Versification

Based on stress patterns within lines – strong, weak and indeterminate.  Generally marked by – (strong) and (weak).

Counting number of patterns in any one line:
• Monometer
• Dimeter
• Trimeter
• Tetrameter
• Pentameter
• Hexameter
• Heptameter
• Octometer
• Novometer
• Decemeter

Types of patterns have specific names:
• Iambus – weak then strong.
• Trochee – strong then weak.
• Spondee – strong, strong.
• Dactyl – long then two short.
• Anapaest – short then two long.
• Amphibrach – short, long, short.

Combining the two gives specific names, e.g.
• Iambic pentameter
• Spondaic tetrameter

Unrhymed iambic pentameter used in drama is known as blank verse.  Line containing six feet is known as Alexandrine (after Pope).

Figures of speech/rhetoric:
1. Accismus – feigned refusal of something desired
2. Adynaton – magnification of event by reference to the impossible
3. Alliteration
4. Amblysia – modification of language to prepare others for bad news
5. Amplification – language used to extend, magnify or emphasise
6. Anachronism
7. Anacoenosis – asking for opinion on point of debate
8. Anacoluthon – sentence doesn’t continue grammatical pattern
9. Anadiplosis – reduplication – beginning of sentence, line or clause beginning it
10. Anaphora – repetition of particular word or phrase in several successive clauses

Exam questions – wording

Write a critical appreciation of the following poem, paying particular attention to vocabulary, imagery and use of symbols.

Write a critical comparison between the two poems, paying particular attention to theme, attitude and intention.

Read through the following passage and write a commentary on it, showing the means by which the author portrays the two characters involved.

Examine the following extract from a novel.  Show how the author creates suspense and excitement as the passage progresses.

Look at the following scene.  By what means does the author create his comic effects here?

Read through the passage and say how the author establishes a humorous tone and to what effect.

Comment on the author’s use of dialogue and description in the following passage.

Comment on the following passages.  Consider how such things as subject-matter, meaning and the features of style contribute to its full effect.

Both the following poems deal with the same theme.  Compare the ways in which this theme is treated, paying special attention to rhythm, phrasing and imagery.

Compare the following prose passages in their approaches to their subject-matter, bearing in mind the difference of literary form between them.

Write a close study of the extract/poem to show in particular how the language works to achieve its effect.
 

 

Exam questions – open text

Look again at the first part of Chapter 1 and say how far and in what ways you consider it an effective introduction to the novel.

Read again the set passages and say how the author achieves his impact in them.  Give your own response to the way each incident is presented.

How does the main character present himself here?  What is your response to the portrayal of the main character in these sections?

Look again at a particular scene.  How does the language used here reveal the way the character is thinking and feeling?

What aspects of the subject-matter, style and ideas suggest that these two poems are by the same writer as the rest of your selection?

Examine the different ways in which comedy is created in this scene.

Examine carefully the closing section of the novel.  How far does this pick up earlier themes and to what extent is it a satisfactory conclusion to the novel?

How far and in what ways do you find these poems ‘dramatic’?

Consider this section of the novel short story and say how the author’s method of writing works here.

Examine the ways in which the poet creates a sense of intimacy in the poems you have read.

How is the main character presented in this scene?  In what ways does the presentation here differ from that elsewhere in the play?

Analyse three passages of your own choice to bring out what you consider to be the author’s strengths as a writer.

Read again a particular speech.  What do the language and structure reveal here about the character’s state of mind?  Relate what you observe here to other similar passages in the play.

Choosing three particular passages, comment on the depiction and uses of descriptions of locations made in the novel.

Discuss the effects achieved by the writer in this passage, and say how far you think the techniques here are characteristic of those used elsewhere in the novel stories.

 Figures of speech/rhetoric:
1. Accismus – feigned refusal of something desired
2. Adynaton – magnification of event by reference to the impossible
3. Alliteration
4. Amblysia – modification of language to prepare others for bad news
5. Amplification – language used to extend, magnify or emphasise
6. Anachronism
7. Anacoenosis – asking for opinion on point of debate
8. Anacoluthon – sentence doesn’t continue grammatical pattern
9. Anadiplosis – reduplication – beginning of sentence, line or clause beginning it
10. Anaphora – repetition of particular word or phrase in several successive clauses
11. Anastrophe – inversion of normal order of words, etc.
12. Antanaclasis – repetition of words in different or contrary sense
13. Anthimeria – substitution of one part of sp. for another
14. Anticlimax
15. Antimetabole – repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order
16. Antiphrasis – use of word in sense opposite to literary meaning
17. Antipophora – character asks question and answers it himself
18. Antistrophe – repetition of words in reverse order
19. Antithesis
20. Antonomasia – substitution of epithet, name of office etc. for that of person referred to
21. Apophasis – pretending to deny something or passing over what one really means
22. Aposiopesis – halting as if speaker is unable to proceed
23. Apostrophe
24. Archaism
25. Assonance
26. Asyndeton – omitting conjunction
27. Auxesis – amplification, hyperbole
28. Balance
29. Cacophony
30. Chiasmus – order of words in first clause inverted in second
31. Circumlocutio – periphrasis
32. Climax
33. Diallage – arguments considered from various points of view then all brought to bear on one point
34. Dilogy – statement with double meaning
35. Diminishing metaphor – discrepancy between tenor and vehicle
36. Diminution – belittling one’s own abilities
37. Dissonance
38. Diversio – digression
39. Dysphemism – emphasis on defects
40. Ellipsis
41. Enallage – substitution of one grammatical form for another
42. Enalepsis – repetition of word or idea after intervening matter
43. Epanadiplosis – sentence begins/ends with same word
44. Epanalepsis – word order rep. after intervening matter
45. Epanastrophe – end word in first sentence first word in next
46. Epandodos – repetition of sentence in inverse order
47. Epanorthosis – word recalled to substitute more correct one
48. Epic simile
49. Epiplexis – tries to convince audience by reproaches
50. Epiploce – one striking circumstance added in gradation to another
51. Epistrophe – each sentence or clause ends with the same word
52. Epitrope – permission given to opponent to do what he proposes to do
53. Epizeuxis – word repeated with emphasis
54. Erotesis – speakers asserts in q opp. of what q. asks
55. Euphemism
56. Euphuism
57. Exclamatio
58. Exemplum
59. Expositio – repeating same idea in different terms
60. Hendiadys – single idea exp. by words connected by conjunction
61. Homeoteleuton – series of words with same / similar endings
62. Hypallage – transferred epithet
63. Hyperbaton – words transposed from normal order
64. Hyperbole
65. Hypostatization – abstract quality spoken of as though human
66. Hypotyposis – something rep. as though present
67. Irony
68. Litotes – affirmative exp. by negative of contrary
69. Malapropism
70. Meiosis – understatement
71. Metanoia – statement made then withdrawn or lessened
72. Metaphor
73. Metonymy – name of adjunct used for thing
74. Occupatio – refusal to narrate
75. Onomatopoeia
76. Oxymoron
77. Paradox
78. Paralipsis – pretending to ignore/pass over topic thus drawing attention to it
79. Personification
80. Polysyndeton – repetition of conjunction
81. Prolepsis – anticipatory use of attribute
82. Pun
83. Repetition
84. Rhetorical question
85. Sententia – moral etc. generalisation
86. Simile
87. Stichomythia – dialogue in alternate lines
88. Syllepsis – word referring to two things in different ways while properly applying to only one
89. Synechdoche – part for whole
90. Zeugma – one word refers to two things in two different senses