Vocab
the blank space that divides two stanzas from each other
Stanza Break
They way a crow
shook down on me
the dust of snow
from a hemlock tree
ABAB
This type of poem addresses a person or thing that is not present. (It is also a name for a common part of punctuation!)
Apostrophe
" I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer. I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do and its wooden beams were so inviting"
Summarize this stanza.
The speaker chops down someone's house because they were bored and the beams looked inviting.
A comparison using like or as
simile
the shape, structure, or appearance of a piece of writing
form
A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle word in halves
And ate the fellow, raw
ABCB
This poetic tool involved the repetition of words at the beginning of a series of lines in a poem
Anaphora
"When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room"
Summarize this stanza.
The speaker is bored, uninterested, and/or confused by the lesson the famous astronomer teaches.
a direct comparison of two unlike things
metaphor
a four line stanza
quatrain
The art of lsing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
ABA
This poem has similar lines and the poet often uses this structure to compare and contrast ideas or descriptions
Parallel structure
"The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree"
Summarize this stanza
On a snowy day, a crow lands on a hemlock tree. That causes snow to fall from the branched and land on the speaker.
An indirect reference to an outside work of art or cultural figure (it's not a magic trick!)
Allusion
a small part of a larger work; for example, one chapter of a novel or one paragraph of a newspaper article
excerpt
Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
ABAA
the attitude of a piece of writing, expressed through the style of writing and the words the author uses
Tone
"A man has been in the VAH Library all day long, looking at the maps, the atlas, and the globe, finding places. Acapulco, the Bay of Bengal, Antarctica, Madagascar, Rome, Luxembourg, places."
Summarize this stanza
There is a man at a VAH library and he is looking at many different types of maps. He is finding places all over the world like Antarctica and Rome.
a comparison not made directly
Implied metaphor
a section of a poem, which consists of a line or group of lines (kind of like a paragraph!
stanza
I realized it was half past four
When I, quite late, ran out the door.
My history class I so abhor,
But I missed two sessions the week before.
AAAA
This poetic form includes 19 lines, repeated phrases and lines, and an ABA rhyme scheme
villanelle
"Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master."
Summarize this stanza.
The speaker says we lose things almost daily, like door keys or time. She says that this is just a part of life we must accept.
describing non-human things as if they had human qualities
personification