Download glossary for poetry

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GLOSSARY FOR POETRY:
http://web.reed.edu/academic/departments/english/intra/glossary.html#Prosody
http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/pppp.htm
ACROSTIC: common Renaissance poetry device.
ALEXANDRINE – a verse line with SIX iambic feet (iambic hexameter). The extra foot is used as a
transition piece that gives closure. The rhyme scheme varies from the Hymn piece. It imitates
Spenser’s English writing style – he calls Spenser’s works “simple, sensuous and passionate.”
AKA Heroic Verse as it was much used in Old French romances of the 12 th and 13th centuries to
describe the adventures of Alexander the Great. Spenser most used this successfully through
Spenserian Stanza (8 pentameter lines followed by an Alexandrine – hexameter – in the 9th line.
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. (Alexander Pope).
BALLAD - Ballads are the narrative form of a folk song that tells a story. The ballad stanza consists
of a quatrain of alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter lines, usually with rhyme of the
second and fourth lines.
BRACKETING MISMATCH - A bracketing mismatch occurs when the bracketing of the particular
verse instance violates, at the first level of tree structure, the boundaries of the metrical foot
pattern shown below the line.
CAESURA - A caesura is a pause, normally signaled by a strong syntactic break, e. g., a phrase
break, often underscored by punctuation such as a comma, semi-colon or a period. It usually
occurs somewhere other than the end of the line, usually the middle.
COMMON METER - Common meter is used for many hymns, ballads and nursery rhymes and
consists of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter lines.
COMPOUND WORD - Compound words are polysyllabic words made up of two individual words
joined together. In analyzing their stress patterns, the individual word boundaries are maintained;
the strongest stress will appear as far forward in the compound word as possible, e.g., "labor
union" has its strongest stress on "la-."
CRUX – Irresolvable literary issue
POETIC COMPRESSION: can drop words to compress lines
ELISION - makes two syllables occupy a single metrical position. Normally elision happens "where
there is an unstressed vowel before a consonant or where one syllable ends with a vowel and the
next begins with one ('the other')" (Poetry in English 1166). See Example 20. (Milton p. 36) -Heightens anxiety. Syllable is left out to make meter fit. Will correctly count if considered.
Wakened = wak’d or heaven = heav’n.
EXTRA METRICAL – add extra foot/meter to line
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END STOPPED - A line is end stopped when the syntax and rhythm coincide at its conclusion. Very
often such lines will also have punctuation to further signal the closure of the line. These lines
contrast with an enjambed or run-on line.
ENJAMBMENT - A line is enjambed when the line end is not coincident with the syntax and the
thought runs over into the next line. Many enjambed lines do not have punctuation at the end,
though punctuation does not alone determine whether a line is enjambed. A medial caesura often
precedes enjambment as in Example 22. (Milton p. 29). Expresses/heightens impatience.
Continuing the sense and grammatical construction of a verse or couplet on into the next, right
through a quatrain or octave, etc. It occurs as a run-on line and is contrasted to the end-stopped
line.No pause or punctuation is needed.
Or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook, that flow’d
Fast by the oracle of God
– Milton.
GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS - Generative linguistics, begun by Noam Chomsky, is an attempt to
create a grammar that defines "the set of grammatical sentences in a language" (David Crystal, A
Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985) 135)). By constructing the set of
rules that underlie any actual performance of speech, the linguist is able to account for those
utterances which could and could not be uttered, i.e., are grammatical or ungrammatical. Similarly,
the generative metrist attempts to write the rules which specify what sequences of poetic
language are metrical or unmetrical. For an overview of generative metrics, see Attridge, REP 3455 or, for a much more detailed treatment, see the articles by Kiparsky or Liberman.
INITIAL INVERSION - In iambic pentameter, initial inversion refers to a reversal of the first two
syllables so that the line begins, s w, rather than w s. This deviation is very common and usually
does not create a high degree of complexity in a line since the iambic pattern is almost always
immediately re-established. See Attridge, REP 188 ff for further discussion. Inversion – trochee in
front of iamb
ISOCHRONOUS - Isochrony refers to the idea that English has a strong tendency towards being a
stress-timed language, i.e., that beats fall at roughly equal intervals and that we speed up or slow
down the syllables between beats to make the beats equally spaced. There has been debate
whether this isochrony is objective or a matter of perception but certainly the perception of English
as isochronous is undeniable.
LABELLING MISMATCH - A labeling mismatch occurs when an s in the stress pattern of a line
occurs in a w position of the metrical pattern or a w in the stress pattern occurs in an s position of
the abstract metrical norm.
