alliteration

Alliteration refers to the repetition of an initial sound, usually of a consonant or cluster, in two or more words of a phrase or line of poetry; e.g., "So talked the spirited sly snake" (Milton, Paradise Lost, IX.613). See assonance, consonance.

An allusion is a brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object. For example, in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, the speaker of T.S. Eliot's poem asks whether it would have been worth it "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" (line 92). Here Eliot makes an allusion to Andrew Marvell's 17th century poem, "To His Coy Mistress." Specifically, Eliot is alluding to the passage in which Marvell's speaker tells his mistress "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball" and commence an affair (lines 41-42). By alluding to Marvell's poem, Eliot forces the reader to consider the difference between his highly uncertain speaker and Marvell's aggressive, determined lover.

Note: An allusion is a reference, and usually not a direct quotation; rather, an allusion is usually made without explicit acknowledgment of the source. See poetic license.

Britain was part of the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 5th centuries A.D. Beginning in the 5th century, England was invaded by three Germanic tribes: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. The Angles settled there (hence, Angleland or England). Later, in the ninth century, Alfred, king of the West Saxons, conquered the Anglican territory, and proceeded to call his subjects "Angli et Saxones" or "Anglo-Saxons."

The historical period known as the Anglo-Saxon period officially begins in 428 A.D. (when the Germanic tribes first invaded) and ends around 1100 A.D. when the Normans began their invasion of England. The period is also sometimes called the Old English period. Today, the term Anglo-Saxon is often broadly applied to all English people or people of English descent.

The period 1660-1744 is sometimes referred to as the Augustan age in English literary history, an era commencing with the Restoration and ending with the death of Alexander Pope. Many writers during this time self-consciously compared themselves to the Roman writers (e.g., Virgil, Horace) who had lived under the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.), a high point in world literary history. Writers such as Dryden, Addison, Steele, Swift, and Pope often compared London to Rome and thus by implication aligned themselves to the great Roman writers. See neoclassicism, the Restoration.

A ballad is a kind or genre of poetry usually meant to be sung. Sometimes ballads describe an event or episode as a narrative. The ballad stanza usually consists of four lines, rhymed abcb, with the first and third lines carrying four accented syllables and the second and fourth lines carrying three accented syllables. Wordsworth titled the collection of poems he wrote and published in 1798 Lyrical Ballads, even though some of the poems included in the collection did not follow ballad stanza form. By choosing such a title, Wordsworth appears desirous to indicate the "rustic" feeling he wishes for the poems to convey.

blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Usually used as a form for dramatic monologues (e.g., Shakespeare's plays are primarily written in blank verse). Milton found blank verse suitable for his epic, Paradise Lost.

A pause or break in a line of verse, usually placed in order to draw attention to a specific phrase or word or to heighten the dramatic effect. In the final couplet of Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 18, a caesura occurs at the comma in the final line, forcing the reader to consider carefully what the word "this" might be referring to:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Another fine example of caesura occurs in Milton's Paradise Lost (Book IX, lines 780-81), adding gravity to the description of Eve finally giving into temptation and eating from the Tree of Knowledge:

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.

An ingenious, sometimes exaggerated comparison between two unlike things. For example, T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" begins with a comparison between "the evening spread out against the sky" and "a patient etherised upon a table" (lines 2-3). One might say Eliot's poem begins with an odd conceit that suggests something of the isolated, "numbed" response to modern life Prufrock demonstrates throughout the poem. In Sonnet No. 130, Shakespeare makes fun of clichéd, romantic conceits when he declares "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (line 1). See simile, metaphor.

Consonance generally refers to the repetition of consonant sounds (either single letters or clusters) with changes in the intervening vowels. For example, in Tennyson's The Lotos-Eaters there occurs a description: "the clouds are lightly curled" (line 157). The consonant sounds "c", "l", and "d" curl around each other much like the clouds being described.

Incidentally, many instances of partial rhyme are in fact examples of consonance: e.g., the last two lines of W.B. Yeats's poem "Adam's Curse" end with the partial rhyme "grown" and "moon" (lines 37-38).

Two lines of verse that rhyme. Couplets usually have eight or ten syllables. Shakespearean sonnets end emphatically with a couplet. Much 18th century poetry was written in couplets (e.g., Swift, Pope, Johnson). See heroic couplet.

