Tzara
Continental
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2005
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My poetry class is currently working on form poetry and, as always, people are having a hell of a time with meter. Think of this thread as me talking to myself about the subject. Feel free to interject your own thoughts or questions on the subject.
One of the qualities that distinguishes poetry, at least much poetry, from prose is the attention paid to the sound of words. That isn't to say that sound is not important to a prose writer, but sound doesn't have quite as important a role in prose as it does in poetry.
There are a number of elements that contribute to a poem's sound--rhyme, consonance, assonance, alliteration, and so on. Rhythmic techniques contribute to the sound of the poem as well. The placement of a caesura (a pause, usually created by punctuation) in the line alters the rhythm of the line, for example. A classic means of controlling the rhythm of a poem is through its metrical structure. Consider the following two examples, drawn from the opening of famous poems:
What makes them rhythmically so different is the meter. In accentual-syllabic verse, which both of these examples are, the metrical structure of a line is composed of a uniform metrical foot, which is repeated a specific number of times. The meter is labeled by the type of foot (iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and so on) and the number of feet (trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, etc.).
The first example, by Christopher Marlowe, is in iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a disyllabic foot composed of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The words "control" and "technique" are iambic--they consist of two syllables, with the latter syllable stressed. So, marking the stresses and feet in the Marlowe example, you get
The second example, which is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is clearly not iambic; if you mark the stressed syllables and divide them into two syllable units, you get
This is called a trochee; examples of trochaic words would be "swimming" or "iamb." (Curiously, both "iamb" and "trochee" are themselves trochaic.) Given that there are four trochees in each line, the Longfellow example is in trochaic tetrameter.
In English, iambic meters are more common and are sometimes said to sound more "natural." Trochaic meters are perhaps more "driven" sounding. Longfellow's use of trochaic tetrameter in "The Song of Hiawatha" is cited as using the meter to give the poem a steady drumming sound.
So, now consider another example, from William Blake:
What do you call this meter?
One of the qualities that distinguishes poetry, at least much poetry, from prose is the attention paid to the sound of words. That isn't to say that sound is not important to a prose writer, but sound doesn't have quite as important a role in prose as it does in poetry.
There are a number of elements that contribute to a poem's sound--rhyme, consonance, assonance, alliteration, and so on. Rhythmic techniques contribute to the sound of the poem as well. The placement of a caesura (a pause, usually created by punctuation) in the line alters the rhythm of the line, for example. A classic means of controlling the rhythm of a poem is through its metrical structure. Consider the following two examples, drawn from the opening of famous poems:
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
Now think of how they sound rhythmically. They are very alike in some ways, but also clearly different, especially when read out loud. The second has a caesura in its first line, where the comma is placed, but even if that was not there, they would sound quite differently. There is only one polysyllabic word in the first example compared to three (including a trisyllabic word) in the second--that certainly seems to make a difference, but is that why they sound so different? Both examples have the same number of syllables (eight) per line.And we will all the pleasures prove
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
What makes them rhythmically so different is the meter. In accentual-syllabic verse, which both of these examples are, the metrical structure of a line is composed of a uniform metrical foot, which is repeated a specific number of times. The meter is labeled by the type of foot (iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and so on) and the number of feet (trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, etc.).
The first example, by Christopher Marlowe, is in iambic tetrameter. An iamb is a disyllabic foot composed of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The words "control" and "technique" are iambic--they consist of two syllables, with the latter syllable stressed. So, marking the stresses and feet in the Marlowe example, you get
Come live / with me / and be / my Love,
And we / will all / the pleas / ures prove
Each line consists of four iambs, one after the other.And we / will all / the pleas / ures prove
The second example, which is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is clearly not iambic; if you mark the stressed syllables and divide them into two syllable units, you get
Should you / ask me, / whence these / stor·ies?
Whence these / leg·ends / and trad / i·tions,
Longfellow's poem is just as uniform and consists of the same number (four) of units/feet, but here each foot is composed of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, the opposite of an iamb.Whence these / leg·ends / and trad / i·tions,
This is called a trochee; examples of trochaic words would be "swimming" or "iamb." (Curiously, both "iamb" and "trochee" are themselves trochaic.) Given that there are four trochees in each line, the Longfellow example is in trochaic tetrameter.
In English, iambic meters are more common and are sometimes said to sound more "natural." Trochaic meters are perhaps more "driven" sounding. Longfellow's use of trochaic tetrameter in "The Song of Hiawatha" is cited as using the meter to give the poem a steady drumming sound.
So, now consider another example, from William Blake:
Tyger, tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What's going on here? The lines start with trochees but don't end on one. If you try and map things starting from the end of the line, it all looks iambic except that the first unstressed syllable is missing.In the forests of the night;
What do you call this meter?