LEXICAL STRESS - Lexical stress refers to the stress in a polysyllabic word. The term is used to
specify that in assigning stress in a sequence of syllables, word boundaries must always be
maintained. For instance, see Example 5.
MASQUE - a medieval procession of masked figures (mummers) that developed into an expensive
party. In the reigns of James 1 and Charles 1, the masque reached its climax under such poets as
Daniel, Ben Jonson and others. The greatest development was due to the poetic and dramatic
genius of Jonson, poet laureate, and Inigo Jones, famous court architect and deviser of stage
machinery (deus ex machina). Jonson got tired of the partying, so he developed the anti-masque
(ugly/grotesque dance) and the party’s dramatic and literary qualities increased. Mythological and
pastoral elements were emphasized, and the masque was based upon a poetic idea so its action
could be significant.
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Milton’s Comos (1634) is one of the best known of all masques.
Spenser added masque-like episodes in his The Faierie Queen and Shakespeare used, in The
Tempest, a betrothal masque.
METER - Meter is the organization of beats into regular patterns (Attridge, BM 11). Conventionally,
meters have been named after the regularly recurring pattern units or feet, as they are usually
called. The meter is further named after the number of these feet per line. So the iambic
pentameter consists of five feet of the pattern, w s (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable).
The most common feet are:
iambic (w s) Iambic pentameter: (duh DUM – five metrical feet) L’Allegro;
Trochaic (s w) ; pyrrhic (w w) ; spondaic (Spondee: (STRESS, STRESS)
anapestic (w w s) ; dactylic (s w w)
The types of line lengths are numerically named: monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter,
pentameter, hexameter or alexandrine, heptameter, octometer (Attridge, REP 6).
Poetic technique drives home meanings, feelings and rhythm with breaks in the iambic pentameter.
NUCLEAR STRESS RULE - The Nuclear Stress Rule specifies that the strongest stress in a phrase
will fall as far back, i. e., as close to the end as possible. See Liberman, "On Stress and Linguistic
Rhythm" 269, 257 and Kiparsky, "Stress, Syntax, and Meter" 579, 581).
ODE - popular poems that refer to great heroes. It alludes to the classical myths and gives a sense of
superior being. Its intent is to transform literature forms. The rhyme scheme can vary from stanza
to stanza (Section No. 1 to The Hymn). The metrical movement quickens and slackens with the
mood of the poet and the emotional intensity.
Three types of odes:
1. Pindaric (regular) – uses strophe, antistrophe and epode
2. Horatian or homostrophic – this uses only one stanza type that is almost totally varied within its
pattern
3. Irregular – allows greatest freedom of expression because it is flexible with its stanza pattern, line
length, rhyme and number of lines per strophe.
PERSONIFICATION - (Milton, Sect. VI), a neo-classical practice that imitates classical writers.
The Stars with deep amaze / Stand fixt in stedfast gaze / Bending one way their pretiuos influence, /
And will not take their flight, / ‘For all the morning light / Or Lucifer that often warned them thence;
... (Hymn VI Milton p. 40).
PHONOLOGICAL PHRASE - A phonological phrase is any syntactically determined phrase
structure,
e.g., a noun, verb or prepositional phrase. These phrases mark the "locations of optional or obligatory
intonation breaks, corresponding to caesuras in verse" (Kiparsky, "Stress, Syntax, and Meter"
579, 581).
PLATONISM: Man is concerned with aspiration of the human spirit; a tendency to exalt mind over
matter as he optimistically and mystically grapples with the great problems of the universe and
man’s relation to the great cosmic forces, and their highly imaginative elements.
They believe:
 Ideas or Forms: True reality is not found in the realm of sense, but in the higher, spiritual realm of
the idea and the universal. All material objects that exist on Earth (ideas, images or material
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forms) are transitory symbols or expressions of that which is found in heaven (i.e. trees are perfect
in heaven and imperfectly reproduced on Earth.)
 Recollection: Human knowledge comes about because of the preexistence and immortality of the
soul that passes through a series of incarnations. Most of what the soul has seen and learned in
“heaven” it forgets when imprisoned in the body of clay but it has some power of “recalling”
images and ideas.
 Love: the Ladder of Love – there are two kinds of love and beauty, a lower and a higher. The soul
or love of beauty in its quest for perfect beauty ascends from the sensual gradually, through a
process of idealization, to the spiritual and thereby develops all the virtues both of thought and
action. Beauty and virtue are identified.
