Read these lines: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate." The opening line is best described as which device?
Poetry Analysis
Question · Easy
A poem describes a fork in a wooded path and the speaker's choice to take "the one less traveled by." Read as a whole, the diverging roads most clearly function as which of the following?
Introduction & Exam Overview
1.1 Current Exam Facts
Study guide
Consider the line: "The fog comes / on little cat feet." This line works primarily through which technique?
A sonnet's first eight lines describe a problem, and the final six lines offer a resolution. The shift between these parts is best identified by which term?
Question · Medium
Read: "Because I could not stop for Death - / He kindly stopped for me." The treatment of Death in these lines is best described as which device?
A line of poetry contains five pairs of unstressed-then-stressed syllables (da-DUM, five times). This metrical pattern is called:
1.2 Knowledge and Skills Map
In the lines "I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o'er vales and hills," the comparison using 'as' is an example of:
A poem repeats the opening word "Out" at the start of several consecutive lines for emphasis. This repetition of a word at the beginning of successive lines is called:
When a sentence in a poem runs past the end of a line without a grammatical pause, continuing into the next line, the technique is called:
Read: "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes." The repetition of the soft 'f' and 'w' sounds and the slow imagery most contribute to what effect?
Question · Hard
1.3 Genre, Tradition, and Period Weights
A poem refers to a soldier as needing "all hands on deck," using 'hands' to mean workers or sailors. This substitution of a part for the whole is called:
The phrase "the White House announced" uses 'White House' to stand for the presidential administration. This figure, substituting a closely associated thing for what is meant, is:
Read: "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." The speaker addresses Death directly as if it could hear. This device is:
A poet writes of "a deafening silence." The pairing of contradictory terms in this phrase is an example of:
Passage Strategy & Timing
2.1 Timing and Annotation Method
In a poem, the recurring image of barren winter landscapes is gradually replaced by images of spring and new growth. This shift most likely signals a change in:
Read: "The Sea is calm to-night. / The tide is full, the moon lies fair." The mostly serene imagery in these opening lines establishes what, given that later lines turn to human misery?
A poem's final couplet (two rhyming lines) sums up and comments on the preceding twelve lines. This structure is characteristic of which form?
Read: "And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep." The repetition of the identical line, with 'sleep' suggesting more than rest, primarily creates:
2.2 Evidence-Based Elimination
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words, as in "wild and woolly," is called:
Read: "Hope is the thing with feathers - / That perches in the soul." The poem develops hope through a sustained comparison to a bird. This technique is best termed:
A poem's speaker recalls a childhood scene with bittersweet longing, wishing to return to a lost time. The dominant emotional quality of such a poem is best described as:
Read: "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died." Placing an ordinary, trivial fly at the moment of death most likely serves to:
2.3 Common Distractors and Trap Patterns
A poem uses the repeated 'o' vowel sound across "old," "stone," and "alone." This repetition of vowel sounds within words is called:
A poem's lines end in the pattern ABAB CDCD. The labeling of these end-rhyme patterns with letters describes the poem's:
Read: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun." By denying conventional flattering comparisons, the speaker most likely intends to:
When the same final line is repeated as a refrain at fixed points and two lines alternate as recurring refrains throughout a nineteen-line poem, the form is most likely a:
Poetry Foundations
3.1 Reading Poetry with Understanding
Read: "The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." The speaker's attitude toward modern materialism is best described as:
A poet describes grief as "a weight that bows the shoulders down." Treating an abstract emotion as if it were a physical burden is an example of:
A poem describes a battlefield as "sweet and fitting" to die for one's country, then graphically depicts a soldier's agonizing death. The gap between the noble phrase and the brutal reality creates:
A short, witty poem of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme and a humorous or nonsensical subject is a:
3.2 Speaker, Persona, and Audience
A poem mourns the death of a young friend and reflects on loss and mortality in a solemn, grieving tone. This type of poem is best classified as a(n):
Read: "Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night." The phrase 'burning bright' applied to the tiger most directly evokes:
A poem is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the meter of much English verse drama. This form is called:
A poem refers to a betrayer as a "Judas," expecting the reader to recognize the biblical traitor. This kind of indirect reference to a known person, text, or event is called:
3.3 Tone, Mood, and Attitude in Verse
Read: "Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day." The speaker's central exhortation is to:
A poem's speaker is a long-dead duke who unknowingly reveals his own cruelty and jealousy while describing a portrait. This kind of speaker, distinct from the poet and revealing more than intended, is a:
In analyzing a poem, distinguishing the 'speaker' from the 'poet' is important because:
Read: "Out, out, brief candle! / Life's but a walking shadow." Life is compared to a candle and a shadow without using 'like' or 'as.' These comparisons are:
Figurative Language in Poetry
4.1 Imagery and Sensory Detail
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