In 17th century England, those subjects who did not belong to the Protestant Church of England were generically referred to as "Dissenters" or "Nonconformists." Such nonmembers were denied public offices and sometimes subject to persecution. As a Puritan, John Milton was a "Dissenter"; thus, while writing Paradise Lost in the 1660s and '70s, Milton was opposed to Charles II and the newly-restored Stuart monarchy. See the Restoration.

Elizabethan

The term "Elizabethan" is used to describe the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558-1603), a time of significant political and commercial growth for England. The theater especially thrived during the Elizabethan period, with Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and John Donne emerging as the period's most celebrated playwrights. Sonnet sequences were also very popular during the Elizabethan period.

In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth writes that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." However, he qualifies this statement when he insists that those powerful feelings be translated into language that the reader can understand. The poet should have "thought long and deeply" about the "powerful feelings" he or she is attempting to convey, says Wordsworth. The "origin" of good poetry, he explains, comes "from emotion recollected in tranquillity." Having had the powerful emotional experience, the poet meditates carefully upon that experience, then carefully composes a poem designed to produce in the reader an experience "kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation." See Romanticism.

Lines of verse in which the grammatical structure and/or the sense of what is being conveyed ends with the end of the line. Many of Alexander Pope's heroic couplets conclude with end-stopped lines: e.g.,

Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.

(An Essay on Man, lines 1-2).

See run-on lines.

A long narrative poem in an elevated style that usually describes a central heroic character's involvement in the founding and/or development of a nation or race. Following Homer and Virgil, writers of English epics (like John Milton) often followed several conventions established by the ancient epic poets, e.g., an opening statement of the theme, an invocation to the muses, elevated diction, an episodic plot, among others.

A humorous, often bawdy tale, written in verse, first made popular in medieval French literature. "The Miller's Tale" in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an example of fabliau.

Figurative language refers to any use of language in which words have been employed in a way so as to signify something other than their literal meaning. For example, early in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's verse novel Aurora Leigh, the title character describes herself coming to live with her English aunt: "I, alas, / A wild bird scarcely fledged, was brought to her cage" (I.309-10). Here Browning uses figurative language -- in this instance, a metaphor. Of course, Aurora has not been literally placed inside of a cage; nor is she literally a bird. Rather, the description is a figure of speech that is used to convey young Aurora's feeling of imprisonment.

Incidentally, James Joyce is in fact using figurative language (in a humorous way) when he begins his short story, "The Dead," by saying "Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off of her feet." Lily has not literally been run off of her feet! See literal language.

In the context of literature, genre refers to a group of literary writings that share defining characteristics (i.e., a "kind" or "category" of literature). For example, both Shakespeare and Wroth's poems belong to a specific genre of poetry, the sonnet. Some other genres we will be reading from in EN 202 include the epic, the mock epic, the ode, and the short story.

Two iambic pentameter lines that rhyme. The favorite verse form of 18th century poets (e.g., Swift, Pope, Johnson).

Exaggeration or overstatement. Usually an author (and/or character) who uses hyperbole is doing so deliberately, and has no intention literally to mean what is being said. Hyperbole can add emphasis or, in the case of Swift's mock epic "A Description of a City Shower," for comic effect: "Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down, / Threatening with deluge this devoted town" (lines 31-32). See understatement.

iambic pentameter

By far the most popular rhythm and meter to be found in poetry written in English. An "iamb" is a metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable and an accented one (see rhythm). A line of verse is written in iambic pentameter if it contains five (penta-) iambic feet (see meter). For example, here are the first three lines of Arnold's "The Buried Life," all of which are written in iambic pentameter (stressed syllables appear in blue):

Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet,
Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet!
I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll.

For a more extensive discussion of different kinds of rhythm and meter, see the section titled "Rhythm and Meter" that appears in the back of our textbook (page 2838 and following).

An "image" is a picture or representation of something. Thus, in literary writing, imagery refers to the descriptions or "word pictures" composed by the writer. When discussing a poem or story, one might refer to a particular pattern of imagery that is present in the work. For example, in the "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer begins with a lot of vegetative imagery (e.g., descriptions of flowers blooming and crops growing), thereby connoting the spiritual "rebirth" that awaits the pilgrims. See symbol.

The late 17th and 18th centuries are sometimes referred to as the neoclassical period in English literary history. Many writers during this period looked to classical models (i.e., ancient writers of Greek and Rome) for guidance when writing their works. In the context of "neoclassical" literature, the concept of imitation has a couple of significances:

Imitation of nature. Aristotle posited that the most productive works of art imitate nature. Many 17th and 18th century English poets followed Aristotle's advice, agreeing that the best poetry endeavours to imitate nature by portraying and addressing life in a realistic manner.

