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Prosody : Basic Rhythmic Structure of poetry
Abstract
In poetry, the metre (or meter) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. Many traditional
verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre or a certain set of metres alternating in a
particular order. Prosody is a more general linguistic term that includes not only poetical
metre but also the rhythmic aspect of prose, whether formal or informal. The scansion of a
poem is the analysis of it's metrical structure. Meter means ‘measure’.
According to Webster’s dictionary prosody has originated from Latin expression prosodia,
the tone or accent of syllable; Greek song sung to, or with, an accompanying song; the
accent accompanying the pronunciation.
Keywords
Prosody, Iambus, Trochee, Anapest, Dactyl, Amphibrach, Alliteration, Assonance, Blank
Verse, Heroic couplet, Quatrain, Sextain, Chaucerian Heptastich, Ottava Rime,
Octosyllabic, Ballad Metre, Trochaics.
Prosody
Prosody deals with the rules of rhythm in poetry. Poetry is impassioned truth,
interpretation of nature, criticism of life, for all purpose, it is better to say that poetry is one
of the fine arts which expresses itself in language of a definite rhythm. We must then have
metre or verse if any composition is to be properly called poetry. But there is much more
or else it would be poetry to say.
Thirty days hath September
April June and November
All the rest have thirty one,
Saving February alone,
Twenty-eight are all its store,
But in leap-year one day more
It is definite that the language of poetry in not the language of prose. The meaning of this
has been wrongly assumed that certain words and those alone can be poetic.
In the 18th century a particular, poetical diction was current. Swain was a favorite word for
peasant, nymph was for maid, sheep are in Pope "fleecy care " and in Thomson "soft
fearful people". Barn door fowl are in Thomson "the household feathery people" and in
Cowper "the feathered tribes domestic". This irritated Wordsworth no end and led him to
fly to the other extreme and say that prose and verse require the same language "there
neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of the prose and
metrical composition".
The truth is that a noble poem may be written in words that are all suitable for prose, as
Cowper's "Loss of the royal George". But many words found in prose are unpoetic,
unmelodious words, words suggesting unpoetic ideas. No poet writing seriously would
now use blooming as an epithet. Less then a century ago it had no unpoetic associations as
now and in 18th century poetry it is very common as in Burns "Now Nature hangs her
mantle green, on every blooming tree".
Poets are fond of archaic words and forms as kine, margent, steed, palfrey, behest, wax
clomb, holp. They readily interchange parts of speech as sudden for suddenly. They make
compound as feather cinctured, increase-breathing, gloomy gladded. The basic poetic
diction is the language that is most sincere – the words that best express the meaning, that
best call up the picture to the minds eye, and that are most melodious.
The bottom line is the poetry must have imagination, that touch of inspiration that makes
poetry, poetry.
Elements of Prosody
Rhythm means a regular succession of movement. The rhythm of words results in the
cadences and the measures of prose. In prose the rhythm is varied otherwise it would drop
into sing song. In poetry the rhythm is definite; so definite that we feel it and find pleasure
in anticipating it.
Metre is the regulated succession of certain groups of syllables. In English the metre
consists in the regular recurrence of accented syllables alternating with one or two
unaccented syllables. Occasionally there may be three unaccented syllables. A pause or
stop may take the place of an unaccented syllables between two accented syllables.
In Latin and Greek, verse in regulated by quantity, not by accent. In English while accent
regulates quantity – as regards the length of the vowel sounds – is employed to vary the
flow of the metre.
Short Vowels
"Therefore do nimble – pinioned loves draw love, and there hath the wind-swift cupid
wings."
Long Vowels
"Remote, unfriended, meloncholy, slow."
The combination of the accented syllable with one (or two) unaccented is called a measure
or foot. The foot is named according to the grouping and the numbers of syllables. Let us
denote an accented syllable by ´ and an unaccented syllable by ˘ or ˉ.
Then the feet are
Iambus
=
Trochee
=
Anapaest
=
Dactyl
=
Amphibrach =
˘ ´
´ ˘
˘ ˘ ´
´ ˘ ˘
ˉ ´ ˘
as in
as in
as in
as in
as in
ăgrée
sińgiňg
cŏlŏnáde
múrmŭriňg
đeńyiňg
A foot may be made up of two or more words, or of parts of words as the anapaest in
Byron's line, "The Assy|rian come down | like the wolf | on the fold." A line or a verse
contains a certain numbers of feet. Names which are borrowed from Greek metrical
terminology like Trochec, anapaest are usually employed.
