SCANSION
This is simply the term to describe the ANALYSIS of poems.
In a scansion, you might analyze and make note of:
the metrical pattern
the type of feet
the stressed & unstressed syllables
pauses
stanza breaks
rhyme scheme
structure of the poem
We did a scansion of the poem “Yes”
REFRAIN
A part of a poem which is repeated.
Example:
“O Best of All Nights, Return and Return Again”
By James Laughlin
APOSTROPHE
This is when a poem sounds like it is speaking to someone or something.
The poem may address a dead or absent person.
It may also address something that is personified.
John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud” is an example. In it, the poet
speaks directly to death.
Emily Dickinson addresses a person who is no longer in her life in “Wild
nights! – Wild nights!”
ABECEDARIAN
Related to acrostic, a poem in which the first letter of each
line or stanza follows sequentially through the alphabet.
Or, a poem which uses the alphabet as its organizational
structure.
These are usually long poems, but here is a shorter example
on the next slide.
“A Primer of the Daily Round” by Howard Nemerov
A peels an apple, while B kneels to God,
C telephones to D, who has a hand
On E’s knee, F coughs, G turns up the sod
For H’s grave, I do not understand
But J is bringing one clay pigeon down
While K brings down a nightstick on L’s head,
And M takes mustard, N drives to town,
O goes to bed with P, and Q drops dead,
R lies to S, but happens to be heard
By T, who tells U not to fire V
For having to give W the word
That X is now deceiving Y with Z,
Who happens, just now to remember A
Peeling an apple somewhere far away.
METONYMY
A figure of speech – when a word is not used because it is
more poetic to use another term which represents that word.
For example, instead of saying, “The British Monarchy,” you
could use the metonymy “Crown.”
In Shakespeare, “lend me your ears” should not be taken
literally. “Ears” is a metonymy for “your attention.”
“The pen is mightier than the sword.” “Pen” is a metonymy
for the written word, and “sword” is a metonymy for the force
of the military.
SYNECDOCHE
A figure of speech – when you use a part of something as a
replacement for the actual word.
You might call your car your “wheels.” “Wheels” is a
synecdoche for vehicle or car.
We often say we will give someone a “hand.” “Hand” is a
synecdoche for assistance, help, support, applause. “Hand”
can also be a synecdoche for a person when it is used, “hired
hand.”
CAESURA
This is a stop or a pause in a line of poetry. It is often marked
by some punctuation or by a grammatical boundary.
Dead! One of them shot by sea in the east
No voice says ‘my mother’ again to me. What?
These are lines from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s long poem
“Mother and Poet”
END-STOPPED
When a line of poetry ends at a grammatical boundary or
break. Sometimes a dash, punctuation, a closing parenthesis.
Example of end-stopped lines of poetry from Alexander Pope:
Then say not man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault;
Say rather, man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matter, soon or late, or here or there?
The blest today is as completely so,
As who began a thousand years ago.
ENJAMBMENT
This is the opposite of end-stopped. Enjambed lines continue
and cross-over from one line to the next, as in this example:
the back wings
of the
hospital where
nothing
will grow lie
cinders
in which shine
the broken
pieces of a green
bottle