Imitation of Greek and Roman writers. Some 17th and 18th century writers wrote poems that were "imitations" of works composed by ancient poets. For example, Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes" is an imitation of a poem by the Roman writer Juvenal. Johnson's poem deliberately borrows many of the observations made by Juvenal about ancient Rome and applies them to 18th century life.

Later, Romantic poets would react against both forms of imitation practiced by 17th and 18th century poets, preferring not to imitate nature nor to imitate classical models. See Romanticism, allusion, poetic license.

A poet's address to a deity or muse asking for help in the writing of his or her poem. Milton's Paradise Lost, like most epics, begins with an invocation to the "Heav'nly Muse" to "Sing" (i.e., to help Milton write) of the creation and fall.

Irony is a frequently misunderstood concept. There is nothing "ironic" about finding ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. Rather, irony generally involves the recognition that reality is in fact different from what it appears to be.

Two different types of irony are most commonly discussed when referring to literature:

Verbal irony is an example of figurative language in which a person says one thing yet intends something else, sometimes the very opposite of the literal meaning of what has been said. In T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the title character interrupts himself to complain that "It is impossible to say just what I mean!" (line 104). Here is an instance of verbal irony: in truth, Prufrock seems to be saying exactly what he means!

Dramatic irony exploits the different levels of awareness that might exist between characters or between characters and the audience/reader. A character will say or do something that to that character means one thing, but to those who know better will mean something else. The conversation between Satan and Eve in the garden of Eden (in Book IX of Milton's Paradise Lost) is rife with dramatic irony. Since Milton has already explained to the reader what comes from eating of the Tree of Knowledge, all of Satan's persuasive arguments mean one thing to Eve, but something else to us.

A type of sonnet made popular by Italian poets, especially Petrarch (who wrote during the 14th century). The classic form of the Italian sonnet (i.e., the one Petrarch used) is divided into an octave that rhymes abbaabba and a sestet that rhymes cdecde. Almost all of John Milton's sonnets follow the Italian sonnet form, although sometimes Milton limits himself to four rhymes rather than five (e.g., "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" and "Methought I Saw My Late Espousèd Saint").

Incidentally, the Italian sonnet, a 14-line poem utilizing just five rhymes, is somewhat more difficult to accomplish in English than in Italian, since one finds fewer rhyming possibilities in English than in Italian (a language which features a large number of words ending in vowels). See sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet, sonnet sequence.

literal language

Literal language refers to any use of language in which words have been employed in a way so as to signify their literal or "dictionary" meaning. That is to say, literal language (first and foremost) means what it says; that is, it does not employ figures of speech or indirection to communicate its message. For example, see the first three lines of W.B. Yeats's poem "Adam's Curse":

We sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.

The speaker of the poem literally means what he says here. When he says they "talked of poetry," he means they talked of poetry. He might also mean to imply that they talked of other things like poetry, but he also most definitely means to say that poetry was a subject of their conversation. By contrast, if he had said they "shot the breeze," then he would have been using figurative language (i.e., they did not literally "shoot" at the breeze).

A lyric poem is usually a brief, imaginative, personal meditation upon a single object or person or event. Unlike narrative poetry, which tells a story (sometimes in an episodic fashion), a lyric poem usually concentrates on relating a single impression or feeling. Shakespeare's sonnets are lyric poems, whereas Beowulf is a narrative poem.

A metaphor is an implied analogy between two objects. What distinguishes a metaphor from a simile is the explicitness of the comparison: in the case of simile, the writer acknowledges explicitly that a comparison is being made (often using "like" or "as"); in the case of metaphor, the writer only implies that a comparison is being made.

For example, in Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 147, he begins "My love is as a fever," using a simile to compare his love to an illness. Then, in line 5, he says "My reason, the physician to my love," using a metaphor to imply the comparison between his reason and a doctor who cures him.

When used to describe poetry, the term meter usually refers to the number of rhythmic units that are present in a given line. The rhythmic unit in a line is called a "foot," and the number of "feet" in a line determines its meter. Thus a line with five rhythmic units is called a "pentameter" line; a line with four rhythmic units is called a "tetrameter" line; and so forth.

