Historical info

Poetry in old english / medieval period

Religious and epic poetry dominated the period, along with proverbs, riddles and charms, and are characterised by alliteration rather than rhyme. (Beowulf).

After the norman invasion and the french influence in the english language, becoming the Middle english, the poetry devellops rhyme and rhythm as the distinguishing characteristic, replacing alliteration ( The Canterbury tales).

The Renaissance (XVI , XVII centuries)

Authors like Shakespeare, Spencer and John Milton dominated the period, develloping poetry and making it more complex, adding figurative language such as metaphors, personifications, similes or hyperboles.

The XVIII century

Satire and wit influenced completelly this period. Authors like Alexander pope and Jonathan Switft were very important. The translation of the clasical greek and roman authors was crucial in this period

The Romantic era XVIII and XIX centuries

Poetry before the Romantic period was considered something really complex. It was more related to hard work than inspiration. Many poets even knew latin or ancient greek. The romantic poets began to move away from the strictest poetic rules of metre and rhyme. In fact, some typical themes were nature or the idealiced love. Some of the great names of this period are William Blake, William Wordsworth, Coleridge, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron or Keats.

The Victorian poetry

Victorian poets had a lot of influenced of romantic poets. Moreover, they also were very influenced by tecnology and science.

Types of figurative language

Metaphor

A metaphor is an implied comparison, in contrast to the explicit comparison of the simile

Heart of stone, time is money, Life is a journey

Simile

An explicit comparison of two things using words such a: like, than or as.

As cold as ice, fight like a cow

Personification

The attribution of personal features to objects or ideas.

Love is blind, the lights winked,

Hyperbole

An exageration

I could sleep forever, I had tons of homework

Oxymoron

Opposite concepts in the same line

Minor crisis, Bittersweet

Antithesis

Opposite concepts in different sentences

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Paradox

Play of words that initially doesn’t seem to make sense, but it makes.

The begginning of the end, save money by spending it.

Hypophora

When the author asks a question and then answers it. It is used in essays to bring the subject on another direction or reinforce it.

What’s the benefit of completing the optional exercises? They will help you study.

Rhetorical question

a questions that needs no answer because it is confirming something

How can he be so stupid ?

Apostrophe

The speaker adresses a dead or absent person

Grandma, I know you’ll always be with me.

Apophasis

The raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it.

It’s not my habit to comment on books that don’t interest me or, for various reasons, I don’t like.

Synecdoche

When we say a word meaning a group and viceversa.

He’s got more brains (inteligence) than anyone else, We need some more hands (people).

Metonymy

It is a figure of speech in which something that is related to the subject is used instead of the actual subject itself

I swore allegiance to the Crown, a hired gun,

Alliteration

Repetition of a consonant sound in several consequitive words.

Fair is foul, foul is fair

Anaphora

Repetition of the same words, specially at the beginning of sentences

Five years, five summers

Tricolon

Groups of three words

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The Sonnet and poetic concepts

• 14 lines
• Normally 10 syllables per line.
• Iambic Pentameter (the rhythm or metter stablished by the words in each line) . Rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called feet, The Iamb feet means an unstressed syllable + an stressed syllable.

Shakesperean sonnet rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (3 quatrains and 1 couplet)

Petrarchan sonnet rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDE CDE (1 octet and 1 sestet)

The rhyme scheme can be enclosed (ABBA) or alternated (ABAB).

Masculine rhyme: When the second syllable is stressed: Confessed, Adressed

Femenine rhyme: When the first syllable is stressed: Shaken, Taken.

Hemistich: a half-line of a verse

Caesura: Pause or break ( usually for sense) between two hemistichs

Enjambment: When a verse doesn’t finish with the punctuation mark and continues in the next verse

The most famous sonnet in English language, Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare.

Poetic Metre

Iambic foot: Resembles regular human speech. Unstressed beat + Stressed beat

A-gain, ce-ment, to be, be-spoke

Trochee foot: The opposite of Iambic, Stressed beat + Unstressed beat.

Sha-dow, Eng-lish, Da-vid

Spondee foot: Stressed Beat + Stressed Beat

Big deal, Tom Jones

TRISYLLABLES

Dactyl: Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed

Po-et-ry, E-le-phant, Ann-a-belle

Anapaest: Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed

Un-der-stand, Rec-og-nise, Gra-vi-ty

Amphibrach: Unstressed, Stressed, Unstressed

Con-di-tion