DOCSLIB.ORG

Poetry UNIT TERMS

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Poetry UNIT TERMS English 10 & English 10 Honors POETRY UNIT – LITERARY TERMS Phillips APOSTROPHE – A literary device in which a speaker talks directly to an inanimate object, a person who is absent or dead, or an abstract quality such as love. (e.g., in Sonnet 31, Sir Philip Sidney addresses the Moon) ALLITERATION - The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or within words, particularly in accented syllables (e.g., Far and fast the falcon flew). Alliteration is used to create melody, establish mood, call attention to certain words, and point up similarities and contrasts. ASSONANCE - The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds in stressed words of syllables (e.g., opened/rose, out/down). Assonance may be used instead of rhyme. BLANK VERSE - Unrhymed iambic pentameter; each line has a pattern of five unstressed syllables alternating with five stressed ones. The beat of a blank-verse line can indicated as follows: ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM ta DUM. Poets who write in blank verse may vary the beat. Much of “Romeo and Juliet” is written in blank verse. CAESURA – An obvious pause in a line of poetry; usually found near the middle of a line, with two stressed syllables before and two after, creating a strong rhythm. A caesura can be indicated with double slashes (//) For example, the following line from John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” has a caesura: One short sleep past, // we wake eternally. CAVALIER POETRY – The work of a group of 17th century English poets who were loyal to the monarchy. Cavalier poetry is generally intended to entertain rather than to instruct. It is characterized by regular rhythmic patterns, carefully structured stanzas, and simple but eloquent language. Love is a popular theme. Robert Herrick, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace were Cavalier poets. CONCEIT – An elaborate metaphor or simile that makes a comparison between two significantly different things. The conceit draws an analogy between some object from nature or everyday life and the subject or theme of a poem. CONSONANCE - The repetition of identical consonant sounds that are preceded by different vowel sounds (e.g., around/head, crumb/home, seam, swim). COUPLET – Two lines of rhymed verse that work together as a unit to express an idea or make a point. For example, the closing lines of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 29”: For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. ELEGY – A serious poem of lament, usually mourning a death or other great loss. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memorium A.H.H.” is an example of an elegy. END RHYME – The rhyming of words at the ends of lines of poetry. EPIC SIMILE – A comparison that is more involved and ornate than an ordinary simile. EPIGRAM – A short, witty poem; a saying. Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick excelled at writing epigrams. EPITAPH – A tombstone inscription or brief poem composed in memory of someone who has died. Ben Jonson is well known for his moving epitaphs. EPITHET – A brief phrase that is used to characterize a person, place or thing. The phrase “the Great” in Alexander the Great is an epithet. EXTENDED METAPHOR – a metaphor that compares two unlike things in various ways throughout a paragraph, stanza, or selection. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – Language that is not meant to be interpreted literally and is used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. Figurative language is especially prominent in poetry. Among the common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. An effective figure of speech is brief and forceful, surprising but appropriate. FOOT – In verse, a group of syllables usually consisting of one accented syllable and all unaccented syllables associated with it (or, in the case of spondee, two accented syllables). Lines of poetry may be measured in terms of the number and type of feet used, e.g., iambic pentameter. Iamb = unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (beGIN) Trochee = stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (MERcy) Anapest = two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (interRUPT) Dactyl = stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (BEAUtiful) Spondee = two stressed syllables (BOW-WOW) FREE VERSE - A type of poetry written with rhythm and other poetic devices, but without a fixed pattern of meter, rhyme, line length, or stanza arrangement; it generally imitates natural forms of speech. HYPERBOLE – A figure of speech that uses an exaggeration to emphasize strong feeling or to create comic or satiric effects. Example: I’m so hungry, I could eat a bear. IAMBIC PENTAMETER - A line of poetry consisting of 5 metric units or feet (units of rhythm) with the stress falling on the 2nd syllable of each foot, or a 10-syllable line with the stress beginning on the 2nd syllable and falling on every other syllable thereafter. IMAGERY – The representation in language of sense experience: what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled, as well as what can be felt internally. Images appeal to the senses of the reader, help re-create the experience being communicated, and suggest the emotional response appropriate to the experience. INTERNAL RHYME – Rhyming words within lines that may or may not rhyme at the end, e.g., “The fat cat sat on the mat.” INVERSION – The reversal of the usual word order in a prose sentence or line of poetry. Writers use inversion to maintain rhyme scheme or meter or to emphasize certain words of phrases. LYRIC POETRY– Poetry that expresses a speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings. Lyric poems are usually short and musical. While the subject of a lyric poem might be an object, person, or event, the emphasis of the poem is on the experience of emotion. “The World is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth is an example of a lyric poem. METAPHOR – An implied comparison between two seemingly unlike things to help readers perceive the first thing more vividly and to suggest an underlying similarity between the two. A metaphor does not use the word like or as. Sidney’s Sonnet 39 contains the metaphor, “Come sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe” METAPHYSICAL CONCEIT – an intellectual comparison (rather than one based on nature) that can develop a wide range of ideas and capture a broad range of emotions (e.g., in “Whoso List to Hunt” Sir Thomas Wyatt compares romance with deer hunting). METAPHYSICAL POETRY – The work of a group of 17th century poets led by John Donne. It is written in a conversational style, emphasizes complex meanings, contains unusual imagery, and extends the range of metaphors into areas of science, religion, and learning. METER – A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a line of poetry a predictable rhythm. Basically, meter means structuring a line of poetry in regular and equal units of rhythm. Both the number of syllables and the location of stressed syllables are used to structure a line. Monometer = one poetic foot Dimeter =two poetic feet Trimeter = three poetic feet Tetrameter = four poetic feet Pentameter = five poetic feet OCTAVE – The first eight lines of a Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet. The octave usually presents a situation, idea, or question. ODE – A long, serious lyric poem that is elevated in tone and style. Some odes celebrate a person, an event, or even a power; others are more private meditations. Odes are traditionally written in three stanzas and include rhyme. ONOMATOPOEIA – Words with sounds that imitate or suggest their meaning: e.g., “hiss,” “buzz,” “sizzle.” OXYMORON – A figure of speech in which opposite ideas are combined, as in the phrase “wise fool.” PASTORAL – Poetry that idealizes the simple lives of shepherds in a rural setting. These poems exaggerate rural pleasures and the innocence of country people living in harmony with nature. PERSONIFICATION – A figure of speech in which human characteristics are assigned to nonhuman things, or life is attributed to inanimate objects. POETRY - A type of literature that creates an emotional response by the imaginative use of words patterned to produce a desired effect through rhythm, sound, and meaning; it may be rhymed or unrhymed. PUN – A play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings. For example, “son” and “sun,” or “eye” and “I.” QUATRAIN – A four-line poem or stanza. REFRAIN – A passage repeated at regular intervals with variations, usually in a poem or song. RHYME - The repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds plus any succeeding sounds in two or more words (e.g., first/burst). When sounds are repeated at the ends of lines (end rhymes), they are arranged in a pattern within the poem called a rhyme scheme. One may describe a rhyme scheme by representing sounds at ends of lines with letters of the alphabet (e.g., ab, ab, cd, cd, etc.) RHYTHM – The arrangement of stressed and unstressed sounds in speech and writing. The rhythm in a poem may have a single, dominant beat; it may be varied within the poem to fit different situations and moods; it may be casual or regular like speech. SCANSION – The analysis of the meter of a line of verse. To scan a line of poetry means to note the stressed and unstressed syllables and to divide the line into its feet, or rhythmical units. SESTET – A six-line poem or stanza; also the final six lines of a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. In a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet, the sestet provides a resolution, comment or answer to the question or situation posed in the octave. SIMILE – A figure of speech in which two essentially unalike things are directly compared, usually with the words like or as.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction to Meter
    Introduction to Meter A stress or accent is the greater amount of force given to one syllable than another. English is a language in which all syllables are stressed or unstressed, and traditional poetry in English has used stress patterns as a fundamental structuring device. Meter is simply the rhythmic pattern of stresses in verse. To scan a poem means to read it for meter, an operation whose noun form is scansion. This can be tricky, for although we register and reproduce stresses in our everyday language, we are usually not aware of what we’re going. Learning to scan means making a more or less unconscious operation conscious. There are four types of meter in English: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. Each is named for a basic foot (usually two or three syllables with one strong stress). Iambs are feet with an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. Only in nursery rhymes to do we tend to find totally regular meter, which has a singsong effect, Chidiock Tichborne’s poem being a notable exception. Here is a single line from Emily Dickinson that is totally regular iambic: _ / │ _ / │ _ / │ _ / My life had stood – a loaded Gun – This line serves to notify readers that the basic form of the poem will be iambic tetrameter, or four feet of iambs. The lines that follow are not so regular. Trochees are feet with a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed syllable. Trochaic meter is associated with chants and magic spells in English: / _ │ / _ │ / _ │ / _ Double, double, toil and trouble, / _ │ / _ │ / _ │ / _ Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry: Why? Even Though a Poem May Be Short, Most of the Time You Can’T Read It Fast