A line of one foot is called monometer
A line of two feet is called dimeter
A line of three feet is called trimeter
A line of four feet is called tetrameter
A line of five feet is called pentameter
A line of six feet is called hexameter
"Weep, neigh|bours, weep; | do you | not hear | it said | Pentameter
That Love | is dead ?” Dimeter
Then night|ly sings | the star|ing owl, | Tetrameter
Tu-whit; | Monometer
Tu-who | a mer|ry note | Trimeter
While grea|sy Joan | doth keel | the pot.”| Tetrameter
“We die | Monometer
As your | hours do | and dry | Trimeter
Away | Monometer
Like to | the sum|mer’s rain.” |
“The things | which I | have seen | I now | can see | no more |" Hexameter
A certain number of feet make a line. In one meter each line consists of five iambuses. The
normal line of that type contains ten syllables: it is decasyllabic. But for variety, a line may
have fewer than ten; or more. An extra syllable is sometime avoided either by elision of
one vowel before another, as
t' abide for ‘to abide’
th' abyss for ‘the abyss’
or by slurring – ‘synǽsis’, ‘synizesis’
e'er for ‘ever’
whe’er for ‘whether’
"Curses,| not loud | but deep | mouth-honor breath |"
Here a pause (instead of an unaccented syllables) separates deep and mouth
Pauses – The division into lines lead to a pause at the end of the line. In some poetry we
find this pause strongly marked.
"And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, carrying his own house still, is
still at home: Follow this snail, by thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail."
Beside the final pause, there must be in all lines of over four accents – and, as a rule, in
those of four accents – a metrical pause which divides the rhythm by putting this pause (the
caesura) in different positions, poets are able to give a pleasing variety to the rhythm.
"Sweet || are the uses of adversity."
"And see || the revolution of the times make mountain level || and the continent into
the sea."||
Rime – The word is still frequently written rhyme – is the recurrence of the same sound at
intervals and regularly at the end of lines.
A perfect rime in English must have both agreement of sound and difference. In the riming
syllables the vowel and the following consonant – if a consonant follows – must be
identical in sound and the articulator before the vowel must be different. For example
‘mark’ rimes with bark, dark, lark, park, hark, and ark but not with remark, ‘lay’ rimes
with day, hay, bay, but not with delay.
The riming syllables should both bear the accent. To rime ‘sing’ with ‘coming’ is faulty.
Similarity of sound, not of spelling, is required: ‘bear’ rimes with hare or hair, not fear.
Eye rimes – Words like move and love, door and poor, grove and love are called the eye
rimes because of the look. They may appear a faulty rime now, but could have been a
perfect rime when written like in the well known couplet of Alexander Pope –
"Here thus, great Anna, whom there realms obey. Dost sometimes counsel take – and
sometimes tea."
Obey and tea would be single rimes, also termed male and masculine. But there are double
rimes, also termed female and feminine, as glóry – stóry. There are triple rimes as tenderly
– slenderly. In the double and triple rimes the first syllables alone are accented and obey
the rules of perfect rimes; the others syllables are unaccented and agree completely.
"T’was vain : The loud waves lashed the shore,
Return or aid preventing:
The water's wild went, o'er his child,
And he was left lamenting."
"In short, she turns out a complete lady Bountiful,
Felting with drugs and brown Holland the county full."
Sometimes two words within the same line are made to rime.
"Ah! County Guy, The hours is nigh,
The sun has left the tea,
The orange flower perfumes the bower,
The breeze is on the sea."
Rime must not be regarded as merely ornamental. It affords delight to the ear by its
musical accord; and it makes the rhythm of the verse stand out distinctly.
Alliteration – When several words close together begin with the same letter, we have
alliteration or head rime. In old English poetry alliteration – not end rime – and accent
were the essentials of versification. It is now continued as a poetic embellishment, often
with fine effect, but often overdone.
"T’is thine O’ Glenulline, whose bride shall await,
Like a love lighted watchfire all might at the gate."
"Like a glow worm golden
In a dell of dew."
"The long low dune and lazy plunging sea."
Assonance – In this kind of rime only vowel sounds agree; mate – shape, feel – need. It is
commonly used in Spanish poetry.
"O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth
And cherry were her cheeks,
And clear, clear was her yellow hair,
Whereon her red blood dreeps."
It may be added that end-rime, alliteration and assonance are all found in proverbial
sayings.
"Fast bind, fast find."
"Kith and kin"
"A stitch in time saves nine"
English Meters
The most common meter in English is the iambic; and of the iambic the favorite is the
pentameter. This line is used for various subjects, from easy narrative to severe and
sublime epics.
Blank Verse – Blank verse means poetry written in the five-foot iambic line unrimed. It
was adopted by Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare for drama, and by Milton for his
epic. Variety is added to it by adding, or taking away, syllables.
Blank verse will be found in the following: Marlowe, Edward II; Shakespeare, Julius
Caesar, Macbeth and other dramas; Milton, Paradise lost, Paradise regained; Young,
Night Thoughts; Thompson, The Seasons; Cowper, The Task; Wordsworth, The Prelude,
The Excursion; Keats, Hyperion; Byron, Manfred; Tennyson, Enoch Arden, The Princess,
Lady of the King; Mathew Arnold, Balder Dead, Sohrab and Rustum.
The Heroic Couplet – An iambic pentameter, or decasyllabic riming in couplets. It is very
common in narrative or didactic poems as in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.
"Of these the false Achitophel was first,
A name to all succeeding ages curst;
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit,
Restless, unfixed in principles and place
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay."
This meter in sometimes varied by triplet as in Pope's essay on criticism "But true
expression, like the unchanging sun, clears and improves whate’r it shines upon,
It gilds all objects, but it alters none."
In the same poem Pope illustrates and condemns the practice of introducing a six foot line
or Alexandrine (originated in the use of six foot line in the French romance of Alexander)
among the five foot lines.
"Then, at the last and only couplet fraught with some unmeaning thing they called
thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song that, like a wounded snake, drags its
slow length along."
Iambic Pentameter Stanzas
1. Quatrain – Or stanza of four lines riming alterative – denoted by ab ab, as in Dryden's
Annuls Mirabilis.
"Then in some close-pent
room it rapt along,
And smoldering as it went,
in silence fed;
Till the infant monster,
with devouring strong,
Walked boldly upright
with exalted head."
2. Sextain or stanza of six lines riming ababcc. In other words a quatrain followed by a
couplet as in Wordsworth's Laodamia,
"Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there
In happier beauty;
more pellucid streams, an ampler ether, a diviner air,
And field invested with purpureal gleam;
Climes which the sun,
who sheds the brightest day,
Earth knows, in all unworthy to survey."
3. Rime Royal or Chaucerian Heptastich – A stanza of seven lines riming ababbcc. This
was a favorite metre of Chaucer in The Clerk’s tale, The Man of Law’s tale. Also as in
Shakespeare’s Lucrece.
“The little birds that tune their morning’s joy,
Make her moans mad with their sweet melody:
For mirth doth search the bottom of annoy;
Sad souls are slain in merry company;
Grief best is pleased with grief’s society:
True sorrow then is feelingly sufficed,
When with like semblance it is sympathized.”
4. Ottava Rima – A stanza of eight lines riming ab ab ab cc.
As in Byron’s Don Juan.
“And first one universal shriek there rushed,
Louder than the loud ocean,
like a crash of echoing thunder;
And then all was hushed,
Save the wild wind and
the remorseless dash of billow;
but at intervals there gushed
Accompanied with a convulsive splash,
A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmers in his agony.”
5. The Spenserian Stanza – Of eight pentameters followed by one hexameter or
Alexandrine. The rime sequence is ab ab bc bcc. Spenser used it in The Faerie Queene; it
is his invention. This stanza has been adopted by Thomson, The Castle of Indolence,
Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming; Shelly, The Revolt of Islam, Adonais; Keats, The Eve of
Saint Agnes; Tennyson, The Lotus-eaters. As in Spencer’s The Faerie Queene,
“Both roof and floor and walls were all of gold,
But overgrown with dust and old decay,
And hid in darkness that none could behold the hue thereof;
for view of cheerful day did never in that house itself display,
But a faint shadow of uncertain light:
Such as a lamp, whose life does fade away,
Or as the moon, clothed with a cloudy night,
Does show to him that walks in fear and sad affright.”
The Sonnet – The sonnet is a poem of fourteen iambic pentameters. It arose in Italy, and
the Italians, or Petrarchan, form has only four or five rimes – two in the first eight lines, the
octave; two or three in the last six, the sestet.
Shakespeare’s sonnets consist of three quatrains riming alternately and rounded off by a
couplet: seven rimes in all. Milton reverted to the Italian form; with variations of the rime
order in the sestet. Shakespeare’s rime arrangement is ab ab cd cd ef ef gg.
“From you have I been absent in the spring
when proud – pied April dressed in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell,
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the Lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those,
Yet seemed at winter still; and you away
As with your shadow I with these did play.”
Iambic Tetrameters or Octosyllabic – This, in couplets is frequently employed for
lighter narrative as in “The Lady of the Lake” of Sir Walter Scott.
