POETRY

1
POETRY

• Poetry and Prose. Sound Patterning. Prosody.
  Rhymes. Stanza Forms

2
Poetry and Verse

• Poetry is one of the subcategories of literature
  along
• with drama and fiction. In this sense by poetry
  lyric
• poetry is meant.
• Metrical poetry, i.e. verse, differs from prose
  in
• that the former is rhythmically organized speech
• down to the level of syllables, whereas the
  latter is
• either orderless or follows ordering patterns
  other
• than syllabic principles.

3
Rhythm

• Prose rhythm may use repetitions, parallels of
• words, syntactical units, grammar structures,
• sentence length, semantic structures.
• Prose rhythm does not follow any preset
• pattern.

4
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice(1813)from
Chapter 1

• IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
  single man in
• possession of a good fortune must be in want of a
  wife.
• However little known the feelings or views of
  such a man may
• be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this
  truth is so well
• fixed in the minds of the surrounding families,
  that he is
• considered as the rightful property of some one
  or other of
• their daughters.
• My dear Mr. Bennet,'' said his lady to him one
  day, have you
• heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?''

5
Austen cont.

• Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
• But it is,'' returned she for Mrs. Long has
  just been here,
• and she told me all about it.''
• Mr. Bennet made no answer.
• Do not you want to know who has taken it?'
  cried his wife
• impatiently.
• You want to tell me, and I have no objection to
  hearing it.''
• This was invitation enough.

6
Austen cont.

• Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says
  that
• Netherfield is taken by a young man of large
  fortune from the
• north of England that he came down on Monday in
  a chaise
• and four to see the place, and was so much
  delighted with it
• that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately that
  he is to take
• Possession before Michaelmas, and some of his
  servants are to
• be in the house by the end of next week.''
• What is his name?''
• Bingley.''
• Is he married or single?''
• Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man
  of large fortune
• four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing
  for our girls!''

7
GenesisKing James Bible

• 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and
  the earth.
• 2 And the earth was without form, and void and
  darkness was
• upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
  moved upon
• the face of the waters.
• 3 And God said, Let there be light and there
  was light.
• 4 And God saw the light, that it was good and
  God divided the
• light from the darkness.
• 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness
  he called
• Night. And the evening and the morning were the
  first day.

8
Genesis cont.

• 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
  midst of the
• waters, and let it divide the waters from the
  waters.
• 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the
  waters which
• were under the firmament from the waters which
  were above
• the firmament and it was so.
• 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the
  evening and
• the morning were the second day.
• 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
  be gathered
• together unto one place, and let the dry land
  appear and it
• was so.

9
Genesis cont.

• 10 And God called the dry land Earth and the
  gathering
• together of the waters called he Seas and God
  saw that it was
• good.
• 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth
  grass, the herb
• yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit
  after
• his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the
  earth and it was so.
• 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
  yielding seed
• after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,
  whose seed was in
• itself, after his kind and God saw that it was
  good.

10
Verse Rhythm

• Verse is a patterned succession of syllables
• some are strongly emphasized, some are not.
• Rhythms of poetry, compared with prose
• rhythms, are stylized and artificial, they fall
  into
• patterns that are more repetitive and
• predictable.
• Poetic rhythms call attention to themselves.

11
Poetic Rhythm

• Literature coded text
• Poetic rhythm concentration and intensity
• Primordial functions of poetry
• naming
• possession
• healing
• Incantatory rhythms, verse spells, healing charms
• (an incantation or enchantment is a charm or
  spell
• created using words)

12
An Old English medical verse-spellagainst poison

• This herb is called Stime it grew on a stone,
• It resists poison, it fights pain.
• It is called harsh, it fights against poison.
• This is the herb that strove against the snake
• This has strength against poison, this has
  strength
• against infection,
• This has strength against the foe who fares
  through
• the land.
• (Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Sel. and trans. by R. K.
  Gordon, rev. ed., London J. M. Dent and Sons,
  1954, 93)

13
Verse Rhythm

• Rhythm is based on orderly repetition.
• Poetic rhythm is based on the regular
• alternation of certain syllabic features of the
• text.

