What does the Latin phrase carpe diem mean?
Seize the day

Shakespeare's sonnets are written in Iambic Pentameter- what is Iambic Pentameter?
In the sonnets each line of poetry has a rhythm or beat. An iamb is a metrical foot (or beat) of two syllables; the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. In iambic pentameter there are five iambs, or beats to each line.

What is the rhyme scheme employed by Shakespeare in his sonnets?
ababcdcdefefgg. Three quatrains of alternately rhyming lines concluding with a couplet. The initial octet states a case, the following quatrain modifies or counters the claim and the couplet concludes. An example of an Elizabethan sonnet.

What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile?
A metaphor is a figure of speech where words or a phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).
A simile is a comparison between unlike objects using the words "like" or "as."

"The terms 'light' and 'dark' are examples of homonyms". True or False?
False. A homonym is a word that has the same sound and the same spelling as another word. This is an example of an Antonym- where one word has a meaning opposite to the other.

Milton's Paradise Lost is written in what literary style?
Blank Verse. Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter.

'Drink to me, only, with thine eyes,
and I will pledge with mine;
or leave a kiss but in the cup,
and I'll not look for wine'

Who wrote this passage?
Ben Jonson. Elizabethan poet.

The poetry of John Donne is said to be characteristic of which group of 17th Century poets?
Metaphysical poets, renowned for their philosophical enquiry, elaborate conceits and wit.

What is the first line of William Blake's poem Jerusalem?
'And did those feet in ancient time'

Give an example of alliteration.
e.g. 'the slippery slope of self sacrifice'. It is the repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginning of several words in a line.

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