POETRY TERMS AND DRAMA TERMS FOR

SHAKESPEARE

• Verse: Lines arranged in metrical patterns; rhythm

• Blank verse: speech of most of the upper class characters/nobility. Verse that is unrhymed. The main verse form in all Shakespeare’s plays is “blank verse’, or to give it its more formal label, “iambic pentameter.” This was the a very common and conventional way of writing plays during sixteenth century

SPEECH PATTERNS IN SHAKESPEARE

• Iambic Pentameter: 5 feet

• Iamb: unstressed syllable followed by

a stressed syllable.

• Meter: recurrence of a rhythmic

pattern

• Penta: 5

• Foot: rhythmic unit within a line.

• 1 iamb = 1foot in iambic

pentameter.

• Iambic pentamter: 5 iambs (10

syllables)

• “A horse/ A horse/My

king/dom for /a horse!”

SPEECH PATTERNS IN SHAKESPEARE

• Prose: the speech of commoners; uses poetic devices but

has no rhythm. Commoners never speak in blank verse. It

is a way for us to differentiate characters.

• Soliloquy: one person

speaking on stage;

usually expresses

thoughts/feelings.

DRAMA TERMS

• Dramatic irony: readers

knows something the

character does not

• Verbal irony: Saying

opposite of what is meant

• Situational irony: what

happens is opposite of

what is expected

DRAMA TERMS CONTINUED

• Exposition: sets up play; introduces characters, setting, conflict and hints at theme

• Hook/complication/Exciting force: conflict introduced

• Rising action: conflicts develop (acts I and II)

• Climax: turning point (usually Act III); potential for change or disaster

• Falling Action: result of turning point/climax; fallout (Act IV into Act V)

• Denouement/Catastrophe: In Shakespeare’s plays many dead on stage

SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

• In a drama In life

• Act 1 (Introduction) Birth

• Act 2 (Rising Action) Growth

• Act 3 (Climax) Maturity

• Act 4 (Falling Action) Decline

• Act 5 (Conclusion) Death

• Catharsis: Powerful

emotional experience

which not only gives our

natural feelings of pity

and fear, but does so in

a way which conduces

rightful understanding

and response to events

in human world.

DRAMA TERMS CONTINUED

• Tragic Flaw: Tragic hero is an essentially good man who has a character weakness: tragic flaw. The flaw is an integral part of the protagonist’s character that causes his downfall.

• Foreshadowing: describes

when a piece of dialogue or

action refers to events that

will happen later in the play

even though the characters

have no prior knowledge

such events will occur.

POETRY TERMS

• Puns: a joke based on the use of a word, or more than one word, that has more than one meaning but the same sound.

- Mercutio-- “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.”

- Romeo– “Not I , believe me. You have dancing shoes/ with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead…”

Sole when referring to shoes, then made a pun by referring to his own soul.

POETRY TERMS

• Metaphor: comparison in which an object or person is directly liked to something else could be completely unrelated.

Example: “But , soft! What light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun” (II ii 2-3)

Here, Juliet is metaphorically compared to the sun despite the fact that she has nothing physically in common with a glowing star hundreds of thousands of miles away.

POETRY TERMS

• Personification: occurs when an inanimate object or concept is given the qualities of a person or animal.

Example: Juliet: “For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night/ Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back/ Come, gentle night, come loving, black-brow’d night” (III ii 18-20)

Obviously the night does not have wings nor does it have a brow, but giving it these qualities adds a mystique to Juliet's’ monologue and a poetic quality to the language.

POETRY TERMS

• Oxymoron: describes when two juxtaposed words have

opposing or very diverse meanings.

Example: “Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!” (III ii 77)

When Juliet refers to Romeo as a “beautiful tyrant,” she

is expressing an oxymoron because the acts of a tyrant

will rarely be referred to as beautiful.

POETRY TERMS

• Paradox: statement or situation with seemingly contradictory or incompatible components. On closer examination, however, the combination of these components is indeed appropriate.

Example: “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” (III ii 75)

While Juliet knows that Romeo is not a serpent nor does he have a face full of flowers, her use of these descriptions show how paradoxically he is her lover and the murderer of her cousin at the time

POETRY TERMS

• Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds

• Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds

(usually initial letters)

• Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds

(within words)

• Couplet: two consecutive lines of poetry that

rhyme.

• Hierarchical universe

ordained by God

• Those higher on the chain

possessed greater power,

intellect, mobility, and

capability than those lower

on the chain.

• All creatures, beings, and

objects are represented on

the chain.

• God

• Angelic Beings

• Humanity

• Kings/Queens

• Lords

• Knights

• Priests/Monks

• Commoners

• Father

• Mother

• Children

• Animals

• Plants

• Minerals/non-living objects

THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING

• The more “spirit” the person or object had, the more power it

had in its interactions with people or things below in the

order.

• Elizabethans believed that God set up this order and wanted

it to be followed. If someone or something were to break the

Divine Order by not being obedient to whatever was above it,

the person or thing that went against God’s will would be

punished and chaos would ensue.

• Bigger betrayals of the Divine Order were believed to have

larger punishments and smaller betrayals smaller

punishments.

EXAMPLES

• If a commoner overthrew a King-------------Earthquakes, hurricanes, or other

natural disasters would occur. Rebellion against a king was an act against God

and his divine plan.

• “The state of monarchy is the most supreme thing upon earth: for kings are

not only God’s Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God’s throne, but even

by God himself they are called Gods.” –King James I

• A daughter disobeying a father-----daughter falls ill (possible death depending

on the severity of the action)

• This made it convenient for those in power to maintain it.

• Common theme in Shakespearean Tragedy: Violating the Great Chain of Being

• Romeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet violate the chain by eloping without

their parents’ consent.

MEANING IN ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE?

• Everything is subject to the chain. Ie. Symbols, metaphors, motifs,

similes, imagery etc.

• If Shakespeare compares a woman to a vine and her husband to an oak

he isn’t just commenting on his strength and her beauty. He is also

discussing her subordinate position to him on the chain.

• If two men are fighting for the throne and one is compared to a lion and

the other to a boar, the comparison implies something about which of the

two has a legitimate claim.

• Imagery of the sun, moon, or other nature also has implications and

connotations based on the chain ( celestial order: Sun, moon, planets,

stars).

• 14 line poem, 3 quatrains, 1 rhyming

couplet (heroic couplet).

• Written in iambic pentameter

• Quatrain: 4 line stanza

• Example: Chorus. (Prologue)

Two households, both alike in dignity, a 1

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, b 2

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, a 3

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. b 4

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes c 5

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; d 6

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows c 7

Do with their death bury their parents' strife. d 8

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, e 9

And the continuance of their parents' rage, f 10

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, e 11

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; f 12

The which if you with patient ears attend, g 13

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. g 14

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET