02 Thursday Jan 20

Russell Thompson, Notes for 20 January 2011
Powerpoint notes: Prosody The study of versification which includes meter, rhythm, rhyme, and stanza forms. Meter The pattern and arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse. scansion the analysis of metrical patterns in verse foot the number of stresses in a line of verse.

Major Poetic Forms Narrative Tells a story. The three main kinds of narrative poetry are epic, metrical romance, and ballads. Lyric Usually a fairly short poem (around fifty lines or less) which normally expresses the thoughts and emotions of a single speaker in a personal and subjective fashion. Dramatic A poem wherein one imaginary speaker addresses an imaginary audience. The speaker is not to be confused with the poet. This is associated especially with Romantic and Victorian Poetry.

Components of Poetic Verse Rhyme Scheme The pattern of end-rhymes in a stanza, usually notated with lower case letters (EX: abab cdcd OR aabb ccdd). The first line and all subsequent lines whose final syllable rhyme with it are notated with an 'a,' and each successive new rhyme receives the next letter. Stanza A Verse of a poem, composed in a particular metrical and rhyming form which is then repeated in other verses.

Poetic Devices Image Figurative language in poetry, especially in similes and metaphors. Symbol and animate or inanimate object which represents something else. Scales, for example, are an example for justice, roses symbolize love, and doves often symbolize peace. Metaphor A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. Simile A comparison using 'like' or 'as' Metonymy the representation of a thing by another thing which is part of or is associated with it. EX: Crowns represent monarchy, and stages represent the theatre. Enjambment the running over of meaning and grammatical structure from one line of verse to the next.

Sir Thomas Wyatt's "They Flee From Me" Meter uneven Iambic Pentameter Rhyme Royal a Stanza form of seven decasyllabic (ten syllables with five feet) which have the rhyme scheme 'ababbcc'

Sonnet A popular type of lyric verse. fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter. Furthermore, sonnets are divided into two sections, an eight line octave followed by a six-line sextet in the case of the Italian Sonnet, and three quatrains of four lines followed by a couplet in the case of the English or "Shakespearean" sonnet. Rhyme Schemes Traditional English Sonnets: abba cdcd efef gg Traditional Italian Sonnets: abba abba cdecde

Class concluded with group work on three poems, Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18," John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14," and John Milton's "On His Blindness"