Challenging Terms & Words

Anne Bradstreet’s

“The Author to Her Book”

• Conceit- A conceit is a kind of metaphor that compares two very unlike things in a surprising and clever way. Often, conceits are extended metaphors that dominate an entire passage or poem. For example, in John Donne’s “The Flea” he uses this pesky little bug as a metaphor for wanting to have sex. Not your usual comparison for lust or sexual desire.

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• Iamb- a metrical foot consisting of one soft (or unstressed) syllable followed by one harsh (or stressed) syllable. attain/portray/describe

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• Iambic Pentameter- a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable, for example
• Two households, both alike in dignity. (10 syllables with unstressed/stressed or soft/hard)

• Invocation (n)- a prayer; an asking for help from someone in authority.

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• Apostrophe- when the speaker is addressing someone or something that isn’t there.
• “Is this a dagger which I see before me,
• The handle toward my hand?
• Come, let me clutch thee!
• I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”

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• Arcane (adj)- understood by few, mysterious

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• Explicit Metaphor- a direct and explicit comparison between two things. You are an ass! Geoffrey is a real snake!

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• Exact/True/Perfect Rhyme- When the stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent sounds. For example, "sky" and "high"; "skylight" and “highlight" skylight and sleep tight would not be exact rhyme.

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• Internal Rhyme- rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry
• “There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.”

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• Slant /Half/Near/Lazy Rhyme- a type of rhyme formed by words with similar but not identical sounds.
• Ie: lovely/funny eyes/light yours/years bridge/grudge

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• Inchoate (adj)- not fully formed or developed

• Disseminate (v)- to spread or disperse widely

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• Polemical (adj)- critical, hostile, overly opinionated

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• Irreparable (adj)- impossible to fix or repair

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• Fallible (adj)- capable of making mistakes

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• Self-Deprecating (adj)- modest about or critical of oneself, especially humorously so

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• Acerbic (adj)- sharp, brusque, forthright

• Terza Rima- an arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs, that rhyme aba bcb cdc, etc., as in Dante's Divine Comedy.

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• As I drew nearer to the end of all desire, (a)
• I brought my longing's ardor to a final height, (b)
• Just as I ought. My vision, becoming pure, (a)

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• Entered more and more the beam of that high light (b)
• That shines on its own truth. From then, my seeing (c)
• Became too large for speech, which fails at a sight (b)

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• Heroic Couplet- a pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter and typically written using archaic language

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• Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief;
• Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief.

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• Fastidious (adj)- very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail

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