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 pleases c 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/wife fun/run concealed/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 CeasarCowards 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.