Page 7 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

Pun - an expression that achieves emphasis or humor by utilizing:
• two distinctly different meanings for the same word. Example: “play” meaning “fun”
and “play” meaning a performance on stage.
or
• two similar sounding words. Example: close/clothes.
Example: In Romeo and Juliet, one character, Mercutio, says after being fatally stabbed,
“Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man.”

Quatrain - a four-line stanza of poetry that may or may not rhyme.
Example:

“All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.”
–Coleridge

Rhetoric- the art of eloquent speech or writing, which employs various techniques in order to
persuade one’s audience. Example: Congressional speeches.

Rhyme Scheme - an alphabetical representation of the way a poem rhymes, constructed by
assigning each line a letter. Example:

My vantage point permitted a clear view [A]
of the depths of the pit below: a desolation [B]
bathed with the tears of its tormented crew [A]
–The Inferno

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Romanticism - an 18 and 19 century literary movement that is frequently characterized by the
following:
•a depiction of emotion and imagination
•a depiction of the beauties of nature
• settings that are in exotic or remote locations. Old castles or mansions frequently play an
important role.
•a hero or heroine who rebels against the social norms of his or her society.
• an intense interest in nature, its beauty, and/or its fierceness.
• an interest in the irrational realms of dreams, folk superstitions, legends, and ghosts.
• language and characters marked by emotional intensity
Examples: Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights.

Satire - using humor to expose something or someone to ridicule. Examples: Animal Farm;
Gulliver’s Travels.

Sensory images - the use of details from any, some, or all of the five senses. Example: He
reached behind him, felt the wall, and was more secure.

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