14
SYLLABLE

• A syllable commonly consists of a vocalic peak,
  which may be accompanied by a consonantal onset
  or coda. In some languages, every syllabic peak
  is indeed a vowel. But other sounds can also form
  the nucleus of a syllable. In English, this
  generally happens where a word ends in an
  unstressed syllable containing a nasal or lateral
  consonant.
• CV / CVC / VC /CCV / CCVC / etc.
• Diphtongs, triphtongs vowel sequences in which
  two or three components can be heard but which
  none the less count as a single vowel
• BUT
• one syllable hire, lyre, flour, cowered
• two syllables higher, liar, flower, coward

15
Prosody(from Wikipedia)

• In poetry, meter (metre in British English) is
  the basic
• rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse.
  Many
• traditional verse forms prescribe a specific
  verse meter, or
• a certain set of meters alternating in a
  particular order.
• The study of meters and forms of versification is
  known as
• prosody. (Within linguistics, "prosody" is used
  in a more
• general sense that includes not only poetical
  meter but also
• the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or
  informal,
• which vary from language to language, and
  sometimes
• between poetic traditions.)

16
Prosody

• Prosodic features of speech
• tone
• stress / beat /accent
• intonation

• Chief phonetic correlates
• pitch
• duration
• loudness

17
Pitch

• is widely regarded in English as the most
• salient determinant of prominence.
• When a syllable or a word is perceived as
• stressed or emphasized, it is pitch height or
  a
• change of pitch, more than length or loudness,
• that is likely to be mainly responsible.

18
Duration

• The duration of syllables depends on both
• segment type and the surrounding phonetic
• context.
• Duration is also constrained by biomechanical
• factors part of the reason why the vowel in
• English bat, for example, tends to be relatively
• long is that the jaw has to move further than in
• words like bit or bet.

19
Stress / Beat / Accent

• Stress commonly is a conventional label for the
• overall prominence of certain syllables relative
• to others within a linguistic system.
• In this sense, stress does not correlate simply
• with loudness, but represents the total effect
• of factors such as pitch, loudness and duration.

20
Stress in English

• English, sometimes described as a stress
• timed language, makes a relatively large
• difference between stressed and
• unstressed syllables, in such a way that
• stressed syllables are generally much longer
• than unstressed.

21
Accent

• The term ACCENT is sometimes used loosely to
• mean stress, referring to prominence in a
• general way or more specifically to the
• emphasis placed on certain syllables.
• The term accent is also used to refer to
• relative prominence within longer utterances.

22
Stress / Accent

• The terms STRESS and ACCENT in particular are
• notoriously ambiguous, and it would be
• misleading to suggest that there are standard
• definitions.

23
Beat

• Beat denote stress with metrical relevance, i.e.
• stressed syllables which count in metrical lines
• are called beats.

24
English Versification

• English poetic rhythm is based on the regular
  alternation of
• stressed and unstressed syllables. (Duration and
  pitch are no
• metre creating features.)
• Stresses are that of words stresses and marked in
  dictionaries
• by as in synecdoche /s?n?kd?k?/.
• Scansion is the act of determining and
  graphically representing
• the metrical character of a line of verse.
• Stressed syllables are marked by the symbols / or
  .
• Unstressed syllables /slacks are marked by the
  symbol X.

25
Scansion

• When I consider how my light is spent
• X / X / X / X / X
  /
• (Milton)
• Whose woods these are I think I know
• X / X / X / X /
• (Frost)
• When my mother died I was very young
• X X / X / X X / X
  /
• (Blake)

26
Scansion

• Down by the salley gardens my love and I did
  meet
• X / X / X / X X /
  X / X /
• (Yeats)
• is a division marker or bar between repeated
  units of a line broken into sections by a caesura

27
Rhythm and Metre

• Rhythm
• The rhythmic structure of a poem is formed by
  repeating a
• basic rhythmical unit of stressed and unstressed
  syllables
• Metre
• Metre grows out of the linguistic rhythms of the
  words, it is the
• design formed by the rhythms, it is an abstract
  pattern.
• The general metre and the actual rhythm of a
  specific line are
• not always identical.

28
Metrical Systems in English1 Accentual/Stressed
Metre

• In accentual/stressed metre the number of
• accents/stressed syllables is fixed in a line.
• However the number of unstressed syllables
• is variable. In order to define the actual form
• you have to count the number of accents per
• line.

29
Metrical Systems in English1 Accentual/Stressed
Metre

• Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Alliterative
  Versification
• The basic metrical feature of the line is four
  strong stresses
• / / / /
• The spaces before and between the stress can be
  occupied by
• zero, one, two or three syllables, e.g.
• X / X X / X X X / /, or X X / X / / X X / X, etc.
• Each full line is divided into two half-lines
  (hemistichs) by a
• Caesura
• X X / X X / X X / X X /

30
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

• The distinctive feature of this metrical form is
  its alliteration.
• Alliteration is a figure speech, meaning the
  repetition of
• consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of
  words or
• stressed syllables.
• It is a very old device which often help create
  onomatopoeic
• effects, i.e. effects imitating sounds.
• Alliteration is a key organizing principle in
  Anglo-Saxon verse.

31
Alliteration

• Alliteration is the principal binding agent of
  Old
• English poetry.
• Two syllables alliterate when they begin with
• the same sound all vowels alliterate together,
• but the consonant clusters st-, sp- and sc- are
• treated as separate sounds (so st- does not
• alliterate with s- or sp-).

32
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

• Formal requirements
• A long-line is divided into two half-lines.
  Half-lines are also known as verses or hemistichs
• A heavy pause, or cæsura, separates the two
  half-lines.
• Each half-line has two strongly stressed
  syllables.
• The first lift in the second half-line (i.e. the
  third stress) is always alliterated with either
  or both stressed syllables in the first
  half-line.
• The second stress in the second half-line, i.e.
  the fourth stress does not alliterate.

33
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

• Thus there are the following variants
• (A marks an alliterating syllable, X marks a
  non-alliterating
• syllable)
• A A A X
• A X A X
• X A A X

34
Beowulf Manuscript

• Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old
  English
• heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative
  long
• lines.
• Its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet
  is
• dated between the 8th and the early 11th century.
• The poem appears in what is today called the
  Beowulf
• manuscript or Nowell Codex (British Library MS
• Cotton Vitellius A.xv), along with other works.

The poem is known only from this single
35
Beowulf Manuscript
36
Examples from Beowulf(translated by Michael
Alexander

• 1. It is a sorrow in spirit for me to say to any
  man
• A A
  A X
• 2. Then spoke Beowulf, son of Edgeheow
• A X
  A X
• 3. A boat with a ringed neck rode in the haven
• X A
  A X

37
Further examples

• Alliterative stress within polisyllabic word
• It was not remarked then if a man looked
• X A
  A X
• Vowel alliteration
• To encompass evil, an enemy from hell
• X A A
  X
• The ample eaves adorned with gold
• A A A
  X

38
Twentieth century example - Ezra Pound Canto
I(A free translation of the opening of Odyssey
11)

• We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
• A A
  A X
• Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
• A A
  A X
• Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward
• X A
  A X
• Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
• A X
  A X
• Circe's this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
• A (?) A
  A X

39
Ezra Pound(1885-1972)
40
Significance of Sound Patterning

• Cohesive and mnemonic function
• Primordial and bardic poetry was transmitted
• orally, repetitive formal components bound words
• together and thus enhanced memorability.
• The metrical frame creates a musical body for the
• poem it may also contribute to a level of sound
• symbolism, onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic words.

41
Stress-VerseNative Metre / Folk Metre

• Sing a song of sixpence,
• A pocket full of rye
• Four and twenty blackbirds
• Baked in a pie.
• When the pie was opened,
• They all began to sing.
• Now, wasn't that a dainty dish
• To set before the King?

42
Sixpence cont.

• Sing a song of sixpence,
• / /
• A pocket full of rye
• / /
• Four and twenty blackbirds
• / /
• Baked in a pie.
• / /
• Or

43
Sixpence cont.

• Sing a song of sixpence,
• / / /
• A pocket full of rye
• / / (p)
• Four and twenty blackbirds
• / / /
• Baked in a pie.
• / / (p)
• (p) pause

44
Stress-VerseBallad Metre

• Ballad metre is a form of poetry that
• alternates lines of four and three beats, often
  in
• quatrains, rhymed abab.
• The anonymous poem Sir Patrick Spens
• demonstrates this well.
• The alternating sequence of four and three
• stresses is called common measure when used
• for hymns.

45
Sir Patrick Spens

• The king sits in Dumfermline town.
• / / / /
• Drinking the blude-red wine O
• / / /
• 'O whare will I get a skeely skipper,
• / / / /
• To sail this new ship of mine?'
• / / /

46
Dunfermline Palace RuinDunfermline was
Scotlands capital in the 11th century
47
Foot-VerseSyllable-Stress Verse /
Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• After the Norman Conquest, from the 12th century
  on
• accentual-syllabic versification started to
  appear.
• It went hand in hand with strophic construction
  and
• rhyming line endings.
• Out of stressed and unstressed syllables metrical
  feet
• were created after the pattern of ancient Greek
  and
• Latin poetry.
• In accentual syllabic foot-verse both the number
  of
• stressed and unstressed syllables are fixed, and
  also
• their respective positions in the poetic line.

