English 20-1 Advanced Modified from the A. Nyberg Poetry Handout

 The beat created by the sounds of the words in a poem  Rhythm can be created by meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and refrain

 Alliteration: the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same sound. ◦ Ej. The twisting trout twinkled  Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds in a serious of worlds. ◦ Ej. “cry, side”; “sweet, thee”; “road, groan”  Consonance: is the repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect. ◦ Ej. “And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.”

◦ There are two basic categories: perfect and imperfect  Perfect: thing/wing  Imperfect: crooned/ground or love/move ◦ Either form of rhyme may be classified into the following four types: Internal rhyme, end rhyme, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme

◦ End rhyme: the most common form involving rhyming words at the end of lines. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep. ◦ Internal Rhyme: the rhyming of words which occurs within a line of poetry. On Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail Talk of your cold! Through parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

The Germ by Ogden Nash A mighty creature is the germ,a Though smaller than the pachyderm. a His customary dwelling place b Is deep within the human race.b His childish pride he often pleasesc By giving people strange diseases.c Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?a You probably contain a germ.a

 Feminine Rhymes are rhyming words with multiple syllables, with the first rhyming syllable accented and the remainder unaccented.  Deliver/shiver  Believing/grieving  Impulsively/convulsively  Masculine Rhymes are rhyming words of one syllable  Life/wifefun/runconcealed/revealed

 The repetition of a sound, word, phrase, or line within a poem. ◦ Example: Do not go gentle into that good night rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.  Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern.  When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. They then repeat the pattern throughout the poem.

 FOOT - unit of meter.  A foot can have two or three syllables.  Usually consists of one stressed and one or more unstressed syllables.  Types of feet are determined by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables.

 Every polysyllabic word will have one stressed syllable. If it is not obvious, say the word aloud. This will help.  Monosyllablic words can be stressed or unstressed; however, prepositional phrases (the, of, my,...) are usually unstressed. But you must look at the line as a whole.

◦ Iambic - unstressed, stressed  That time of year thou mayst in me behold ◦ Trochaic - stressed, unstressed  Tell me not in mournful numbers ◦ Anapestic - unstressed, unstressed, stressed  And the sound of a voice that is still ◦ Dactylic - stressed, unstressed, unstressed  This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock

 monometer=one foot on a line  dimeter=two feet on a line  trimeter =three feet on a line  tetrameter=four feet on a line  pentameter=five feet on a line  hexameter=six feet on a line  heptameter=seven feet on a line  octometer=eight feet on a line ◦ Remember that a foot contains either two or three syllables

 How to determine foot and metrical line: ◦ Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?  I[Shall ] [com pare] [ thee to] [ a sum] [mer’s day?]  Number of feet? 5 = pentameter  Type of foot? = iambic (unstressed – stressed)  Therefore this is known as iambic pentameter.

 Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks.  Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater  Picture yourself in a boat on a river with  Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot

 Iambic meter tends to sound more natural. Love songs, odes, and monologues are generally written in iambic meter.  Trochaic meter is the mirror of iambic and also sounds fairly natural, but more urgent. Rap, marching, and many nursery rhymes use this.  Anapests tend to sound songlike. Limericks, most of Dr. Suess’s poems, and other children’s poetry use this meter.  Dactylic meter is rare and unusual. Examples are The Iliad and Odyssey.

 Written in lines of iambic pentameter, but does NOT use end rhyme.  Shakespeare uses this meter in his plays. Example: from Julius Ceasar Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

 Unlike metered poetry, free verse poetry does NOT have any repeating patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.  Does NOT have rhyme.  Free verse poetry is very conversational - sounds like someone talking with you.  A more modern type of poetry.