PROSODY - Prosody has to do with the prominence and non-prominence of linguistic features such
as stress, syllabification, quantity, phrasing and intonation. It is the grammar of rhythm. See
Cureton, DM 3-4 for more.
QUATRAIN - A quatrain is a four line stanza.
RHYTHM - Rhythm is "a global term covering all relations of strength and weakness" (Attridge, BM
11).
RHYTHM RULE - The Rhythm Rule specifies that the stress on a word will be retracted (i.e., moved
forward) in order to avoid consecutively stressed syllables. For instance, words like "thirteen" or
"Tennessee" will have their strongest stress moved from their last to their first syllables when they
are joined to subsequent words beginning with a stressed syllable, e.g., Tennessee walking horse.
This rule reflects the tendency in English towards alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.
For more, see Kiparsky, "The Rhythmic Structure of English Verse" 218 ff.
RIME ROYAL – A 7-line iambic pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc. The name has been said to
derive from its employment by the Scottish King James I. This is part of an Italian verse form. It is
opulent and extravagant. It was probably and originally from Chaucer and his crew, but was
attributed to King James because he did attempt to write verse at all, and besides, he was king.
Poets who use rime royal are Shakespeare (Rape of Lucrece), Dunbark Wyatt, and Morris.
SCANSION - "The scansion of a line provides a graphic representation of the relationship between
the metrical pattern and the stress pattern; that is, it shows which metrical rules are employed at
particular points to realize beats and offbeats. It therefore directly reflects the way in which the line
is perceived as rhythmically regular, indicating the degree and exact nature of metrical deviation at
every stage" (Attridge, REP 361). Attridge here refers to his own beat-offbeat system but all forms
of scansion use some sort of graphic representation to represent stress; the generative system
uses trees and traditional scansion uses the long and short stress marks of classical meters.
STRESS - Stress is the prominence given to certain syllables in a sequence. Within a sequence,
stress is both relative and hierarchical.
SYNTAX
MISSING SYNTAX
POETRY BASICS: FORMS AND VERSIFICATION
Poetry Forms
Poetry may be classified under three main divisions: narrative, lyric, and dramatic.
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In narrative poetry the poet describes or relates events. In lyric poetry he expresses his thoughts and
feelings on a subject. In dramatic poetry he creates characters who speak and act.
Narrative Poetry
Under the heading of narrative poetry are epics, metrical romances, and ballads.
Epic poetry deals with stories told in verse form and arranged as a series of related events. Each
story is complete in itself, but all are connected in thought. The style is dignified. The stories tell of the
heroic deeds performed by great heroes. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are examples of two great epics.
The metrical romance deals with love, chivalry, and religion, all with a romantic element closely
woven throughout the story. Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal are
excellent examples.
Ballads are short narrative poems or story-songs. They were originally sung to the accompaniment of
a stringed instrument on festival days and about the fireside. They have been handed down to us by
word of mouth from father to son. Among the earliest ballads are those about Robin Hood. Ballads
were originally written in one form which consisted of four lines with the second, and fourth lines
rhyming. The first and third lines contained four accents and the second and fourth contained three.
The following is the last stanza of Bonny Barbara Allen which illustrates this form:
O Mother, Mother, make my bed
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today
I'll die for him tomorrow.
Lyric Poetry
Lyric poetry consists of songs, odes, sonnets, and elegies. It deals with the emotions and expresses
the author's thoughts and feelings on a subject. The lyric in poetry corresponds to the essay in prose.
There are lyrics on love, patriotism, duty, death, joy, sorrow, courage, and many others. The subjects
are abstract. The form of the lyric is usually short. Its general characteristics are sincerity, broadness
of scope, and unity of thought. It must come from true emotions; must appeal to the general rather
than to the specific, and must be direct in its line of thought.
An ode is addressed in an exalted manner to some object or person. It was primarily intended to be
accompanied by music. Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale are excellent
examples.
Songs express the poet's personal hopes, fears, joys, sorrows, loves, or ideals. They may be
religious, national, or personal. Burns' A Red, Red Rose, Shakespeare's Under the Greenwood Tree,
and Johnson's To Celia are only a few examples of songs which have lasted through the years.
The sonnet is a name used to designate a certain definite verse form. Like the ode, it was originally
meant to be sung, and was accompanied by music. The sonnet has fourteen lines and a fixed
rhyming scheme. The first eight lines are called an octave, with a rhyming scheme of a b b a a b b a,
and the last six, or sestet, having a rhyming scheme of c d e c d e or c d c d c d. Milton's Sonnet on
His Blindness, Wordworth's The World Is Too Much With Us, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's How
Do I Love Thee are among the finest sonnets in literature.