48
Foot VerseStressed / Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Ancient Greek and Latin prosody is quantitative,
  i.e.
• the regular alternation of syllables is based on
  their
• duration. Quantitative versification makes
  distinction
• between long and short syllables.
• A syllable is long if the vowel sound in it is
  long or if it
• Is short but followed by more two or more
  consonants.
• A syllable is short if the vowel sound in it is
  short and
• Is followed by zero or one consonant sound.

49
Accentual-Syllabic Metre / Quantitative
Versification

• English accentual-syllabic foot-verse is
  sometimes
• called quantitative. It is, however, is
  inaccurate.
• But quantitative versification is based on the
• quantity, i.e. the duration of a syllable.
• Apart from a few technical experiments, duration
  of
• syllables is not a metre constitutive principle
  in English
• verse.
• Quantitative versification makes metrical feet
  using
• short and long syllables.

50
Quantitative VersificationMetrical Feet

• The foot is the basic metrical unit that
  generates a line
• of verse in quantitative versification.
• The foot is a purely metrical unit there is no
  inherent
• relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning
  or
• syntax.
• A foot is composed of syllables, the number of
  which
• is limited.
• The feet are classified first by the number of
  syllables
• in the foot (disyllabic feet have two,
  trisyllabic three,
• And tetrasyllabic four syllables), and by the
  pattern of
• vowel lengths.

51
Qualitative vs. quantitative metre(from the
Wikipedia entry on Prosody)

• The meter of much poetry of the Western world and
• elsewhere is based on particular patterns of
  syllables of
• particular types. The familiar type of meter in
  English
• language poetry is called qualitative meter, with
  stressed
• syllables coming at regular intervals (e.g. in
  iambic
• pentameter, typically every even-numbered
  syllable). Many
• Romance languages use a scheme that is somewhat
• similar but where the position of only one
  particular
• stressed syllable (e.g. the last) needs to be
  fixed. The
• meter of the old Germanic poetry of languages
  such as Old
• Norse and Old English was radically different,
  but still was
• based on stress patterns.

52
Qualitative vs. quantitative metre(from the
Wikipedia entry on Prosody)

• Many classical languages, however, use a
  different
• scheme known as quantitative metre, where
  patterns are
• based on syllable weight rather than stress. In
  dactylic
• hexameter of Classical Latin and Classical Greek,
  for
• example, each of the six feet making up the line
  was either
• a dactyl (long-short-short) or spondee
  (long-long), where a
• long syllable was literally one that took longer
  to pronounce
• than a short syllable specifically, a syllable
  consisting of a
• long vowel or diphthong or followed by two
  consonants.
• The stress pattern of the words made no
  difference to the
• meter. A number of other ancient languages also
  used
• quantitative meter, such as Sanskrit and
  Classical Arabic
• (but not Biblical Hebrew).

53
Quantitative VersificationMost common feet

• (symbols long syllable, ? short syllable)
• iamb or iambic foot ?
• trochee or trochaic foot ?
• anapaest or anapaestic foot ? ?
• dactyl of dactylic foot ? ?
• spondee or spondaic foot
• pyrrhic or pyrrhic foot ? ?
• tribrach ? ? ?
• molossus
• minor ionic ? ?
• choriamb ??

54
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• English prosody is based on the regular
• alternation of stressed and unstressed
• syllables.
• Consequently classical Greek and Latin
• quantitative metrical feet are translated into
• syllable stresses 'long' becomes 'stressed' (or
• 'accented'), and 'short' becomes 'unstressed
• (or 'unaccented').

55
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• For example, an iamb, which is short-long in
  classical
• meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the
  English
• word today a trochee is constituted of a
  stressed
• and unstressed syllable, as in never a dactyl
  is
• constituted of a stressed syllable followed by
  two
• unstressed ones, as in yesterday while an
  anapaest
• is constituted of two unstressed syllables
  followed by
• a stressed one, as in interrupt. A spondee is
  made of
• two successive stressed syllables, as in
  heartbreak
• a pyrrhic is made of two successive unstressed
• syllables and the phrase of the.

