the boy's mood?
500
A group if inmates who look up to one of their fellow prisoners play this role in this poem.
Who is the "we" speaker in "Hardrock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane."
500
This family member is remembered for her heavy ring and her this tapestry in this poem.
What is "Aunt Jennifer's Tiger's" and a tapestry of prancing tigers.
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