Although there exist different kinds of meter in English poetry, in Middle English and Modern English poetry the relationship between the number of syllables and the number of accents is usually fixed or nearly so. This means that a simple way to figure out the meter of a given line is to count the number of accented syllables that are present in the line. For instance, in the line "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright" (from Blake's "The Tyger"), there are four accented syllables (indicated here in blue). Thus, the meter of the line is tetrameter.

Much of the poetry we are reading in EN 202 follows a fairly regular meter, although some poems (e.g., Tennyson's The Lotos-Eaters) vary the meter in order to produce a specific effect. For a more extensive discussion of different kinds of rhythm and meter, see the section titled "Rhythm and Meter" that appears in the back of our textbook (page 2838 and following).

The term Middle English refers to English as it was spoken and written between ca. 1100 (after the Normans invaded England) and 1500 or so. Middle English especially reflects the influence of French (which the Normans spoke) upon the English language. Less alien to us than Old English, Middle English is nevertheless very different from Modern English, containing many words and spellings that are unfamiliar to us.

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is the only work we are reading in EN 202 written in Middle English. See Old English, Modern English.

A literary genre that "mocks" the epic form by taking a relatively small, trivial subject and elevating it to ridiculous heights. "Mock epics" often employ many epic conventions such as an opening statement of the theme, an invocation to the muses, elevated diction, an episodic plot, and so forth.

It is important to understand that "mock epics" usually are not "mocking" or making fun of the epic form or those who write epics. Rather, the target of the satire is often some aspect of the culture in which the poet is living. One can argue that Swift's poem "A Description of a City Shower" is a mock epic since Swift uses epic conventions to describe the everyday, mundane behavior of English citizens reacting to a sudden storm. By elevating the activities of the citizens to ridiculous heights, Swift "mocks" the great importance individuals often place upon things that are ultimately less than vital.

Modern English

Beginning around 1500, the English language experienced a great expansion in vocabulary. Many new words (mainly coming from Latin and French) were introduced into the language. Dictionaries began to be published with greater frequency, thus stabilizing the language to a greater degree than it earlier had been. We more readily recognize the vocabulary and syntax of literary writing written after 1500 than we do that which was written earlier. Compare, for instance, Shakespeare's sonnets (written ca. 1600) to Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (written ca. 1385-1400).

Never make the mistake of saying that Shakespeare wrote Old English! Even though he was writing over 400 years ago, in terms of the history of the language, he technically wrote Modern English.

The Modernist period in English literary history is usually said to begin with the start of World War I (i.e., 1914) and to extend at least through WWII if not later. Modernist literary works tend to document an increasing sense of isolation and disillusionment in response to international conflict and the dehumanizing effects of industry. In their efforts to break with the past, Modernist writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf were stylistically experimental, exploring innovative narrative strategies such as stream of consciousness.

In classical mythology, nine goddesses or muses (daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne) were said to inspire and help poets write their songs. In English literature, poets will occasionally invoke the muse as a formal means to request help in the composition of a poem. The invocation of the muse is a standard epic convention (see, for example, Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 6 and following).

Simply put, A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story. A narrative poem can be long (as in the case of an epic poem like Milton's Paradise Lost) or short (e.g., Wordsworth's "Resolution and Independence"). See lyric poetry.

A concept formulated by John Keats to explain the ability to resist rationalizing when in uncertainty. In a letter (written in 1817), Keats praises Shakespeare for possessing "Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason." Having Negative Capability, therefore, does not mean you lack something; rather, it means you have the capability to negate the rationalizing impulse. See Romanticism.

Literally, "new" classicism. The neoclassic period of English literary history is often said to begin with the Restoration of the Stuarts to the throne in 1660 and extend to the end of the 18th century and the beginning of Romanticism. During this period, many writers and poets followed classical (i.e., Greek and Roman) models, both in terms of subject and style. Neoclassicists favored highly regulated verse forms (such as the heroic couplet) and an ideology based primarily upon reason. Later Romantics would react strongly against the values inculcated by neoclassicism. See Augustan.

octave

An eight-line stanza. Usually used to describe the first part of an Italian sonnet. See sestet.

The ode originated in Greek literature, wherein a chorus would sing a highly emotional song in a highly dignified style. In English poetry, the ode becomes an especially popular genre of lyric poetry during the 18th century, with many poets writing odes about deceased friends or loved ones. The Romantics gravitated toward the ode in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. John Keats especially liked the ode, writing several (including "Ode to a Nightingale").