56
English metrical feet

• iamb or iambic foot X /
• trochee or trochaic foot / X
• anapaest or anapaestic foot X X /
• dactyl of dactylic foot / X X
• spondee or spondaic foot / /
• pyrrhic or pyrrhic foot X X
• tribrach X X X
• molossus / / /
• minor ionic X X / /
• choriamb / X X /

57
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• For the scansion of an English poem the standard
• Symbols are used (the symbol marks foot
  boundary)
• Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet
• X / X / X / X X /
  X / X /
• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• X / X / X / X
  /

58
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Metrical feet add up to poetic lines, which
  consequently are
• defined in terms of the number and type of poetic
  feet they
• contain
• Monometer one foot
• Dimeter two feet
• Trimeter three feet
• Tetrameter four feet
• Pentameter five feet
• Hexameter six feet

59
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Thus we can discern
• Iambic monometers (i.e. one-stress iambic lines)
• Thus I
• Pass by
• And die
• As one
• Unknown
• An gone
• (Robert Herrick Upon His Departure Hence, 1648)

60
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Or anapaestic tetrameters (four-stress anapestic
  lines)
• There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his
  head,X / X X / X X /
  X X /
• That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved so I
  said,
• X / X X / X
  X / X X /
• "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's
  bare,
• X / X X / X X
  / X X /
• You know that the soot cannot spoil your white
  hair.
• X / X X / X X
  / X X /
• (William Blake The Chimney Sweeper)

61
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Or iambic pentameters (five-stress iambic lines)
• THERE was a roaring in the wind all night
• X / X / X / X / X
  /
• X
• The rain came heavily and fell in floods
• But now the sun is rising calm and bright
• The birds are singing in the distant woods
• Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods
• The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters
• And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of
  waters.
• (from William Wordsworth Resolution and
  Independence)

62
William Wordsworth(1770-1850)(from the National
Portrait Gallery)
63
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• Iambic pentameter has a distinguished role in the
  history of
• English poetry.
• If unrhymed, it is called blank verse (e.g.
  Shakespeares plays)
• Now is the winter of our discontent
• Made glorious summer by this sun of York
• And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
• In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
• (Shakespeare Richard III)

64
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• If pair-rhymed, it is called heroic couplet (e.g.
  Alexander Popes
• Essay on Criticism)
• Of all the Causes which conspire to blind
• Man's erring Judgment, and misguide the Mind,
• What the weak Head with strongest Byass rules,
• Is Pride, the never-failing Vice of Fools.
• (from Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism)

65
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• It is important to notice that the alternation of
  stressed and
• unstressed syllable in accentual-syllabic metre
  is not entirely
• rigid.
• In iambic forms, e.g. a poet may use substitute
  feet. The
• two syllabic spondee and pyrrhic are proper
  substitute feet for
• iambs.
• Sometimes poets add an extra unstressed syllable,
  thus
• substituting an anapest for an iamb.

66
Substitution

• A sudden blow the great wings beating still
• X / X / X / /
  / X /
• Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
• X / X / X X / X /
  X /
• By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
• X X / / X / /
  X X /
• He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
• How can those terrified vague fingers push
• The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
• X / X / X X X /
  X X /
• And how can body, laid in that white rush,
• But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

67
Substitution cont.

• A shudder in the loins engenders there
• The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
• And Agamemnon dead.
• Being so caught up,
• So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
• Did she put on his knowledge with his power
• Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
• (William Butler Yeats Leda and the Swan)

68
Leda and the Swan16th century copy after lost
painting by Michelangelo
69
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• A metrical line has three levels
• Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one (Donne)
• (iambic pentameter)
• 1. Abstract metrical pattern
• X / X / X / X / X /
• 2. Actual rhythm of the particular line
• X X / X / X X / X /
• 3. Speech rhythm
• X X / X / X X \ X \
• (where \ marks secondary stress)

70
Rough and Smooth Rhythms

• If the three levels fall apart, as in the above
  excerpt of Donnes
• poem, the rhythm is rough. If they tend to
  coalesce, as in this
• line by Donnes contemporary, Edmund Spenser, the
  rhythm is
• smooth
• One day I wrote her name upon the strand
• (Edmund Spenser Amoretti, Sonnet 75)

71
Edmund Spenser John
Donne(1552-1599)
(1572-1631)
72
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

• English accentual-syllabic poems may rhyme. Rhyme
  is the
• identity of sound between words. Rhyme is not
  necessarily
• based on identity of spelling. Pronunciation is
  the essence.
• great rhymes with mate
• whereas
• bough does not rhyme with though
• great and meat look alike, but pronounced
  differently, they are called eyes-rhymes

