1. AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
POETRY TERMS #4

2. POETIC STRUCTURES
REPETITIVE STRUCTURE is used in poems where a single state of mind is repeated from stanza to stanza, so that the stanzas are essentially interchangeable. Repetitive Structure is very common in lyrics that are sung.
I will confront these shows of the day and night,
I will know if I am to be less than they,
I will see if I am not as majestic as they,
I will see if I am not as subtle and real as they,
I will see if I am to be less generous than they.
Walt Whitman
From “By Blue Ontario’s Shore”

3. POETIC STRUCTURES
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE occurs when there is a sense of advancement in a poem- what comes later could not happen earlier.
A slumber did my spirit seal; 
I had no human fears: 
She seemed a thing that could not feel 
The touch of earthly years. 
No motion has she now, no force; 
She neither hears nor sees; 
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, 
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
William Wordsworth
“A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal”

4. POETIC STRUCTURES
LOGICAL STRUCTURE occurs when the speaker argues a case and comes to some sort of conclusion. Examples: “To His Coy Mistress” Many sonnets

5. LOGICAL STRUCTURE
Logical structure often makes use of the following: VERBAL IRONY- what is said contrasts with what is meant UNDERSTATEMENT- when a speaker says less than he or she means. LITOTES- a form of understatement, where something is affirmed by negation: “he was not underweight” meaning “he was grossly overweight” HYPERBOLE- dramatic overstatement PARADOX- use of seeming contradictions