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Lots of lovely lyrics lean on this likable, lilting poetic device.
What is alliteration?
This 14 line poem has two varieties, each named after a famous national poet
What is a sonnet?
It’s when I say, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”? And then you say, “sunshine, heat, beaches, vacations, laziness, fun, ice cream, and camp!”
What is connotation?
Warning: there be dragons in a text with no attributable author except this translator.
Who is Seamus Heaney?
It’s the Latin term for poems that encourage the reader to make the most of opportunities.
What is carpe diem?
It’s a rest; no, it’s more of a silence — wait: it’s a pause, signaled by punctuation, before the poem continues.
What is a caesura?
The Onion and SNL might be considered 21st Century examples of this literary genre.
What is satire?
“I will make thee beds of roses / And a thousand fragrant posies,” promises the shepherd, using this figure of speech (underlined here).
What is hyperbole?
This famous Brit is the only author on our syllabus thus far from whom we’ve read works in two different literary genres.
Who is Shakespeare?
It is the signature technique of poets like John Donne, and distinct from a metaphor in that it extends over several lines of or throughout an entire poem.
What is a conceit?
The sonnet form has five of these per line, where they announce themselves to great acclaim.
What is an iamb?
This lyric poem is a formal, often ceremonious, address to/celebration of a person, place, thing, or idea
What is an ode?
The nymph says that if there were “truth in every shepherd’s tongue,” she might give him a shot. She doesn’t plan to check out his tongue — instead, she is using this poetic device.
What is metonymy?
He’s got a knack for creating bold speakers: "Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, / Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.”
Who is John Donne?
That is the question.
What is "To be or not to be?"
It’s not height or length, but you measure it in feet; it can’t take an exam, but you can count on it to be regularly stressed.
What is meter?
Christopher Marlowe wrote one of the most famous examples of this genre of poetry, characterized by its preoccupation with rural life.
What is pastoral?
They’re not making threats, but these, when Shakespeare uses the sword of Mars in Sonnet 55 and Sidney aims Cupid’s dart in Astrophil and Stella 72.
What are allusions?
MC Hammer famously declared, “You can’t touch this.” Based on the excerpt below, this Tudor poet would definitely agree: “A court poet whose work subtly references King Henry VIII as the untouchable “owner” of the hind.”
Who is Sir Thomas Wyatt?
“All hands on deck,” “[I]n disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,” and “Don’t text me/Tell it straight to my face” are all examples of this.
What is synecdoche?
Just like the lovers in “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” two consecutive lines that share a special bond will form one unit — but you won’t find any in “A Valediction.”
What is a couplet?
Given the somewhat risqué nature of these poems about lovers separated at dawn, it may come as a surprise to learn that one of the most famous examples was written by John Donne — an ordained Anglican priest!
What is an aubade?
These are both examples: “Busy old fool, unruly sun” & “Unthankful meadows, could you so/a fellowship so true forgo”
What is an apostrophe?
When Christopher Marlowe promised eternal spring, this poet clapped back with time, decay, and “thy gowns, thy shoes… / Soon break.”
Who is Sir Walter Ralegh?
In a Petrarchan sonnet, after the first eight lines, this shift begins the resolution or reflection, marking a rhetorical turn.
What is a volta?