| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
D
Dactyl or Dactylic
A metrical foot of three syllables, the first of which is long or accented
and the next two short or unaccented.
Dadaism
A short-lived WWI European movement in arts and literature based on
deliberate irrationality and the negation of traditional artistic values.
Dead Metaphor
An originally metaphoric expression in which the implied comparison has
been forgotten and is taken literally, as, for example, "I have my hands
full at this time."
Débat
A medieval poem in dialogue that takes the form of a debate on a topic.
An example is The Owl and the Nightingale.
Decameter
A line of verse consisting of ten metrical feet.
Decasyllable
A metrical line of ten syllables or a poem composed of ten-syllable lines.
Deconstructionism
An approach to literature which suggests that literary works do not
yield fixed, single meanings, because language can never say exactly
what we intend it to mean. Deconstructionism seeks to destabilize
meaning by examining the gaps and ambiguities of the language of a
text. Deconstructionists pay close attention to language in order to
discover and describe how a variety of possible readings are generated
by the elements of a text.
Dedication
The dedication is not mandatory for any poem. Your poem may be
dedicated to a person, a place, or an event.
Deictic
Words that point to particulars, as names and pronouns do for
individual places and persons (such as Edwin Arlington Robinson's
"Miniver Cheevy" and "Richard Cory"), and demonstrative-adjective-
noun combinations (such as Benjamin Franklin King's "Here's that ten
dollars that I owe" in "If I Should Die To-night") do for things.
Denotation
What a word points to, names, or refers to, either in the world of
things or in the mind.
Diacope
See Epizeuxis
Diaeresis or Dieresis
The pronunciation of two adjacent vowels as separate sounds rather
than as a dipthong, as in coordinate; also, the mark indicating the
separate pronunciation, as in naïve.
Dibrach
See Pyrrhic
Diction
Diction is the manner which something is expressed; it's the vocabulary
choice as well as presentation.
Didactic Verse
Poems that exist so as to teach the readers something, often a moral.
Diiamb or Diamb
In ancient poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four syllables, with the
first and third short and the second and fourth long, i.e., two iambs
considered as a single foot.
Dimeter
Two feet; sometimes termed dipody, a double foot, that is, one
measure made up of two feet. An example is Alfred lord Tennyson's
"The Charge of the Light Brigade."
Diphthong
The sound formed by two merged vowels, highly prevalent in English,
eg the vowel sounds of 'loud', 'new', 'why'
Dipody or Dipodic Verse
A double foot; a unit of two feet.
Direct Rhyme
Direct rhyme is rhyme that flows naturally and unforced. Couplets often
end in direct rhyme.
Dirge
A brief funeral hymn or song. An example is Henry King's Exequy.
Dispondee
In ancient poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four long syllables,
equivalent to a double spondee.
Dissonance
Cacaphony, or harsh-sounding language.
Distich
Two lines related to one another. A major Greek and Latin metre is the
elegiac distich, a pair of dactylic hexameter and dactylic pentameter lines.
Disyllabic Rhyme
A rhyme in which two final syllables of words have the same sound.
Disyllable
A word of two syllables.
Dithyramb
Choral hymn in honour of Dionysius, the Greek god of wine, and an
influence on the English ode. An example is John Dryden's "Alexander's
Feast." Much of the work of Walt Whitman is loosely dithyrambic.
Ditty
A little poem meant to be sung.
Dizain
A stanza or poem of ten lines.
Dochmius or Dochmii
In ancient Greek prosody, a metrical foot consisting of five syllables, the
first and fourth being short and the second, third and fifth long.
Dodecasyllable
A metrical line of twelve syllables.
Doggerel
Bad verse, characterized by clichés, incomprehensibility, and an irregular
metre.
Dorian Ode
See Pindaric Verse
Double Dactyl
A form of light verse invented by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander.
The double dactyl consists of two quatrains, each with three double-
dactyl lines ( / _ _ / _ _ ) followed by a shorter dactyl-spondee pair (/_
_ /). The two spondees rhyme. Other rules of this "dismally difficult /
Form" are that the first line must be a nonsense phrase, the second
line a proper or place name, and one other line, usually the sixth, a
single double-dactylic word that has never been used before in a double
dactyl.
Dramatic Monologue
A poem representing itself as a speech made by one person to a silent
listener, usually not the reader. Examples include Robert Browning's
"My Last Duchess," Alfred lord Tennyson's "Ulysses," and T. S. Eliot's
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." A lyric may also be addressed to
someone, but it is short and song-like and may appear to address
either the reader or the poet.
Dramatic Poem
A composition in verse portraying a story of life or character, usually
involving conflict and emotions, in a plot evolving through action and
dialogue.
Dream Vision
A (traditionally medieval) poet's relation of how he fell asleep and had
an often allegorical dream. Examples include "Pearl," Langland's "Piers
Plowman," and Chaucer's "The Book of the Duchess."
Duplet
A two-syllable foot.
Dysphemism
The substitution of a disagreeable, offensive or disparaging expression
to replace an agreeable or inoffensive one.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