73
Sound Parallelism

• Rhyme is only one aspect of sound-parallelism.
  Based on the
• concept of the linguistic formula of a syllable,
  i.e. a cluster of
• up to three consonants followed by a vowel
  nucleus followed
• by a cluster of up to four consonants
  (C?³VC?4), Geoffrey
• Leech set up the following chart of sound
  patterns

74
Sound Parallelism

• from Geoffrey N. Leech A Linguistic Guide to
  English Poetry.
• London Longman, 1969, 89

75
Rhyme

• Consonance is often called half-rhyme
• I have net them at close of day
• Coming with vivid faces
• From counter or desk among grey
• Eighteenth-century houses.
• (from W. B. Yeats Easter 1916)

76
Easter Rising, Dublin 1916
77
Internal Rhymes

• By rhymes generally terminal rhymes are meant.
  However,
• poets use internal rhymes within a line, usually
  followed by a
• break (caesura)
• And through the drifts the snowy clifts
• Did send a dismal sheen
• Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken
• The ice was all between.
• (from S. T. Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient
  Mariner)

78
Poetic Forms

• The disposition of lines into groups falls into
  two categories
• Stichic poetry, in which verse line follows verse
  line, as in
• Miltons Paradise Lost. Stichic poetry is often
  segmented into
• verse paragraphs, i.e. passages of irregular
  length divided by a
• space-line.
• Strophic poetry, in which groups of lines
  (stanza) are formed,
• as in Keatss Ode on a Grecian Urn.

79
Rhyme Schemes and Poetic Forms

• Strophic or stanzaic forms are often bound
  together by rhymes.
• Stanza forms are determined by numbers of lines
• Couplet two-line stanza
• Tercet three line stanza
• Quatrain four-line stanza

80
Stanza (Italian station, stopping place)

• A structural unit in verse composition, a
  sequence of lines
• arranged in a definite pattern of meter and rhyme
  scheme
• which is repeated throughout the whole work.
  Stanzas range
• from such simple patterns as the couplet or the
  quatrain to
• such complex stanza forms as the Spenserian or
  those used by
• Keats in his odes.
• (Alex Preminger, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of
  Poetry and Poetics. Enlarged edition.
• London Macmillan, 1975)
• Stanzas may consist of metrically identical or
  different lines.

81
Rhyme Scheme

• Patterns of rhyme within larger units of poetry
• marked by letters
• A or a first line and every following line
  rhyming
• with it
• B or b next new rhyme and every following line
• rhyming with it

82
Rhyme SchemesCouplets

• Couplet aa bb cc, etc.
• Had we but world enough, and time,
• This coyness, lady, were no crime.
• We would sit down and think which way
• To walk, and pass our long love's day.
• (from Andrew Marvell To his Coy Mistress)

83
Rhymes SchemesAlternate Rhymes

• Alternating / alternate / cross rhymes abab
  cdcd, etc.
• The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
• The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
• The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
• And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
• (from Thomas Gray Elegy Written in a Country
  Church-Yard)

84
Rhyme SchemesEnvelope Rhymes

• Envelope / enclosed abba cddc, etc.
• The world is too much with us late and soon,
• Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers
• Little we see in nature that is ours
• We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
• (William Wordsworth The world is too much with
  us
• late and soon)

85
Rhyme SchemesTerza Rima

• Terca rima aba bcb cdc, etc. (It is a type
  interlocking rhyme
• patterns word unrhymed in 1st stanza is linked
  with words
• rhymed in 2nd stanza.)
• O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
• Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
• Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter
  fleeing,
• Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
• Pestilence-stricken multitudes O thou,
• Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

86
Rhyme SchemesTerza Rima cont.

• The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
• Each like a corpse within its grave, until
• Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
• Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
• (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
• With living hues and odors plain and hill
• (from P. B. Shelley Ode to the West Wind)

87
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)by Alfred Clint
(18071883)
88
Rhyme SchemesOttava Rima

• of Italian origin
• rhyme scheme ABABABCC
• Three alternate rhymes plus a closing couplet
• consists of iambic lines, usually pentameters
• Byrons Don Juan is a well known example

89
Ottava Rima

• That is no country for old men. The young
• In one another's arms, birds in the trees
• - Those dying generations - at their song,
• The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
• Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
• Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
• Caught in that sensual music all neglect
• Monuments of unageing intellect.
• (from W. B. Yeats Sailing to Byzantium)