The term Old English refers to English as it was spoken and written between 428 (when Germanic tribes first invaded what was later called England) and ca. 1100 (when Norman tribes invaded). Old English is the language of the Anglo-Saxon period in English history. As a language, it has more in common with Modern German than with Modern English, reflecting the German tribes who spoke it.

In EN 202, Beowulf is our only example of Old English literature. (We are reading a translation of the poem into Modern English.)

Not a perfect rhyme. For example, in Blake's "The Tyger," the first stanza concludes with a partial rhyme between "eye" and "symmetry." Such partial rhymes often create a degree of tension that may further underscore what a poet is describing. Other names for partial rhyme include "slant rhyme," "imperfect rhyme," "near rhyme," "off-rhyme," or "oblique rhyme."

An example of figurative language in which an author gives human characteristics to an animal, object, or abstract idea. When Samuel Johnson asks "Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find?" (in The Vanity of Human Wishes, line 343), he personifies the concepts of "Hope" and "Fear." Indeed, Johnson's choice to capitalize these abstract nouns could be said to further the effect of personification since capitalization makes "Hope" and "Fear" appear more like proper names.

Incidentally, in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth specifically complains that personification is an example of elevated, "poetic diction" and therefore should be avoided by those wishing to write poems employing "language really used by men."

The term poetic license usually refers to the privilege assumed by literary writers (not just poets) to diverge from the normal, accepted order of things. For instance, a poet may introduce a strange or even incorrect syntax in order to achieve a desired rhythm or make a rhyme. Rather than correct the poet's "mistake" (as we might correct a grammatical error that appears in an essay written for EN 202!), we instead recognize that the poet has invoked his or her poetic license to achieve a particular purpose.

The term prose covers all writing that does not exhibit a regular rhythmic pattern (the way verse generally does). In the context of literature, prose is sometimes used as an antonym of verse, even though strictly speaking prose and verse aren't really opposites and in fact can share many characteristics. See verse.

quatrain

A four-line stanza. E.g., William Blake's poem "The Tyger" is made up of six quatrains.

A phrase or sentence that is repeated at regular intervals in a poem (or, sometimes, in fiction). In poetry, the refrain often appears at the end of a stanza. T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" contains what might be considered a refrain: "In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo" (lines 13-14, 35-36).

Restoration is a word used to describe the return of the Stuart monarchy to the English throne in 1660. After Charles I was beheaded in 1649, there followed a period of eleven years marked by civil wars and no official "king." The "Lord Protector," Oliver Cromwell (who refused to accept the designation of king), essentially governed England during this period, sometimes called the "Interregnum" (literally, "between kings"). Following Cromwell's death in 1658, royalists and others interested in returning the monarchy succeeded in bringing back Charles II; thus was the Stuart regime -- and monarchy itself -- "restored."

The Restoration period thus begins in 1660 and ends either in 1688 (when the Stuart monarchy was finally, ultimately dissolved) or, more generally, at the end of the 17th century. In terms of literary history, the Restoration period also witnessed a "restoration" of English culture, with literature and especially the theatre thriving under Charles II. See Augustan, Dissenters / Nonconformists.

We say two words rhyme when they share the same terminal sound (e.g., "boat" and "vote"). Usually (in poetry), we find rhymes occurring at the end of a line of verse, although sometimes we do encounter "internal rhymes" occurring elsewhere in a given line of verse. Non-perfect rhymes (e.g., "alone" and "done") can be referred to as partial rhymes. Most of the poetry we are reading in EN 202 employs rhyme, with the notable exception of Milton's blank verse epic, Paradise Lost

For a more extensive discussion of different kinds of rhyme, see the section titled "Rhyme and Stanza" that appears in the back of our textbook (page 2842 and following).

The rhythm of a poem is best thought of as being like the "beat" in a song. In much of English poetry, the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in a poem usually produces a regular, identifiable rhythm. In poetry, different varieties of such patterns of accented/unaccented syllables have different names: e.g., an "iamb" consists of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented one; a "dactyl" consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. I am not too concerned that you memorize the different names designating different rhythms; be aware, though, that "iambic" rhythm is the most common rhythm in English poetry. Indeed, most of the poems we are reading in EN 202 feature "iambic" rhythm.

