Literary terms sentences - Essay Example

identification (all above optional – if you need them) English Literature ic and Modern) Topic Literary Terms SentencesThe Lake Isle of Innisfree1. Verse: In The Lake Isle of Innisfree verse is constructed in iambic pentameter with pair-rhyme.2. Summary:The Lake Isle of Innisfree in summary contrasts ideas nature and the man-made world in a way typical of the Romantic Era.3. Theme:Peace can only be gained in the calmness and beauty of natural surroundings, not in the man-made ugliness of the city, is a dominant theme in The Lake Isle of Innisfree.4. Concrete Diction:Concrete diction is exemplified by Yeats’ use of more modern (for the time) terminology such as “roadway” and “pavements” and generally is using words literally in their reference to actual objects.5. Abstract Diction:Abstract diction, in the use of figurative language, such as “bee-loud glade” allows Yeats to, for example, coin a word to describe the noise of many bees in a small valley.6. Poetic Diction:The unusual use of “a glimmer” in The Lake Isle of Innisfree is poetic diction selected specifically for its visual effect.

My Last Duchess1. Verse: Free verse constructed into pair rhyme characterizes the poem, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning.2. Summary:In summary, Browning reveals that the sense of ownership of both objects and people in the world of noble hierarchies is to be mocked and ridiculed as inhuman and cruel.3. Theme:A central theme explored in My Last Duchess is the patriarchic structure of society when men take precedence over women, treating them as objects and possessions.4. Tone:A tone of light mockery and gentle humor characterize the text of Browning’s poem.5. Satiric Poem:Browning chooses to mock his speaker, pointing out negative aspects in a mocking, sometimes lightly humorous way, and thus creating a satirical poem in My Last Duchess.6. Persona:A fickle, inhumane nobleman is the central persona of Browning’s My Last Duchess.7. Diction:Elaborately formal diction adds a dimension of humor to the satire of My Last Duchess.8. Allusion:Some commentators argue that the central artistic allusion in this poem is to the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Ask Me No More1. Summary:The poet describes the object of his love as being the beginning and end of the entire universe in the poem Ask Me No More.2. Theme:Passionate love in Ask Me No More is thematically explored in a metaphysical conceit.3. Satiric Poem:The use of the metaphysical conceit, comparing the lover to the beginning and the end of the universe, may be argued to suggest that this poem is satiric, in that it mocks the convention of the metaphysical poem.4. Abstract Diction:The figurative language in the poem Ask Me No More relies on the abstract word choices the poet makes in lines such as “The golden atoms of the day” where light is compared to golden atoms.5. Poetic Diction:Carew, in the poem Ask Me No More makes reference to a nightingale reminding the audience of the poem Ode to a Nightingale. 6. Connotation:The word “orient” is used by Carew to describe not what is from the East, but something which is exotic, unusual, and rare – the beauty of his lover.

My Papa’s Waltz1. Verse: The alternating rhyme used in My Papa’s Waltz creates a lyrical, rhythmic form of verse reflective of the father and child’s movement in the poem.2. SubjectThe subject of My Papa’s Waltz is the adult poet as a child, experiencing a moment of remembered happiness with a father.3. Theme:A focus on the unique yet universal memory of a particular moment in a child and a father’s life is the theme of this poem – the moment at which closeness is to be experienced in all the senses.4. Tone:The tone of My Papa’s Waltz is nostalgic and wistful, enabling the audience to access their own memories similar to the one recounted here by the speaker.5. Persona:The persona of a small child is created, to emphasize the remembered quality of a specific moment experienced between child and father in My Papa’s Waltz6.

Concrete Diction:The concrete diction represented by words such as “buckle” and “pans” allow the audience to identify with the everyday nature of the setting and the experience in the poem My Papa’s Waltz.This Is Just to Say1. Verse: An almost prose-like style is used in This Is Just to Say to convey the everyday nature of the poetic experience, and the profound meaning in even the simplest of human experiences.2. Paraphrase: The poem This Is Just to Say could be paraphrased as follows: the speaker writes a note by way of a half-hearted apology to indicate that he/she has eaten the fruit in the refrigerator (which someone else was most likely keeping for breakfast) because it was irresistibly delicious and inviting.3. Subject:The speaker addresses a note to a partner (unidentified) who becomes the subject of the poem, as the reactions of this person will cause the full meaning of the poem to emerge.4. Theme:While selfishness may seem to be one of the themes of This Is Just to Say, the irresistibility of certain desires – strong enough for humans to betray one another on simple, or very important aspects – seems to dominate.5. Satiric Poem:William Carlos Williams to some degree satirizes all the conceptions and traditions of poetry, as elaborate and complex, with this simple language and informal structure.6. Concrete Diction:Although the poem by William Carlos Williams This Is Just to Say is entirely composed of everyday words, the diction could not be described as concrete.7. Connotation:The connotations of plums in this William Carlos Williams poem include the forbidden, the desirable, even the exotic, and represent the potential of extreme loss.

