Poetry for Students

318 Poetry for Students

Tradition emphasized conventionality in social, re-

ligious, moral, and literary standards.

Georgian Age:SeeGeorgian Poets

Georgian Period:SeeGeorgian Poets

Georgian Poets:A loose grouping of English po-

ets during the years 1912–1922. The Georgians re-

acted against certain literary schools and practices,

especially Victorian wordiness, turn-of-the-century

aestheticism, and contemporary urban realism. In

their place, the Georgians embraced the nineteenth-

century poetic practices of William Wordsworth

and the other Lake Poets.

Georgic:A poem about farming and the farmer’s

way of life, named from Virgil’s Georgics.

Gilded Age:A period in American history during

the 1870s characterized by political corruption and

materialism. A number of important novels of so-

cial and political criticism were written during this

time.

Gothic:SeeGothicism

Gothicism:In literary criticism, works character-

ized by a taste for the medieval or morbidly at-

tractive. A gothic novel prominently features

elements of horror, the supernatural, gloom, and vi-

olence: clanking chains, terror, charnel houses,

ghosts, medieval castles, and mysteriously slam-

ming doors. The term “gothic novel” is also ap-

plied to novels that lack elements of the traditional

Gothic setting but that create a similar atmosphere

of terror or dread.

Graveyard School:A group of eighteenth-century

English poets who wrote long, picturesque medita-

tions on death. Their works were designed to cause

the reader to ponder immortality.

Great Chain of Being:The belief that all things

and creatures in nature are organized in a hierar-

chy from inanimate objects at the bottom to God

at the top. This system of belief was popular in the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Grotesque:In literary criticism, the subject matter

of a work or a style of expression characterized by

exaggeration, deformity, freakishness, and disor-

der. The grotesque often includes an element of

comic absurdity.

H

Haiku:The shortest form of Japanese poetry, con-

structed in three lines of five, seven, and five syl-

lables respectively. The message of a haikupoem

usually centers on some aspect of spirituality and

provokes an emotional response in the reader.

Half Rhyme:SeeConsonance

Harlem Renaissance:The Harlem Renaissance of

the 1920s is generally considered the first signifi-

cant movement of black writers and artists in the

United States. During this period, new and estab-

lished black writers published more fiction and po-

etry than ever before, the first influential black

literary journals were established, and black au-

thors and artists received their first widespread

recognition and serious critical appraisal. Among

the major writers associated with this period are

Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen,

Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Nella Larsen,

and Zora Neale Hurston.

Hellenism:Imitation of ancient Greek thought or

styles. Also, an approach to life that focuses on the

growth and development of the intellect. “Hel-

lenism” is sometimes used to refer to the belief that

reason can be applied to examine all human expe-

rience.

Heptameter:SeeMeter

Hero/Heroine:The principal sympathetic charac-

ter (male or female) in a literary work. Heroes and

heroines typically exhibit admirable traits: ideal-

ism, courage, and integrity, for example.

Heroic Couplet: A rhyming couplet written in

iambic pentameter (a verse with five iambic feet).

Heroic Line:The meter and length of a line of

verse in epic or heroic poetry. This varies by lan-

guage and time period.

Heroine:SeeHero/Heroine

Hexameter:SeeMeter

Historical Criticism:The study of a work based

on its impact on the world of the time period in

which it was written.

Hokku:SeeHaiku

Holocaust:SeeHolocaust Literature

Holocaust Literature:Literature influenced by or

written about the Holocaust of World War II. Such

literature includes true stories of survival in con-

centration camps, escape, and life after the war, as

well as fictional works and poetry.

Homeric Simile:An elaborate, detailed compari-

son written as a simile many lines in length.

Horatian Satire:SeeSatire

Humanism:A philosophy that places faith in the

dignity of humankind and rejects the medieval per-

ception of the individual as a weak, fallen creature.

“Humanists” typically believe in the perfectibility

of human nature and view reason and education as

the means to that end.

Glossary of Literary Terms

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