“The Minstrel came once more to view
The eastern ridge of Benvenue
For ere he parted, he would say
Farewell to lovely Loch Achray –
Where shall he find in foreign land
So lone a lake, so sweet a strand!
There is no breeze upon the fern,
Nor ripple upon the lake,
Upon her eyry nods the erne,
The deer has sought the brake;
The small birds will not sing aloud,
The springing trout lies still,
So darkly glooms you thunder cloud
That swathes, as with a purple shroud,
Benledi’s distant hill.”
Octosyllabic Quatrain – This quatrain rimes ab ba as in Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.”
“I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods.”
Balad Metre – This metre was originally called fourteeners from the number of syllables.
Chapman uses this long couplet for parts of his translation of Homer.
“As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind,
And stars shine clear, to whose sweet beam high prospects and the brows,
Of all steep hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for shows,
And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight,
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light.”
The distant break after the fourth foot caused the couplet to become a four line stanza, of
alternate tetrameter and trimeter lines. The first and third lines often rime as well as the
second and fourth. The traditional ballads widely use this metre as by Cowper in John
Gilpin.
“John Gilpin was a citizen
of credit and renown,
A trainband captain eke was he
of famous London town.”
Trochaics – Only two of the English trochaics require attention.
1. The seven-syllable trochaic – This consists of four trochees, but the unaccented
syllable of the last trochee is dropped as in Johnson’s Hymn to Diana.
“Queen and hunters, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
State in wanted manner keep.”
2. The fifteen-syllable trochaic couplet as in Tennyson’s Locksley Hall.
“Comrades, leave me here a little,
while as yet ‘tis early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me,
sound upon the bugle horn.”
When we retain the unaccented syllable of the final trochee, we have a sixteen-syllable line
as in Poe’s Raven.
“Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in a bleak December.”
Often the same rhythm will not be used throughout a whole poem, or even a whole line.
There may by an extra beat here, one omitted there; or the metre may simply change. Poets
often seem to establish a regular pattern but then put in something ‘unexpected’ to startle
the readers, or to achieve a special effect.
If the metre of the poem does not fall in any of the above categories, it may simply have an
irregular, or unpredictable, metre that does not follow any set pattern.
For many of these pages the line-lengths, though not rigidly equated, will present a coastline not very much more irregular than that of a page of modern blank verse. And then,
suddenly, he will come to pages or passages where the lines seem to telescope themselves
out to double their former length. The mere statistical process of enumeration, and of
subsequent digestion into classes of more or less resembling type, finds no difficulty in
this, and merely regards it as an instance of “stretched” or “swollen” verses, with three or
four accents in each half instead of two. Curiosity of a different kind may, perhaps, pine
for a little explanation of a more real nature—may wish to know whether this lengthening
was parallel, say, to Tennyson’s at the close of The Lotos Eaters—a definitely concerted
thing—or whether it was a mere haphazard licence. But there are no means of satisfying
this curiosity except by conjecture. Further, our means of deciding whether, as is usually
said, the stressed syllables were bound to be “long” beforehand or not, are very scanty. It
seems admitted that more than one short syllable may do the duty of one long; and this is
of the highest importance. What, however, is certain is that, in spite of this great variation
of length, and in spite of considerable differences, not merely in syllabic volume, between
the members of the “stretched” and unstretched groups respectively, there is a certain
community of rhythmical tone, sometimes full, sometimes muffled, which not only
distinguishes the whole body of this ancient poetry but is distinguishable, with some
alteration, in the later revived alliterative verse of Middle English up to the beginning of
the sixteenth century. Different ears will, perhaps, standardise this rhythm differently, and
it certainly admits of very wide variation and substitution.
A quest for assonance had also been made, and a few instances of something like it have
been pointed out. But they are very few. Assonance, in fact, has never held any important
place in English prosody; and, where it exists in unsophisticated times and instances, it is
always, most probably, the result either of inattention or of an attempt to rime. On the
whole, the body of old English verse, as we have it, is one of the most homogeneous to be
found in any literature. Alliteration, accent and strict separation of lines or half-lines for its
positive laws; rimelessness for its negative: these nearly sum up its commandments, and its
result is dominated by an irregular quasi-trochaic rhythm which will retreat, but always
comes back again.
For many of these pages the line-lengths, though not rigidly equated, will present a coastline not very much more irregular than that of a page of modern blank verse. And then,
suddenly, he will come to pages or passages where the lines seem to telescope themselves
out to double their former length. The mere statistical process of enumeration, and of
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