English 112—Poems Studied (Poetry Test I)
Title
Poet
Anonymous
Period
Anglo-Saxon
Epic
Canterbury Tales:
Prologue
Geoffrey Chaucer
Middle-English
Frame Narrative
Middle English, rhyming couplets, iambic
pentameter, descriptions of various
characters
“The Passionate
Shepherd to His Love”
Christopher
Marlowe
16th Century
Idyll / Pastoral
6 quatrains, rhyming couplets, iambic
tetrameter, sense imagery, invitation to live
an idealized life
“The Nymph’s Reply”
Sir Walter Raleigh
16th Century
Parody
A mocking imitation of “The Passionate
Shepherd”; same structure.
Sonnet 18 “Shall I
Compare Thee to a
Summer’s Day?”
“Death, Be Not Proud”
William
Shakespeare
16th Century
Shakespearian
sonnet
ABABCDCDEFEFGG, 3 quatrains, final
rhyming couplet
John Donne
17th Century
Petrarchan sonnet
Octave (ABBA,ABBA) and Sestet
(variation), problem/solution,
personification of death, metaphor, theme
of hope, Biblical allusion, apostrophe
“A Fit of Rhyme against
Rhyme”
Ben Johnson
17th Century
Satire
AABCCB, and so on; every third line
seems to be emphasized—short; use of
rhyme to criticize and ridicule rhyme;
variety of meter.
Paradise Lost: Book 01
John Milton
17th Century
Epic
Blank verse, iambic pentameter, theme of
man’s disobedience/loss of Paradise
Beowulf
Form
Characteristics
Old English, compound words, alliterative
verse—each single line unified by
alliteration which spans a central caesura
[/ / ] (a complete pause in a line of poetry)
E.g.
Wuldres wealand / / woroldare forgeof
Types of Poems: Definitions (not found in your notes)
Add these to your “Novel and Short Story Terms and Definitions” handout.
Epic—a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary
figures or the history of a nation.
Frame Narrative— the result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller
ones.
[https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_F.html]