2 an Introduction to Meter
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Syllabification and Accent in the Paradise Lost
SYLLA BI FI CA TI ON A ND A C C ENT I N THE PA RA DI SE LOST A D I S S ERTA T I O N P R E S E NT E D TO T H E B O A RD O F U N IV ER S I TY S TU D I E S O F T H E JOH N S HO P KI N S U N IV ER S I TY F O R T H E D E E E P I L S P Y G R O F D O C TOR O F H O O H . EOR E DOBB N BRO N G G I W . n m : B A L T I M O R E JOH N M U RP HY C O M P A NY 1 90 1 C O N T EN TS . INTRODUCTION. P A GE. M etrical views of 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Masson A b bo tt and Seeley Symonds — A R I SY A IFICA I N. P T . -
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. -
A Crash Course in Foot Structure
Representations Foot Parsing A Crash Course in Foot Structure Jochen Trommer [email protected] University of Leipzig Department of Linguistics Concatenative Approaches to Nonconcatenative Morphology EGG 2008 Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Not all syllables are created equal ba A ma la py tech ro nic Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Word Stress Metrical prominence of syllables in (phonological) words Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Phonetic Correlates of Word Stress I Length I Loudness I Pitch contour Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Consequences of Word Stress for Vowel Reduction EI t@m tO mIk @ I Vowels are maintained under stress I and reduced to [@] if unstressed Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Word Stress in the IPA [man.da."öi:.n@] ["Py:.b5.mO5.g@n] Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Overview Foot Parsing Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course in Foot Structure Representations Foot Parsing Prosodic Phonology Iambs&Trochees Hayes (1995) Word Stress in Prosodic Phonology (Selkirk, 1980) Phonological Word Footw Foots σs σw σs σw a la ba ma s = strong w = weak Jochen Trommer [email protected] A Crash Course -
Some Problems in Prosody
1903·] Some Problems in Prosody. 33 ARTICLE III. SOME PROBLEMS IN PROSODY. BY PI10PlCSSOI1 R.aBUT W. KAGOUN, PR.D. IT has been shown repeatedly, in the scientific world, that theory must be supplemented by practice. In some cases, indeed, practice has succeeded in obtaining satisfac tory results after theory has failed. Deposits of Urate of Soda in the joints, caused by an excess of Uric acid in the blood, were long held to be practically insoluble, although Carbonate of Lithia was supposed to have a solvent effect upon them. The use of Tetra·Ethyl-Ammonium Hydrox ide as a medicine, to dissolve these deposits and remove the gout and rheumatism which they cause, is said to be due to some experiments made by Edison because a friend of his had the gout. Mter scientific men had decided that electric lighting could never be made sufficiently cheap to be practicable, he discovered the incandescent lamp, by continuing his experiments in spite of their ridicule.1 Two young men who "would not accept the dictum of the authorities that phosphorus ... cannot be expelled from iron ores at a high temperature, ... set to work ... to see whether the scientific world had not blundered.'" To drive the phosphorus out of low-grade ores and convert them into Bessemer steel, required a "pot-lining" capable of enduring 25000 F. The quest seemed extraordinary, to say the least; nevertheless the task was accomplished. This appears to justify the remark that "Thomas is our modem Moses";8 but, striking as the figure is, the young ICf. -
Rhythm and Meter in Macbeth Iambic Pentameter (Nobles)
Grade 9 Analysis- Rhythm and Meter in Macbeth Iambic Pentameter (Nobles) What is it? Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this: baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM. Why does Shakespeare use it? When Shakespeare's characters speak in verse (iambic pentameter), they are usually the noble (aristocratic) characters, and their speech represents their high culture and position in society. It gives the play a structured consistency, and when this is changed in instances of prose such as when Macbeth writes to Lady Macbeth and when Lady Macduff talks with her son, these are normally instances where a situation is abnormal e.g. when the Porter babbles in his drunken haze. Trochaic Tetrameter (Witches) What is it? Trochaic tetrameter is a rapid meter of poetry consisting of four feet of trochees. A trochee is made up of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable (the opposite of an iamb). Here is the flow of a line of trochaic tetrameter: BAboom / BAboom / BAboom / BAboom. Why does Shakespeare use it? The witches’ speech patterns create a spooky mood from the start of the scene. Beginning with the second line, they speak in rhyming couplets of trochaic tetrameter. The falling rhythm and insistent rhyme emphasize the witchcraft they practice while they speak—boiling some sort of potion in a cauldron. -
Metrical Feet Iamb (Iambic) Betray Anapest