90
Rhymes SchemesRhyme Royal

• rhyme scheme ABABBCC
• usually iambic pentameter
• Geoffrey Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde is a
  well-know example

91
Rhyme Royal

• Here at right of the entrance this bronze head,
• Human, superhuman, a bird's round eye,
• Everything else withered and mummy-dead.
• What great tomb-haunter sweeps the distant sky
• (Something may linger there though all else die)
• And finds there nothing to make its tetror less
• Hysterica passio of its own emptiness?
• (from W. B. Yeats A Bronze Head)

92
Rhyme SchemesSpenserian Stanza

• Rhyme scheme ABABBCBCC
• The Spenserian stanza was invented by Edmund
  Spenser and
• used it for his epic poem The Faerie Queene.
• Each stanza contains nine lines in total eight
  lines in iambic
• pentameter followed by an iambic hexameter
  (alexandrine).

93
Spenserian Stanza

• The wicked witch now seeing all this while
• The doubtfull ballaunce equally to sway,
• What not by right, she cast to win by guile,
• And by her hellish science raisd streightway
• A foggy mist, that overcast the day,
• And a dull blast, that breathing on her face,
• Dimmed her former beauties shining ray,
• And with foule ugly forme did her disgrace
• Then was she faire alone, when none was faire in
  place.
• (from Edmund Spenser Faerie Queene)

94
Edmund SpenserThe Faerie Queene
95
The Sonnet

• Consists of fourteen lines divided into stanzas.
• Iambic pentameters (or iambic hexameters, also
• called alexandrines, sometimes iambic
  tetrameters).
• The rhyme schemes is fixed.
• There are three main types.

96
The Petrarchan / Italian SonnetsJohn Donne Holy
Sonnet 19

• Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one A
• Inconstancy unnaturally hath begott B
• A constant habit that when I would not B
• I change in vowes, and in devotione. A
• As humorous is my contritione A
• As my prophane Love, and as soone forgott B
• As ridlingly distemper'd, cold and hott, B
• As praying, as mute as infinite, as none. A
• I durst not view heaven yesterday and to day C
• In prayers, and flattering speaches I court God
  D
• To morrow I quake with true feare of his rod. D
• So my devout fitts come and go away C
• Like a fantistique Ague save that here E
• Those are my best dayes, when I shake with feare.
  E

97
According to the stanzaic pattern, you can print
like thie (actually many sonnets are printed this
way

• Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one A 1st
  quatrain
• Inconstancy unnaturally hath begott B
• A constant habit that when I would not B
• I change in vowes, and in devotione. A
• As humorous is my contritione A 2nd quatrain
• As my prophane Love, and as soone forgott B
• As ridlingly distemper'd, cold and hott, B
• As praying, as mute as infinite, as none. A
• I durst not view heaven yesterday and to day
  C 1st tercet
• In prayers, and flattering speaches I court God
  D
• To morrow I quake with true feare of his rod. D
• So my devout fitts come and go away C 2nd
  tercet
• Like a fantistique Ague save that here E
• Those are my best dayes, when I shake with feare.
  E

98
The Petrarchan Sonnet4 4 3 3 8 6

• A
• B
• B
• A 1st quatrain
• A octave
• B
• B
• A 2nd quatrain
• turn
• C
• D
• C 1st tercet
• D sestet
• C
• D 2nd tercet

99
The English SonnetWilliam Shakespeare Sonnet 75

• So are you to my thoughts as food to life, A
• Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the
  ground B
• And for the peace of you I hold such strife A
• As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found. B
• Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon C
• Doubting the filching age will steal his
  treasure, D
• Now counting best to be with you alone, C
• Then bettered that the world may see my
  pleasure, D
• Sometime all full with feasting on your sight, E
• And by and by clean starved for a look, F
• Possessing or pursuing no delight E
• Save what is had, or must from you be took. F
• Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, G
• Or gluttoning on all, or all away. G

100
The English Sonnet4 4 4 2 8 4 2 12
2

• A
• B
• A
• B 1st quatrain
• C
• D
• C
• D 2nd quatrain
• turn
• E
• F
• E
• F 3rd quatrain
• G
• G closing couplet

