Transcript Slide 1

Adapted from PPTs by Mrs. Ma, T. Miller,
and other older ppts.
Rhythm – any wavelike recurrence
of motion or sound
I believe you.
´ syllable
I believe you.
Pauses… //
// because you’ve
I don’t believe you
// However, //
never given me reason to.
I might reconsider.
Caesuras – pauses that occur within lines
of poetry
A noiseless patient spider,
I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launched forth filament, // filament, // filament, // out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, // ever tirelessly speeding them.
Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames // as it has flamed
often before // but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year.
Introduction
• meter – comes from the Greek term for
measure
• poetry written in a regular pattern of stressed
and unstressed syllables
• the recognition and naming of broad wave
patterns in lines of verse (like waves on the
shore or the wave patterns of sounds in
physics)
Meter – the identifying characteristic
of rhythmic language that we can tap
our feet to
Meter continued
• there are a succession of lines or sentences that have
the same metrical pattern, but is not necessarily
exactly rhythmically identical
• lines are repeated again and again in the same broad
rhythmical patterns, creating a rhythmical unit
• eg: “To this I witness call the fools of Time
• Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.”
Poetry has Feet
• the technical meaning – has one stressed syllable
and one or more unstressed syllables or has one
unstressed syllable and one or more stressed
syllables
• is a measurable, patterned, conventional unit of
poetic rhythm
• the non-technical meaning – connected to how we
walk
• pattern and rhythm of steps equal to pattern and
rhythm of poems
• rhythm of music connected to movement of body
and rhythmical pattern of movement
Meter = Measure
Metrical Feet
Iamb
̆ ´ thĕ sun
´
to-day,
Trochee
´ ̆ went
´ tŏ
dai-ly,
Anapest
̆ ̆ ´ in̆ thĕ dark
´
in-ter-vene,
Dactyl
´ ̆ ̆ col-or
´ ̆ of̆
mul-ti-ple,
Meter = Measure
Kinds of Metrical Lines
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
octometer
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
one foot on a line
two feet on a line
three feet on a line
four feet on a line
five feet on a line
six feet on a line
seven feet on a line
eight feet on a line
Whoa!
Did you get that?
OK.
Let’s review, shall we?
Scansion
• the system of using symbols to represent
stressed and unstressed patterns in a poem in
order to be able to “read” the poem
• gives the broad wave pattern, but doesn’t
define the individual wave or pattern
Words have natural rhythm
• Read this:
And now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
This is a famous child’s prayer from the 1900’s.
Kinds of patterns
•
•
•
•
iamb(ic) – unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable
* ‘ * ‘
The way a crow
*
‘
* ‘
Shook down on me.
Trochee(trochaic)
• stressed followed by unstressed
• ‘ * ‘ * ‘ *
‘ *
• Once upon a midnight dreary
Anapest (anapestic)
• has two unstressed syllables followed by a
stressed one
• * * ‘ * *
‘
* * The Assyr/
ian came down/ like a
• ‘
* * ‘
• wolf/ on the fold,
Dactyl
• one stressed followed by two unstressed
• ‘ * * ‘ * * ‘ **
• Hickory, dickory, dock
Spondee (spondaic)
• is a foot composed of stressed syllables
• ‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
• We, real, cool. We left school.
Pyrrhic
• three unstressed followed by a stressed
• * *
* ‘
* * *
‘
• At their/return,/up the/high strand,/
Scansion
´ in̆ storm
´ and̆ strife,
´
Shĕ lived
´ had̆ such
´ desire
̆ ´
Her̆ soul
´ proud
̆ death
´ may̆ bring
´
For̆ what
̆ ´
̆
´
̆ ´
That it could not endure
̆
´
̆
´
̆ ´
The common good of life
´ as̆ ‘twere
´
´ ă king
But̆ lived
̆ packed
´ his̆ marriage
´ ̆ day
´
That
̆ banneret
´ ̆ ´ and̆ pennon,
´ ̆
With
´ ̆ and̆ kettledrum,
´ ̆
̆
Trumpet
´ thĕ outrageous
̆ ´ ̆ cannon,
´ ̆
And
´ ̆ time
´ away
̆´
Tŏ bundle
´ the
´ night
´ come.
´
That
Scansion
´ | in̆ storm
´ | and̆ strife,
´
Shĕ lived
´ | had̆ such
´ | desire
̆´
Her̆ soul
´ | proud
̆ death
´ | may̆ bring
´
For̆ what
̆ ´
̆
´
̆ ´
That it | could not | endure
̆
´
̆
´
̆ ´
The com | mon good | of life
´ | as̆ ‘twere
´
´ | ă king
But̆ lived
̆ packed
´ | his̆ mar
´ | riage
̆ day
´
That
̆
̆ ban
´ | neret
̆ ´ | and̆ pen
´ | non,
With
´ ̆ | and̆ ket
´ | tledrum,
̆ ̆
Trumpet
´ thĕ | outrag
̆ ´ | eous
̆ can
´ | non,
̆
And
´ | dlĕ time
´ | away
̆ ´
Tŏ bun
´ the
´ | night
´ come.
´
That
Examples of Meter
“You blocks! You stones! You worse than senseless things!”
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
____________________________
The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that
cold, cold wet day.
_____________________________ from Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
Come live with me and be my love.
from Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone.
from Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle
____________________________________
Umm! Yeah.
So how does that relate to the
sonnets?
Fair question.
Look at the sonnet’s first line.
̆ ´I / com-pare
̆
´ / thee
̆ to´ / a ̆ sum´ / mer’s
̆ day
´
Shall
1
2
3
4
Iambic Pentameter
5
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET FORM
A fourteen line poem with a
specific rhyme scheme.
The poem is written in three
quatrains and ends with a
couplet.
The rhyme scheme is
abab cdcd efef gg
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
KINDS OF STANZAS
Couplet
Triplet (Tercet)
Quatrain
Quintet
Sestet (Sextet)
Septet
Octave
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
a two line stanza
a three line stanza
a four line stanza
a five line stanza
a six line stanza
a seven line stanza
an eight line stanza
Bibliography
Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense:
An Introduction to Poetry. Eleventh ed. Boston: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2005.
Meyer, Michael. Poetry: An Introduction. Fourth ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.
PPT from Worldofteaching. G. Wotherspoon.