Meter & Form Metrical Feet Iamb (iambic) betray Anapest (anapestic) intercede Trochee (trochaic) stupor Dactyl (dactylic) secondly Spondee (spondaic) stop light Pyrrhic a night / for the / ghosts Some Other Metrical Concerns caesuras end-stopped vs. enjambed lines rhyme ************************************ “It is not meters, but a meter-making argument that makes a poem.” Emerson “[Meter] can’t be merely a careless dash off, with no grip and no real hold to the words and sense.” Pound ************************************ According to Paul Fussell in Poetic Meter & Poetic Form, there are three principles of expression that metric variations convey: 1 A succession of stressed syllables without the expected intervening unstressed syllables can reinforce effects of slowness, weight, or difficulty; 2 A succession of unstressed syllables without the expected intervening stressed syllables can reinforce effects of rapidity, lightness, or ease; 3 An unanticipated reversal in rhythm implies a sudden movement, often of discovery or illumination; or a new direction of thought, a new tone of voice, or a change or intensification of poetic address. 1 Meter & Form Some Examples Listen! / you hear / the gra / ting roar / Of peb / bles which / the waves / draw back, / and fling, / At their / return, / up the / high strand, / Begin, / and cease, / and then / again / begin / . (Arnold, “Dover Beach”) . through many a dark and dreary Vale They pass’d, and many a Region dolorous, O’er many a Frozen, many a Fiery Alp, Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death. (PL) Drove them before him Thunder-struck, pursu’d With terrors and with furies to the bounds And Crystal wall of Heav’n, which op’ning wide, Roll’d inward, and a spacious Gap disclos’d Into the wasteful Deep; the monstrous sight Strook them with hoor backward, but far worse Urg’d them behind; headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of Heav’n, Eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. -
Gerard Manley Hopkins' Diacritics: a Corpus Based Study
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Diacritics: A Corpus Based Study by Claire Moore-Cantwell This is my difficulty, what marks to use and when to use them: they are so much needed, and yet so objectionable.1 ~Hopkins 1. Introduction In a letter to his friend Robert Bridges, Hopkins once wrote: “... my apparent licences are counterbalanced, and more, by my strictness. In fact all English verse, except Milton’s, almost, offends me as ‘licentious’. Remember this.”2 The typical view held by modern critics can be seen in James Wimsatt’s 2006 volume, as he begins his discussion of sprung rhythm by saying, “For Hopkins the chief advantage of sprung rhythm lies in its bringing verse rhythms closer to natural speech rhythms than traditional verse systems usually allow.”3 In a later chapter, he also states that “[Hopkins’] stress indicators mark ‘actual stress’ which is both metrical and sense stress, part of linguistic meaning broadly understood to include feeling.” In his 1989 article, Sprung Rhythm, Kiparsky asks the question “Wherein lies [sprung rhythm’s] unique strictness?” In answer to this question, he proposes a system of syllable quantity coupled with a set of metrical rules by which, he claims, all of Hopkins’ verse is metrical, but other conceivable lines are not. This paper is an outgrowth of a larger project (Hayes & Moore-Cantwell in progress) in which Kiparsky’s claims are being analyzed in greater detail. In particular, we believe that Kiparsky’s system overgenerates, allowing too many different possible scansions for each line for it to be entirely falsifiable. The goal of the project is to tighten Kiparsky’s system by taking into account the gradience that can be found in metrical well-formedness, so that while many different scansion of a line may be 1 Letter to Bridges dated 1 April 1885. -
PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS the Foot Domain in Bambara Christopher R
PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS The foot domain in Bambara Christopher R. Green University of Maryland —Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL) Recent research has shed new light on the role and characteristics of prosodic domains, includ - ing segmental and tonal feet, in an array of languages. This research extends to African languages, but much work remains to be done. Tonal African languages are particularly problematic, as cor - relates of stress or metrical prominence are often not well defined or are absent altogether. In ad - dition, descriptive work may omit details of the structure and function of prosodic domains. An exception to this is Bambara, where research implicates a pivotal role for foot structure in seg - mental and tonal processes. These processes reference a foot domain; however , there are conflict - ing accounts of certain defining characteristics of its structure . This article aims to challenge two long-held claims about Bambara prosodic structure. The data presented support a claim that all Bambara feet are uniformly trochaic and parsed from left to right in all instances. I intend to illus - trate that Bambara segmental and tonal feet are a single, structurally unified prosodic entity. * Keywords : prosodic structure , foot domain , Bambara , Mande languages , headedness 1. Introduction . The characteristics of and roles played by prosodic feet and simi - lar structures (e.g. tonal complexes) in morphophonological phenomena have been the subject of many recent works (e.g. Akinlabi & Liberman 2006 , Akinlabi & Uria 2003 , Bennett 2012 , 2013, Bickmore 1995, 2003 , de Lacy 2002 , Green 2010 , Hannahs 2009 , Hermans 2011 , Jaker 2010 , Leben 1997, 2002, 2003 , Pearce 2006, 2007 , Yip 1996 , Zec 1999, among others). -
English 201 Major British Authors Harris Reading Guide: Forms There