Batter my heart, three person’d God1. Verse: The verse in this John Donne poem is formally structured into a Petrarchan Sonnet form, with traditional rhyme and rhythmic schemes. 2. Subject:The subject of the Donne poem is the believer, struggling to remain faithful to God.3. Theme:The religious, Christian themes of Donne’s poem include: faith; the difficulty of maintaining faith; and the necessity to give control over to God.4. Diction:The Biblical and formal diction in Batter my heart, three-person’d God enables Donne to reflect the gravity of his ideas in his actual language. 5. Abstract Diction:When Donne compares himself to an “usurped town”, an abstract concept, his choice of word communicates his absolute inability to complete anything effectively without God.6. Poetic Diction:“Three-person’d God” in Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14 reflects poetic diction in that an informal, coined, and contracted word is used in order to maintain the meter of the line.

Fire and Ice1. Paraphrase: The speaker in this Robert Frost poem weighs the destructive natures of fire and ice, and concludes that both fire (representing desire) and ice (representing hate) could equally destroy the world. 2. Theme:Frost uses the experience he has of the natural world, and the destructive nature of both fire and ice, to extend meaning to the lives of people, to create a theme of avoiding extremes of emotion. 3. Tone:Fire and Ice has a tone of warning and despair at the coldness of the human heart.4. Diction:Frost’s language is conversational, even informal, and the diction of the poem Fire and Ice is simple, direct and clear, reflecting the clear-cut, unambiguous message of the poem.5. Allusion:The first line of the Frost poem Fire and Ice is a Biblical allusion, to the book of Revelations, where the world is predicted to end in fire at the end of time.6. Denotation:Frost uses words’ denotative meaning and then constructs figurative meanings for those words with metaphors, such as to compare ice to hatred, and thus convey poetic meaning.

Love Calls Us to the Things of the World1. Summary:Wilbur outlines the coming to consciousness of every human, every day, from an imaginative world of spirituality, to the acceptance of a material existence, without change or glory.2. Theme:“Rebirth” is a theme of Love Calls Us to the Things of This World.3. Tone:The tone of Love Calls Us to the Things of This World varies from one of awe and contentedness with the spiritual world, to the grudging acceptance of the material world. 4. Persona:In Love Calls Us to the Things of This World the poet has created a persona which is more of an “everyman”, someone whose experience any audience member can identify with.5. Poetic Diction:Wilber’s use of phrases such as “all awash with angels” reflect his preference to juxtapose poetic diction with the everyday – he notes immediately after this phrase “bed-sheets”, “blouses” and “smocks” as the angels’ attire.6. Connotation:The poet has used the connotations of being ruined, or abused (not sexually) of the word “rape” to describe how every day is destroyed by the mundane repetitiveness of life.

ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURING1. Verse: The verse in John Donne’s Batter my heart, three-person’d God is formally structured into a Petrarchan Sonnet form, with traditional rhyme and rhythmic schemes. 2. Paraphrase: To paraphrase the speaker in this poem: Robert Frost weighs the destructive natures of fire and ice, and concludes that both fire (representing desire) and ice (representing hate) could equally destroy the world. 3. Summary:The poet describes the object of his love as being the beginning and end of the entire universe in the poem Ask Me No More.4. Subject:The subject of My Papa’s Waltz is the adult poet as a child, experiencing a moment of remembered happiness with a father.5. Theme:A central theme explored in My Last Duchess is the patriarchic structure of society when men take precedence over women, treating them as objects and possessions.6. Tone:The tone of Love Calls Us to the Things of This World varies from one of awe and contentedness with the spiritual world, to the grudging acceptance of the material world. 7. Satiric Poem:Browning chooses to mock his speaker, pointing out negative aspects in a mocking, sometimes lightly humorous way, and thus creating a satirical poem in My Last Duchess.8. Persona:In Love Calls Us to the Things of This World the poet has created a persona which is more of an “everyman”, someone whose experience any audience member can identify with.9. Diction:Frost’s language is conversational, even informal, and the diction of the poem Fire and Ice is simple, direct and clear, reflecting the clear-cut, unambiguous message of the poem.10. Concrete Diction:Although the poem by William Carlos Williams This Is Just to Say is entirely composed of everyday words, the diction could not be described as concrete.11. Abstract Diction:When Donne compares himself to an “usurped town”, an abstract concept, his choice of word communicates his absolute inability to complete anything effectively without God, in the poem Batter my heart, three-person’d God.12. Poetic Diction:Wilber’s use of phrases such as “all awash with angels” reflect his preference to juxtapose poetic diction with the everyday – he notes immediately after this phrase “bed-sheets”, “blouses” and “smocks” as the angels’ attire.13. Allusion:The first line of the Frost poem Fire and Ice is a Biblical allusion, to the book of Revelations, where the world is predicted to end in fire at the end of time.14. Denotation:Frost uses words’ denotative meaning and then constructs figurative meanings for those words with metaphors, such as to compare ice to hatred, and thus convey poetic meaning.15. Connotation:The poet has used the connotations of being ruined, or abused (not sexually) of the word “rape” to describe how every day is destroyed by the mundane repetitiveness of life, in Love Calls Us to the Things of This World.