101
The Spenserian SonnetEdmund Spenser Amoretti 75

• One day I wrote her name upon the strand, A
• But came the waves and washed it away B
• Again I wrote it with a second hand, A
• But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
  B
• Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay B
• A mortal thing so to immortalize, C
• For I myself shall like to this decay, B
• And eek my name be wiped out likewise. C
• Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise C
• To die in dust, but you shall live by fame D
• My verse your virtues rare shall eternize, C
• And in the heavens write your glorious name. D
• Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,
  E
• Out love shall live, and later life renew. E

102
The SonnetPetrarchan / Italian

• Rhyme scheme
• a b b a a b b a c d c d c d
• a b b a c d d c e f g e f g / e e f g g
  f
• quatrains - envelope rhymes repeated
• turn after line 8 (turn markers but, though,
  yet, etc.)
• tercets
• quatrains versus tercets
• based on opposition, thesis antithesis, static
  quality

103
The SonnetEnglish / Shakespearean

• Rhyme scheme
• a b a b c d c d e f e f g g
• alternate rhymes
• two turns the first one after line 8
• the second one after line 12
• quatrains versus closing couplet (summary,
  conclusion)
• dramatic quality, tripartite structure
• thesis antithesis synthesis

104
The SonnetSpenserian

• Rhyme scheme
• a b a b b c b c c d c d e e
• A mixture of the two, the overlapping rhymes
  create a similar
• acoustic effect to that of the Italian sonnet,
  yet displays two
• turn, thus represents a more dramatic quality.
  However, the
• overlapping rhymes blur the tripartite division.

105
Semi-strict forms, loosely metrical poems

• Poets often use loosely metrical patterns.
• It either means the employment of metrical
  substitutions or
• variations, as in S. T. Coleridges Rime of the
  Ancient Mariner,
• with subtle irregularities in the ballad measure,
  e.g.
• With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
• We could nor laugh nor wail
• Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
• I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
• And cried, A sail! a sail!

106
Semi-strict forms, loosely metrical poems

• or the use of metrical
• lines of irregular length, as
• T. S. Eliots Preludes,
• Or it may take other, more
• radical forms of only hinting
• at the vague memory of strict
• metrical patterns.

107
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)PreludesI

• The winter evening settles down
• With smell of steaks in passageways.
• Six o'clock.
• The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
• And now a gusty shower wraps
• The grimy scraps
• Of withered leaves about your feet
• And newspapers from vacant lots
• The showers beat
• On broken blinds and chimneypots,
• And at the corner of the street
• A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
• And then the lighting of the lamps.

108
PreludesII

• The morning comes to consciousness
• Of faint stale smells of beer
• From the sawdust-trampled street
• With all its muddy feet that press
• To early coffee-stands.
• With the other masquerades
• That times resumes,
• One thinks of all the hands
• That are raising dingy shades
• In a thousand furnished rooms.

II
109
PreludesIII

• You tossed a blanket from the bed
• You lay upon your back, and waited
• You dozed, and watched the night revealing
• The thousand sordid images
• Of which your soul was constituted
• They flickered against the ceiling.
• And when all the world came back
• And the light crept up between the shutters
• And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
• You had such a vision of the street
• As the street hardly understands

110
Preludes III cont.

• Sitting along the bed's edge, where
• You curled the papers from your hair,
• Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
• In the palms of both soiled hands.

111
PreludesIV

• His soul stretched tight across the skies
• That fade behind a city block,
• Or trampled by insistent feet
• At four and five and six o'clock
• And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
• And evening newspapers, and eyes
• Assured of certain certainties,
• The conscience of a blackened street
• Impatient to assume the world.

112
Preludes IV cont.

• I am moved by fancies that are curled
• Around these images, and cling
• The notion of some infinitely gentle
• Infinitely suffering thing.
• Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh
• The worlds revolve like ancient women
• Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

113
Bibliography

• Attridge, Derek Poetic Rhythm. An Introduction.
  Cambridge Cambridge
• University Press, 1995
• Brooks, Cleanth and Warren, Robert Penn
  Understanding Poetry. 4th
• edition. New York Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
  1976
• Fry, Stephen The Ode Less Travelled. Unlocking
  the Poet Within. London
• Hutchinson, 2005
• Hobsbaum, Philip Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form.
  London Routledge, 1996
• Leech, Geoffrey N. A Linguistic Guide to English
  Poetry. London Longman,
• 1969
• Scannel, Vernon How to Enjoy Poetry. London
  Piatkus, 1983
• Preminger, Alex, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of
  Poetry and Poetics. Enlarged
• edition. London Macmillan, 1975