Transcript Prosody

Meter, substitutions, pauses
Meter
The recurring pattern of sounds that
give poems written in verse their
distinctive rhythms
Accentual-syllabic meter is based
both on number of syllables in a line
and on the pattern of stresses in each
metrical unit, or foot.
Meter - 1
A cha pel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the
green
Two unstressed followed by one stressed
Anapest
Meter - 1
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A Cha / pel was built / in the midst,
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Where I / used to play / on the
’
green
Three feet each line (# of times stress pattern
repeated per line)
Three feet + Anapest = anapestic trimeter
Meter - 2
The woods / de cay, / the woods / de
cay / and fall,
The va / pors weep / their bur /then to /
the ground,
Man comes / and tills / the field / and
lies / be neath,
And af / ter ma / ny a sum / mer dies /
the swan.
Meter - 3
Jew els / in joy / de signed
To rav / ish the sen / su ous mind
Lie light / less, all / their spar / kles
bleared / and black / and blind.
Unstressed followed by stressed
Lines 1-2 have three feet – iambic trimeter
• Line 3 has six feet – iambic hexameter
Meter - 4
Earth, re / ceive an / hon oured / guest;
Will iam / Yeats is / laid to / rest.
Let the / I rish / ves sel / lie
Emp tied / of its / po et / ry.
•Stressed followed by unstressed
•Four feet per line
•Trochaic tetrameter
•Catalectic last foot
Meter - 5
When a man / hath no free / dom to
fight / for at home,
Let him com / bat for that / of his
neigh / bors;
Let him think / of the glo / ries of
Greece / and of Rome,
And get knocked / on the head / for his
la / bors.
Meter - 5
When a man / hath no free / dom to fight / for at home,
Let him com / bat for that / of his neigh / bors;
Let him think / of the glo / ries of Greece / and of Rome,
And get knocked / on the head / for his la / bors
Anapestic tetrameter alternating with
anapestic trimeter with an extra
unstressed foot (feminine ending) in
lines two and four
Substitutions
Any variant foot within a line that
consists predominantly of another
metrical pattern
Spondaic foot – two stressed syllables in a row
Trochee at the start of an iambic line
Anapestic foot within an iambic line
Catalectic – at the end of a trochaic or dactylic
line
Substitutions
Lines that end with a strong stress
are said to have a masculine
ending.
Lines that end in an unstressed
syllable are said to have a feminine
ending.
Substitutions - 1
Ah! Well – a- day! What e vil looks
Had I from old and young!
In stead of the cross, the Al ba tross
A bout my neck was hung.
Predominant pattern – Unstressed followed by
stressed
iamb
Substitutions - 1
Ah! Well / -a-day! / what e / vil looks
Had I / from old / and young!
In stead / of the cross, / the Al / ba tross
A bout / my neck / was hung.
Predominantly Iambic (Unstressed followed by
stressed)
• Tetrameter alternating with trimeter: ballad meter
• Spondee: the first foot of lines 1 & 2; extra unstressed
syllable in line three: “of the cross”
Substitutions - 2
The hand / that held / my wrist
Was bat / tered on / one knuc / kle;
At ev / ery step / you missed
My right / ear scraped / a buc / kle.
Iambic trimeter (unstressed followed by stressed;
three feet to line)
An extra unstressed syllable at the ends of lines 2
& 4 (feminine endings); a spondee at “ear
scraped”
Substitutions - 3
I will / a rise / and go now, / for al / ways
night / and day
I hear / lake wa / ter lap / ping with /
low sounds / by the shore.
Iambic hexameter – six feet; unstressed – stressed
Spondees at “go now,” and “low sounds”; and
extra unstressed syllable at “and” in line 1 and “by
the” in line 2
Substitutions - 4
The dew / of the morn / ing
Sunk chill / on my brow –
It felt / like the warn / ing
Of what / I feel now.
Two unstressed followed by stressed; two feet
Missing unstressed syllable at the start of each
line; extra unstressed syllable at the end of lines 1
& 3 (feminine ending); spondees at “sunk chill”
and “I feel now,” with an extra stressed syllable in
the latter foot
Substitutions - 5
Wo man much / missed, how you / call to me, /
call to me,
Say ing that / now you are / not as you / were
When you had / changed from the / one who
was / all to me,
But as at / first, when / our day was / fair.
Four feet of a stressed followed by two unstressed
– dactylic tetrameter
Missing unstressed syllables ends of lines 2 & 4; caesura 2 nd
foot of 4th line; spondee at “our day”
Pauses
End-stopped
• Contains complete thought (complete
sentence or independent clause)
• Distinct pause at the end, usually indicated by
a mark of punctuation
• Calls attention to the complete thought
expressed
Pauses
Enjambed lines
• Sentence or clause continues for two or
more lines
• No punctuation appears at the end of the
enjambed lines
Pauses
Caesura
• A pause in the midst of a verse line
• Indicated by a mark of punctuation
• Creates a shift in the rhythmic pattern
which parallels a shift in the focus
Pauses - 1
How do I love thee? // Let me count the
ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and
height
My soul can reach, // when felling out of
sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
End-stopped: complete thought ends with line
Enjambed: thought continues to next line.
Pauses - 2
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and
hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, // of golden daffodils.
Pauses - 3
What the hammer? // what the
chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? // what dread
grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
Pauses - 4
No longer mourn for me when I am
dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am
fled
From this vile world, // with vilest
worms to dwell.
Pauses - 5
The flowers do fade, // and wanton
fields
To wayward winter reckoning
yields;
A honey tongue, // a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, // but sorrow’s fall.
Those Winter Sundays
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Sun days / too my / fa ther / got up / ear ly
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and put / his clothes / on in / the blue / black cold,
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then with / cracked hands / that ached
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from la / bor in / the week / day wea / ther made
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banked fires / blaze. // No one / ev er / thanked him.
Those Winter Sundays – cont’d
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I’d wake / and hear / the cold / splin / ter ing, / break ing.
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When the rooms / were warm, / he’d call,
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and slow / ly I / would rise / and dress,
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fear ing / the chron / ic an / gers of / that house,
Those Winter Sundays – cont’d
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Speak ing / in dif / fer ent ly / to him,
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who / had dri / ven out / the cold
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and po / lished my / good shoes / as well.
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What did / I know, // what did / I know
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of love’s / aus tere / and lone / ly off i ces?
Those Winter Sundays
Reminiscence of the narrator’s difficult
childhood.
Blames father – resentment made him treat father with
indifference
Yet, looking back remembers the “austere and lonely offices”
that his father performed for him
Diction?
colloquial
Tone?
conversational