Of particular interest is when, after establishing a regular rhythm, a poet deliberately disrupts the pattern of accented/unaccented syllables, thereby drawing special attention to a particular word or phrase. For example, look at line 91 of Arnold's "The Buried Life" (accented syllables appear in blue):

And there arrives a lull in the hot race

The line begins (like most lines in the poem) with iambic rhythm (for three metrical "feet"). Yet notice how Arnold throws in an extra unaccented syllable right after the word "lull." One tends to read the two unaccented syllables quickly ("in the"), thus making the time we took to read the accented word "lull" seem even longer. We slow down again as we read the two accented syllables at the end of the line ("hot race"). By changing the rhythm, Arnold causes the reader to "lull" or slow down, causing us involuntarily to mimic the fatigue of the person being described.

For a more extensive discussion of different kinds of rhythm and meter, see the section titled Rhythm and Meter" that appears in the back of our textbook (page 2838 and following).

The Romantic period of English literary history dates from the end of the 18th century and extends to the beginning of the Victorian (i.e., the 1780s to the 1830s). Romantic poets reacted against the way neoclassical writers and thinkers of the 18th century placed great importance upon reason and ancient models. Romantic poets like William Blake, William Wordsworth, and John Keats rather sought to break with the past and explore emotion and feeling in their poetry. Romantic writers were also especially fascinated with nature, regarding the contemplation of nature as an opportunity to explore the inner emotional life of the individual. William Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads, while not representative of the position of all Romantics, discusses many of the more important precepts of Romanticism. See "emotion recollected in tranquillity", Negative Capability, "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings".

run-on lines

Lines of verse in which the grammatical structure and/or the sense of what is being conveyed extends beyond the end of a line, carrying over into the next. For example, note how W.B. Yeats uses run-on lines to help convey the emotion of the speaker in this passage from "Adam's Curse":

And thereupon
That beautiful mild woman for whose sake
There's many a one shall find out all heartache
On finding that her voice is sweet and low

(lines 14-17)

See end-stopped lines.

Satire is mode of writing that uses humor in order to criticize society. Usually the primary goal of the satirist is to correct human folly and thus improve society. Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope were among the most famous writers of satire during the 18th century in England, a time when satire was a favorite literary mode. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales also can be regarded as a satire upon members of the three estates of medieval society.

A six-line stanza. Usually used to describe the last part of an Italian sonnet. See octave.

A type of sonnet made popular by William Shakespeare in the early 16th century. Unlike the Italian sonnet, the Shakespearean sonnet is not divided into an octave and sestet. Rather, the Shakespearean sonnet contains three 4-line stanzas and a final couplet that tends to restate the poem's main theme. The rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. Thus, the Shakespearean sonnet employs seven rhymes, whereas the Italian sonnet employs just five. See Italian sonnet, sonnet, sonnet sequence.

A simile is an explicit comparison between two objects. What distinguishes a simile from a metaphor is the explicitness of the comparison; in the case of metaphor, the writer only implies that a comparison is being made; in the case of the simile, the writer acknowledges explicitly that a comparison is being made.

Thus, when T.S. Eliot begins "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by stating that "the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table," he is using a simile to give a certain quality (i.e., numbness) to the evening (and to his speaker, Prufrock). See metaphor.

A sonnet is a 14-line lyric poem that follows a particular rhyme scheme. Usually the lines are ten syllables long, and in English poetry frequently follow iambic pentameter.

Sonnets first became popular in Italy in the 14th century and soon afterwards English writers began imitating the form. Like their Italian forebears, English writers of sonnets often focus on the subject of love in their poems. See Italian sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet, sonnet sequence.

sonnet sequence

A connected group of sonnets, often concentrating upon a similar subject and/or forming a kind of narrative. Sonnet sequences were especially popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with several prominent poets writing them. In EN 202, we are reading selections from the sonnet sequence of William Shakespeare.

By far, the most often-quoted statement to represent Romantic poetical theory.

In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth writes that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." It is often forgotten that Wordsworth then goes on to qualify this statement by insisting that those powerful feelings be translated into language that the reader can understand. The poet should have "thought long and deeply" about the "powerful feelings" he or she is attempting to convey, says Wordsworth. The "origin" of good poetry, he explains, comes "from emotion recollected in tranquillity." Having had the powerful emotional experience, the poet meditates carefully upon that experience, then carefully composes a poem designed to produce in the reader an experience "kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation." See Romanticism.

A group of two or more lines of poetry, sometimes defined by a specific rhythm, meter, and rhyme scheme. For example, a quatrain is a four-line stanza.

