In a Shakespearean sonnet, what term designates the dramatic thematic shift occurring between the octet and sestet or before the final couplet?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. Volta, the rhetorical turn shifting perspective or argument
- Step 1: The volta marks the intellectual or emotional hinge where the poem pivots to resolve or challenge previous conceits. Step 2. In Petrarchan sonnets it occurs at line 9, while in Shakespearean sonnets it often crystallises at line 13. Answer: Volta, the rhetorical turn shifting perspective or argument. Why not the others: A caesura is an internal metrical pause, and a refrain is a recurring verse.
Practise more Written Text Analysis (Prose, Poetry, Drama and Figurative Language).
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed National Certificate of Educational Achievement mock tests.
More Written Text Analysis (Prose, Poetry, Drama and Figurative Language) questions
- What literary device is used when an author directly compares two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'?
- In a poem, what effect does enjambment typically produce across consecutive lines?
- Which term describes the narrative technique where events are presented out of chronological sequence to depict earlier occurrences?
- When an author attributes human emotions and moods to weather conditions or external nature, which device is being used?
- In dramatic literature, what defines dramatic irony?
- What is the primary function of an unreliable narrator in prose fiction?