    2.1. Poetry: why? Even though a poem may be short, most of the time you can’t read it fast. It’s like molasses. Or ketchup. With poetry, there are so many things to take into consideration. There is the aspect of how it sounds, of what it means, and often of how it looks. In some circles, there is a certain aversion to poetry. Some consider it outdated, too difficult, or not worth the time. They ask: Why does it take so long to read something so short? Well, yes, it is if you are used to Twitter, or not used to poetry. Think about the connections poetry has to music. Couldn’t you consider some of your favorite lyrics poetry? 2Pac, for example, wrote a book of poetry called The Rose that Grew from Concrete. At many points in history across many cultures, poetry was considered the highest form of expression. Why do people write poetry? Because they want to and because they can… (taking the idea from Federico García Lorca en his poem “Lucía Martínez”: “porquequiero, y porquepuedo”) You ask yourself: Why do I need to read poetry? Because you are going to take the CLEP exam. Once you move beyond that, it will be easier. Some reasons why we write/read poetry: • To become aware • To see things in a different way • To put together a mental jigsaw puzzle • To move the senses • To provoke emotions • To find order 2.2. Poetry: how? If you are not familiar with poetry, you should definitely practice reading some before you take the exam.
    [Show full text]
  • Meter and Poetic Devices
    DC English IV World/British Literature Teacher: Mr. Smith, room 1217 contact information e: [email protected] w: davidglensmith.com/Tomball t: @prufrocksblues i: mr_smith_eng2332 Poetic Devices • Rhythm is the internal beat in a line of poetry; deals with pauses in spoken languages and strategic stresses of words. Every poet seeks out a sense of rhythm in their work. • know how to count the feet per line of poems; a majority of poems are composed with an internalized meter in a poem. The unit of measurement is called a foot. Depending on the complexity of the meter, the number of syllables dictates the size of the foot. In simplest terms, the most common form is called iambic pentameter which consists of fi ve feet per line. revised 07.09.2021 || English 2332/2333 || D. Glen Smith, instructor Tomball High School 2 Poetic Devices To put this in another manner, meter is measured in feet which are units of measurement dealing with stressed and unstressed syllables. Depending on the type of feet dictates the number of syllables per foot. Four Types of Feet Iambic these are based on two syllables per foot com • pound and are easier to recognize; iambic in ´ Trochaic fact is the most common type of foot; it is witch • craft } used frequently in English poetry ´ • Dactylic these are based on three syllables per foot mur • mur • ing and are a little more diffi cult to create; in ´ Anapestic the ancient poetry of Greece and Rome In • the • night } however these are more frequently used ´ and easier to identify revised 07.09.2021 || English 2332/2333 || D.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Test Review – Fall 2017
    POETRY TEST REVIEW – FALL 2017 TERMS: alliteration extended metaphor quatrain allusion feminine rhyme rhyme scheme anapestic meter foot rhythm anaphora hyperbole scansion apostrophe iambic meter sestet assonance iambic pentameter Shakespearean/English sonnet caesura internal rhyme slant rhyme conceit masculine rhyme spondee connotation meter stanza couplet metonymy synecdoche dactylic meter octave syntax denotation onomatopoeia tone end rhyme oxymoron trochaic meter end-stopped line paradox enjambment Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet METER IDENTIFCIATION: - Be able to identify the meter in isolated lines of poetry - Iambs, Trochees, Anapests, Dactyls, Spondees - Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter POEM COMPREHENSION AND ANALYSIS: - Be able to comprehend the content of all poems in your poetry packet/read in class. - Be able to analyze the effect of poetic devices, imagery, figurative language, diction, tone, and structural elements. - Be able to comprehend the overall meaning of a poem POEMS THAT COULD APPEAR ON YOUR TEST: “Those Winter Sundays” – Robert Hayden “Introduction to Poetry” – Billy Collins “Snapping Beans” – Lisa Parker “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time” – Robert Herrick “To His Coy Mistress” – Andrew Marvell “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” – William Shakespeare “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” – William Shakespeare “The World is Too Much With Us” – William Wordsworth “My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke “My Heart Leaps Up” – William Wordsworth “Do not go gentle into that goodnight” – Dylan Thomas “Death be not proud” – John Donne “The Apparition” – John Donne “The Flea” – John Donne .
