Rhythm is conveyed by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. In English poetry, this produces metre based on variation of stress, not number of syllables, and is called accentual metre, as opposed to, say, classical (Greek and Latin) poetry, in which the pattern is based on quantity of syllables and is hence called quantitative meter. A. Common Feet: (NB: x = unstressed, / = stressed) Iambus or iamb (iambic foot): one unstressed followed by one stressed (x /) x / x / x / x / x / again, unveil, reverse, diskette, molest Trochee (trochaic foot): one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed (/ x) / x / x / x / x / x happy, never, manly, carving, stapler Anapaest (anapaestic foot): two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed (x x /) x x / x x / x x / x x / / x expertise, entertain, hurry up, human rights (but note, human) The above example demonstrates the technical sophistication of a structure poem. The consistent framework based on features such as line length, syllable count, rhyme pattern, rhythm, and metre is both interesting and admirable as a literary craft

Lyric Poetry subjective, reflective poetry which reveals the peot’s thoughts and feeling to create a single, unique impression Narrative Poetry relates a story or narrative. Such texts often recount instances of loss and death, frequently plucked from history or popular legend. As with most poems, expect vivid imagery to contribute to the action. Sonnet (Shakespearean) a rigid 14-line verse form that contains three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg Blank Verse unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter Free Verse unrhymed lines without regular rhythm

The sea is calm to-night. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand; Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Dover Beach by Mathew Arnold (1867) lyrical

"Out, Out” by: Robert Frost The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside him in her apron To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw, As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap - He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all - Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man's work, though a child at heart - He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off - The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!" So. The hand was gone already. The doctor put him in the dark of ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright. No one believed. They listened to his heart. Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs. narrative

18. By William Shakespeare 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. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st 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. sonnet

“Birches” by Robert Frost WHEN I see birches bend to left and right Across the line of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay. “red wheel barrow” by William Carlos Williams so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. blank verse free verse

Lyric Poetry subjective, reflective poetry which reveals the peot’s thoughts and feeling to create a single, unique impression Narrative Poetry relates a story or narrative. Such texts often recount instances of loss and death, frequently plucked from history or popular legend. As with most poems, expect vivid imagery to contribute to the action. Sonnet (Shakespearean) a rigid 14-line verse form that contains three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg Blank Verse unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter Free Verse unrhymed lines without regular rhythm

Not an unhappy man but one who could not stand in the silence of his mind the cathedral emptied of its ritual and sounding about his ears like a whirlwind. He cradled the child awhile then set her down nearby and spoke in a tongue of flame near the Pentagon where they had no doubt. Other people’s pain can turn so easily into a kind of play. There’s beauty in the accurate trajectory. Death conscripts the mind with its mysterious precision. Norman Morrison by Adrian Mitchell Label this poem as either lyrical or narrative. Substantiate this with textual evidence. Lyric Poetry intensely subjective personal expressions of a personal emotion express the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker highly imaginative

On November 2nd 1965 in the multi-colored multi-minded United beautiful States of terrible America Norman Morrison set himself on fire outside the Pentagon. He was thirty-one, he was a Quaker, and his wife (seen weeping in the newsreels) and his three children survive him as best they can. He did it in Washington where everyone could see because people were being set on fire in the dark corners of Vietnam where nobody could see Their names, ages, beliefs and loves are not recorded. This is what Norman Morrison did. He poured petrol over himself. He burned. He suffered. He died. That is what he did in the white heart of Washington where everyone could see. He simply burned away his clothes, his passport, his pink-tinted skin, put on a new skin of flame and became Vietnamese. Norman Morrison by Adrian Mitchell Label this poem as either lyrical or narrative. Substantiate this with textual evidence. Narrative Poetry highly objective told by a speaker detached from the action tells a story (even a short one) rather than exploring the thoughts and feelings of the speaker

The Pacifists At 5:15 one afternoon last week, Norman Morrison, 31, his clothing doused in kerosene and his youngest child, 18-month-old Emily, cradled in his arms, stood outside the river entrance to the Pentagon and burned himself to death. As hundreds of departing officers and civilian workers watched – no photographers were on the scene – Army Major Richard Lunquist grabbed the child away from the flames. Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles Johnson, who had seen two Buddhists incinerate themselves on the streets of Saigon, and two Air Force sergeants tried to smother the flames with coats and jackets. By the time the ambulance arrived, 70% of Morrison’s body was burned. He was declared dead on arrival at Fort Myers Army Dispensary. Morrison’s self immolation, his wife Anna soon explained, expressed “his concern over the great loss of life and human suffering caused by the war in Viet Nam. He was protesting our government’s deep military involvement in this war.” The suicide ended a life centered on religion since boyhood. Morrison was born in Erie, PA. When he was 13, his widowed mother moved the family to Chautauqua, N.Y., where he became the first youth in the country to win the Boy Scout God and Country Award. He was raised a Presbyterian, but gradually became interested in Quaker beliefs, particularly pacifism, while a student at Wooster College. He later studied at a Presbyterian seminary in Pittsburgh and at the University of Edinburgh, and joined the Society of Friends in Since 1962 he had been executive-secretary of the Stony Run Friends Meeting in Baltimore. In recent months, Morrison had been deeply disturbed about U.S. bombings in Viet Nam, although colleagues detected no signs of psychosis that might explain his death. from Time, November 12, 1965

Questions for Poetic Discourse 1. Identify the factual information which each of the Norman Morrison poems identifies. Use only information that could appear in a newspaper (appears free from bias). 2. What do poets “say” that the journalistic account does not reflect? 3. According to Samuel Coleridge, “Poetry is the best words in the best order.” What are some of the “best words in the best order” in the Norman Morrison poems? What makes them the “best”? Identify and explain at least one passage in each poem. Place your answers in your learning log.