For a more extensive discussion of different stanza forms, see the section titled "Rhyme and Stanza" that appears in the back of our textbook (page 2842 and following).

The term stream of consciousness is often used to describe the experimental style of certain Modernist writers, especially Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. The stream of consciousness style attempts to convey in an immediate fashion the awareness and emotion of the individual (or narrator) who is speaking. In the effort to convey the "stream" or current of one's "consciousness," the author will often deliberately incorporate errors in grammar or syntax, ellipses points, and dashes. For example, here is a passage from Virginia Woolf's story "The Mark on the Wall" that is written in a stream of consciousness style:

The tree outside the window taps very gently on the pane . . . . I want to think quietly, calmly, spaciously, never to be interrupted, never to have to rise from my chair, to slip easily from one thing to another, without any sense of hostility, or obstacle. I want to sink deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts. To steady myself, let me catch hold of the first idea that passes . . . Shakespeare . . . . Well, he will do as well as another. A man who sat himself solidly in an arm-chair, and looked into the fire, so---- A shower of ideas fell perpetually from some very high Heaven down through his mind. (page 2405)

See Modernism.

An oft-quoted phrase first appearing in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. The "suspension of disbelief" most often refers to the willingness of a reader (or audience member) to resist questioning the probability or truth of the story he or she is experiencing and thereby enjoy a kind of momentary participation in the world created by the storyteller. On occasion a movie reviewer will complain that a movie failed to create for him or her conditions that adequately enabled the "suspension of disbelief," thus lessening his or her enjoyment of the film. Compare the related, though different concept of Negative Capability.

Most simply put, a symbol is something that stands for or implies something else. Thus, an American flag is a symbol standing for the concept of American patriotism. Sometimes a symbol's meaning is obvious; other times, the meaning of a symbol is not immediately clear.

In the "General Prologue" to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, we learn of the Wife of Bath that when she goes to church "Hir hosen weren of fin scarlet reed" (line 458). Here, the Wife of Bath's red hose appears to symbolize her sensuality. In James Joyce's story "The Dead," Gretta hears a song at the party that appears to have tremendous symbolic significance to her, though the significance does not become clear to us (or to her husband, Gabriel) until the end of the story. See figurative language.

Medieval society is often described as having been made up of three "estates": the nobility, the church, and laypeople (i.e., everyone else). Each estate had a particular relationship toward the other two (e.g., the nobility wielded power over the laypeople though was in many respects beholden to the church). By the time Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales (in the late 1300s), the relationship between these three estates had become especially complicated, to be later replaced by a modern "class" system following the Reformation.

Of particular note is how Chaucer's pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales come from all three medieval estates, thereby providing his readers with a comprehensive overview of medieval life. Since Chaucer incorporates criticism of certain members of all three estates, The Canterbury Tales is sometimes referred to as an example of "medieval estates satire."

In an essay titled "The Study of Poetry," the Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold wrote that "there can be no more useful help for discovering what poetry belongs to the class of the truly excellent, and can therefore do us most good, than to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry." In other words, Arnold suggests that when one evaluates poetry one should always use the best, most memorable examples of poetic thought as one's critical standard. Thus, when assessing the poetry of Pope and Wordsworth in his article, Arnold compares their works to those of earlier poets such as Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Chaucer.

Incidentally, many of the "identifications" on Exams II and III (those passages which you will have to identify) might reasonably be called literary touchstones that are worth remembering.

understatement

Understatement is a figure of speech in which the literal meaning of the words that are spoken deliberately lessens the magnitude of what is being described. Sometimes understatement is used for comic effect. In the description of the Danish king Shield at the beginning of Beowulf, understatement is used to underscore the sense of awe king Shield evoked: "That was a good king" (line 11). See hyperbole.

The term verse has two different meanings:

1. As a synonym for "poetry" (e.g., Eliot wrote verse).
2. As a unit of poetry, such as a line or a stanza

(e.g., Eliot's poem contains several verses about aging).

A verse novel is a long, narrative poem that tells a story much the same way that a novel might. The term really should only be applied to long, poetical works that are consciously patterned after the novel form (as it was introduced and popularized in England in the 18th and 19th centuries). Thus, one probably shouldn't call Milton's Paradise Lost a verse novel (rather, Milton's poem is an epic). However, one can call Elizabeth Barrett Browning's long, semi-autobiographical poem Aurora Leigh a verse novel, since it is apparent that she has consciously patterned the narrative of her poem after Victorian novels.