    [Show full text]
  • SHAKESPEARE's SONNETS
    PROSODY: Rudiments Del Bello 2017 PROSODY: OED DEFINITION The science of versification; that part of the study of language which deals with the forms of metrical composition; OED v. prosody One way to approach English verse ACCENTUAL-SYLLABIC PROSODY from Classical Latin Some scholars (eg: Derek Attridge The Rhythms of English Poetry) feel that classical prosody applied to English is inadequate and should be replaced. IDEAS and METER • In the moment of composition, one of the central concerns of the poet is arrangement of metric pattern to achieve some kind of musicality. • Impulse toward order while allowing deviation WHY METER? WHO CARES ABOUT METER? 3 objectives: (1) increase your sensitivity to the formal properties of poetry (i.e. what sounds do) (2) heighten your pleasure and illumination in reading poetry (3) understand PROSODY (=features that have to do with how you read out verses) How does meter work? How does it mean/create meaning? • It is often a sort of ritualistic framing (metered language is different from ordinary language and thus “framed” as an artistic artifice) • It often presents variations. Departure from expected metrical norms can create an emotional effect or possibly estrangement. • It may create PROSODIC TENSION (between perfect or ideal metrical pattern and the actual rhythm) • It may have HISTORICAL MEMORY. Having been associated to a certain genre of poetry, a given meter may retain some of the meaning(s) associated to that poetry. What does meter do? • Focuses reader’s attention and refines awareness • Induces hypnosis (meter in most accentual poetry is slightly faster than the normal heart beat exhilarating effect) • Has physiological or possibly sexual overtones.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 SOUND EXPERIENCE in POETRY by Professor Robert Bell, Williams
    1 SOUND EXPERIENCE IN POETRY by Professor Robert Bell, Williams College Department of English I. Some Definitions Sound experience: all the heard experience of a poem. It includes perception of all sounds and pauses made when a poem is read aloud. Rhythm: a perceptible and demonstrable pattern of sounds or pauses in sequence. Any pattern of stresses, rhymes, phrases, sentence and line units, pitch variations, pauses for punctuation or sense or pauses due to omission of metrical stress, assonances, alliterated consonants or vowels, etc. Movement: the total heard rhythm, the composite of all the separate rhythms. Meter: the systematic, conventional ordering of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line. Scansion: a technique of notation, of showing the stresses we make in reading a line of verse and where that order of stresses agrees with or varies from the conventional sequence of meter. II. Analysis of Sound 1. Read the poem, and listen to it. 2. Jot down impressions of the sound experience. 3. Characterize the movement. Steps: a. Jot down your impression; 2 b. Note main rhythms by which the movement is built up; scansion comes in here. c. Correct and define your impression by referring to the rhythms that you have noted (in step b). 4. Select some peculiarities of sound experience, and show how they are appropriate to the poem as you interpret it. After noting some peculiarity that you have heard, take the following steps: a. Observe and describe the arrangement of words, syllables, or stresses. b. Show exactly how that arrangement affects the sounds you make and hear.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Diet in Early Modern English Literature Andrea Crow
    Ruling Appetites: The Politics of Diet in Early Modern English Literature Andrea Crow Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Andrea Crow All rights reserved ABSTRACT Ruling Appetites: The Politics of Diet in Early Modern English Literature Andrea Crow Ruling Appetites: The Politics of Diet in Early Modern English Literature reveals how eating became inseparable from political and social identity in the early modern English imaginary, and the instrumental role that poets, playwrights, and polemicists played in shaping a growing perception of diet as a primary means of driving social change. From the late Elizabethan period through the Restoration, recurrent harvest failures and unstable infrastructure led to widespread food insecurity and even starvation across England. At once literary producers and concerned social agents, many major early modern authors were closely engaged with some of the worst hunger crises in English history. The pointed and detailed attention to food in early modern literature, from