English 201 Major British Authors Harris Reading Guide: Forms There are two general forms we will concern ourselves with: verse and prose. Verse is metered, prose is not. Poetry is a genre, or type (from the Latin genus, meaning kind or race; a category). Other genres include drama, fiction, biography, etc. POETRY. Poetry is described formally by its foot, line, and stanza. 1. Foot. Iambic, trochaic, dactylic, etc. 2. Line. Monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetramerter, Alexandrine, etc. 3. Stanza. Sonnet, ballad, elegy, sestet, couplet, etc. Each of these designations may give rise to a particular tradition; for example, the sonnet, which gives rise to famous sequences, such as those of Shakespeare. The following list is taken from entries in Lewis Turco, The New Book of Forms (Univ. Press of New England, 1986). Acrostic. First letters of first lines read vertically spell something. Alcaic. (Greek) acephalous iamb, followed by two trochees and two dactyls (x2), then acephalous iamb and four trochees (x1), then two dactyls and two trochees. Alexandrine. A line of iambic hexameter. Ballad. Any meter, any rhyme; stanza usually a4b3c4b3. Think Bob Dylan. Ballade. French. Line usually 8-10 syllables; stanza of 28 lines, divided into 3 octaves and 1 quatrain, called the envoy. The last line of each stanza is the refrain. Versions include Ballade supreme, chant royal, and huitaine. Bob and Wheel. English form. Stanza is a quintet; the fifth line is enjambed, and is continued by the first line of the next stanza, usually shorter, which rhymes with lines 3 and 5. Example is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. -
On Translating Homer's Iliad
On Translating Homer’s Iliad Caroline Alexander Abstract: This reflective essay explores the considerations facing a translator of Homer’s work; in par- ticular, the considerations famously detailed by the Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold, which re- main the gold standard by which any Homeric translation is measured today. I attempt to walk the reader Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/145/2/50/1830900/daed_a_00375.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 through the process of rendering a modern translation in accordance with Arnold’s principles. “I t has more than once been suggested to me that I should translate Homer. That is a task for which I have neither the time nor the courage.”1 So begins Matthew Arnold’s classic essay “On Translating Ho- mer,” the North Star by which all subsequent trans- lators of Homer have steered, and the gold stan- dard by which all translations of Homer are judged. A reader will find Arnold’s principles referenced, directly or indirectly, in the introduction to most modern translations–Richmond Lattimore’s, Rob- ert Fagles’s, Robert Fitzgerald’s, and more recently Peter Green’s. Additionally, Arnold’s discussion of these principles serves as a primer of sorts for poets and writers of any stripe, not only those audacious enough to translate Homer. While the title of his essay implies that it is about translating the works of Homer, Arnold has little to CAROLINE ALEXANDER is the au- thor of The War That Killed Achil- say about the Odyssey, and he dedicates his attention les: The True Story of Homer’s Iliad to the Iliad. -
The Poetry Handbook I Read / That John Donne Must Be Taken at Speed : / Which Is All Very Well / Were It Not for the Smell / of His Feet Catechising His Creed.)
Introduction his book is for anyone who wants to read poetry with a better understanding of its craft and technique ; it is also a textbook T and crib for school and undergraduate students facing exams in practical criticism. Teaching the practical criticism of poetry at several universities, and talking to students about their previous teaching, has made me sharply aware of how little consensus there is about the subject. Some teachers do not distinguish practical critic- ism from critical theory, or regard it as a critical theory, to be taught alongside psychoanalytical, feminist, Marxist, and structuralist theor- ies ; others seem to do very little except invite discussion of ‘how it feels’ to read poem x. And as practical criticism (though not always called that) remains compulsory in most English Literature course- work and exams, at school and university, this is an unwelcome state of affairs. For students there are many consequences. Teachers at school and university may contradict one another, and too rarely put the problem of differing viewpoints and frameworks for analysis in perspective ; important aspects of the subject are omitted in the confusion, leaving otherwise more than competent students with little or no idea of what they are being asked to do. How can this be remedied without losing the richness and diversity of thought which, at its best, practical criticism can foster ? What are the basics ? How may they best be taught ? My own answer is that the basics are an understanding of and ability to judge the elements of a poet’s craft. Profoundly different as they are, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Pope, Dickinson, Eliot, Walcott, and Plath could readily converse about the techniques of which they are common masters ; few undergraduates I have encountered know much about metre beyond the terms ‘blank verse’ and ‘iambic pentameter’, much about form beyond ‘couplet’ and ‘sonnet’, or anything about rhyme more complicated than an assertion that two words do or don’t. -
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.