luxurious banquets to bare cupboards, I argue, arose from real concerns over the problem of hunger facing the country. I demonstrate how authors developed literary forms seeking to explain and respond to how changing dietary habits and food distribution practices were reshaping their communities. Moreover, early modern authors turned to food not just as a topical referent or as a metaphorical vehicle but rather as a structural concern that could be materially addressed through literary means. Each chapter of “Ruling Appetites” centers on particular literary techniques—verse forms, stage characters, theatrical set pieces, or narrative tropes—through which authors examined how food influenced economic, social, and political reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhythm & Meter
    meter |ˈmiːtə| (Brit.metre) noun UNDERSTANDING POETRY the rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by Rhythm & Meter the number and length of feet in a line. Each line of a poem will have its own structure, and the meter is the rhythm and sound pattern of a line of poetry. The rhythm is important as it gives the poem its sound and differentiates it from prose. To understand rhythm and meter, we first need to understand syllables & feet. A syllable is a single unit of sound in a word, consisting Note: Syllable of a vowel sound with or without surrounding consonants. When a syllable is emphasised, it is called a stressed syllable. Think about the word For example: ‘water’ – it is made up of 2 syllables (wa + ter), “Bottle” has 2 syllables: Bo - ttle but on which do you place more emphasis? Probably “Magnificent” has 4 syllables: Mag - ni - fi - cent the first. Therefore, this is known as the stressed “Spring” has 1 syllable: Spring syllable, and the other is the unstressed syllable. A foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. There are many different possible combinations of Foot stressed and unstressed syllables, and thus many different types of feet. When studying poetry and determining meter, we use the following symbols to mark the syllables: For example: / U / U / U / U / U / U Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Each of these Can you see that there are FIVE is a foot. U / U / U / U / U / feet in this line? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? U / U / / U / U / / U U / / U U U / U / U / Meter - The meter is the number of feet in a line.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements-Of-Poetry.Pdf
    the line. Only when he had anapestic foot: a three- finished each line did he syllable foot with stress on the Some reassemble the lines into a third: --/ poem. dactylic foot: a three- syllable foot with stress on the Elements Ironically, the one poetic first: /-- technique that everyone immediately associates with spondaic foot: a spondee poetry, rhyme, is probably the is two stressed syllables: // one that is least used in pyrrhic foot: two of modern poetry. Instead, most unstressed syllables, --. Rare. modern poets use far subtler dipodic foot: a four- and less obvious techniques to syllable foot consisting of an create—and conceal—their art. unaccented, lightly accented, Poetry Many of them are explained unaccented, and heavily below. accented syllable. anacrusis: prefixing an Michael Clay Thompson unstressed syllable to a line of which it forms no metrical Those who are not well Meter part: Sport that wrinkled Care acquainted with good poetry meter: the pattern of derides / And Laughter might imagine that poetry is a stressed (accented, long) and holding both his sides. spontaneous emotional unstressed (unaccented, short) feminine ending: a final production, involving perhaps syllables in poetry. unstressed syllable appended some rhyme, but relying cadence: rhythm not truly to an iambic or anapestic line. largely on intuition and regular. Walt Whitman wrote To be or not to be, that is the fortuitous accident, the muse, in cadences rather than in question. for the details of genius which meters. catalexis: dropping one make great poems great. scansion: the analysis of or two unaccented syllables Actually, poets work in a meter and its variations in from the end of a line-- manner more similar to great poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • Whether Writing the Poetry of Love Or of Intense Religious
    METER 159 whether writing the poetry of love or of intense religious experience, he was above all "witty," making ingenious use oí paradox, pun, and startling parallels in simile and metaphor (see metaphysical conceit and wit). The beginnings of four of Donne's poems will illustrate the shock tactic, the dramatic form of di­ rect address, the rough idiom, and the rhythms of the living voice that are characteristic of his metaphysical style: Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root. .. For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love. Busy old fool, unruly sun ... Batter my heart, three-personed God ... Some, not all, of Donne's poetic procedures have parallels in each of his con­ temporaries and successors whom literary historians usually group as meta­ physical poets. These poets have had admirers in every age, but beginning with the Neo- classic Period of the later seventeenth century, they were by most critics and readers regarded as interesting but perversely ingenious and obscure expo­ nents of false wit, until a drastic revaluation after World War I elevated Donne, and to a lesser extent Herbert and Marvell, high in the hierarchy of English poets (see canon of literature). This reversal owed much to H. J. C. Grierson's Introduction to Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1912), was given strong impetus by T. S. Eliot's essays "The Metaphysical Poets" and "Andrew Marvell" (1921), and was continued by a great number of commen­ tators, including F. R. Leavis in England and especially the American New Critics, who tended to elevate the metaphysical style into the model of their ideal poetry of irony, paradox, and "unified sensibility." (See dissociation of sensibility.) More recently, Donne has lost his exemplary status, but continues to occupy a firm position as a prominent poet in the English canon.
    [Show full text]
  • ROBERT HERRICK and the POETICAL BOOK B Y PETER
    ROBERT HERRICK AND THE POETICAL BOOK By PETER GORELIK .A., The University of British Columbia, 1980. A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of English) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August, 1985 (c) Peter Gorelik, 1985 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of ..ENGLISH The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 Date August 30, 1985. ii ABSTRACT Robert Herrick's complete works appeared in one large volume of poetry entitled Hesperides: or the Works both Humane and Divine (1648). The number and range of Herrick's poems are astonishing. Herrick's more than one thousand "humane" poems range in subject matter and verse form from the carpe diem lyric and polite compliment to meditations on death and immortality, from the satirical and moralistic epigram to the formal ode and epithala- mium. A critical problem arises here: is there any unity among all this diversity, or is Hesperides just a haphazard collection of lyrical gems? Herrick's status as a poet and place in English poetry depends very much on the answer to this question.
    [Show full text]
  • The Metrical Structure of Free Verse
    The Metrical Structure of Free Verse PhD Thesis Hansjörg Bittner School of Modern Languages and European Studies University of East Anglia May 1997 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author’s prior, written consent. Acknowledgements: First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Clive Scott. In numberless discussions, his critical remarks have helped me to refine my concept of free verse metrics and to consolidate its theoretical foundations. This thesis would not have been written but for financial support from The British Academy and, above all, from my parents. 2 Abstract The irregular undulations of the lexical stress patterns in English and German free verse seem to elude any attempts at controlling their structural variety. This elusiveness calls for metrical confinement through a theory that illuminates the rhythmic effects of variable accentual structures. Metre represents the abstract image of poetic rhythm. Its binary stress patterns utilize accentual isochrony and accentual diversity in order to produce temporal and, if possible, structural regularity. Thus, a stress-based theory of free verse metre becomes possible. The metrical structure of free verse depends on the simultaneous co-operation of all metrically relevant factors. None of these factors is invariable; but their variability is restricted by their need to negotiate mutually the various possibilities of producing, in a concerted effort, the rhythmically best stress pattern. There are three different kinds of metrically relevant factors: while syntax is generally responsible for the delimitation of a metrical unit, lexical stress furnishes the accentual raw material, whose shape is, then, refined under the influence of metro-rhythmic idealization.
    [Show full text]