The elegy has death or mourning as its theme. It is quiet in its mood and contemplative rather than
exalted. Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Milton's Lycidas, and Shelley's Adonis are probably
the best known of the elegies.
Dramatic Poetry
Dramatic poetry includes dramatic monologues and the drama.
The dramatic monologue is a one-sided conversation in verse form which gives throughout the
underlying ideas and thoughts of the speaker. It reveals the character of the speaker himself. In
Browning's My Last Duchess, the real traits of the man are clearly shown. He is apparently speaking
to someone else, but this the reader knows only by the remarks be makes, for there are no words
uttered by any other character. Browning is the poet who makes the most use of the dramatic
monologue.
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The drama presents a story of human life. The characters play their parts before our eyes and unfold
the plot to us as it would happen in real life. The best examples of the drama in poetry are
Shakespeare's plays.
VERSIFICATION
The elements which enter into poetry may be divided into four classes: rhyme, rhythm, foot, and
meter.
Rhyme
Rhyme, which is the simplest to understand, means the corresponding of end words as to sound.
Stanzas have what is called a "rhyming scheme" and are given various names according to this
scheme.
The couplet consists of two lines, the end line of each having the same sound, such as:
Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism
The quatrain consists of four lines with a rhyming scheme of two choices. Lines 1 and 3 and 2 and 4
may rhyme, or lines 1 and 4 and 2 and 3 may rhyme. The first rhyming scheme may be represented
by a b a b, and the second by a b b a. Following are examples of the two rhyming schemes:
a The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
b The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lee,
a The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
b And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
a I held it truth, with him who sings
b To one clear harp in divers tone,
b That men may rise on stepping-stones
a On their dead selves to higher things.
Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam
The sestet contains six lines and several rhyming schemes such as a b a b c c, or a b b a c c, or a b
c a b c.
The octave contains eight lines with a various arrangement of rhyming schemes. The most frequently
used is that of a b a b c d c d.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the regular repetition of accented and unaccented syllables in a line of poetry as:
A man he was to all the country dear.
Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
Here the accented syllable follows the unaccented. This regular stress of syllables gives a rhythm to
the line.
Foot
A foot in poetry means a division of the line into groups of syllables, each group having an accented
syllable. There may be one accented and one unaccented syllable, or there may be one accented
with two unaccented syllables in the group. The principal feet which we have in poetry are called:
Iambic - Two syllables with the accent on the last syllable.
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray.
John G. Whittier, Snow-Bound
Trochaic - Two syllables with accent on the first syllable.
Heard the whispering of the pine trees,
Heard the laughing of the waters.
Henry W. Longfellow, Hiawatha
Anapestic - Three syllables with accent on the last of the three.
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.
Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib
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Dactylic - Three syllables with the accent on the first syllable.
This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks.
Henry W. Longfellow, Evangeline
Meter
The meter is determined by the number of feet in the line. If there is one foot, the meter is
monometer. If there are two feet, the meter is dimeter; three feet, trimeter; four feet, tetrameter; five
feet, pentameter; and six feet, hexameter.
The most commonly used kinds of verse are the following:
Iambic Trimeter
I ne/ver saw/ a moor
I ne/ver saw/ the sea.
Emily Dickenson, I Never Saw a Moor
Iambic Tetrameter
O Ma/ry at/ thy win/dow be
It is/ the wished,/ the trys/ted hour.
Robert Burns, Mary Morison
Iambic Pentameter
When I/ consI/der how/ my light/ is spent
Ere half/ my days/ in this/ dark world/ and wide.
John Milton, On His Blindness
Trochaic Trimeter
Hail to/ thee, blithe/ spirit
Bird thou/ never/ wert.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, To a Skylark
Trochaic Tetrameter
Birds are/ singing/ round my/ window
Tunes the/ sweetest/ ever heard.
And I/ hang my/ cage there/ daily.
But I/ never/ catch a/ bird.
Richard Henry Stoddard, Birds
Anapestic Tetrameter
For the moon/ never beams/ without bring/ing me dreams.
Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
Dactylic Dimeter
Honor the/ charge they made
Honor the/ Light Brigade.
Alfred Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade
Dactylic Hexameter
This is the/ forest pri/meval, the/ murmuring/ pines and the/ hemlocks.
Henry W. Longfellow, Evangeline
Other Definitions
Without some change in the rhythm, the poem would become monotonous, so the poet often
combines different feet and meters within the poem. When the line is divided into feet and the
accented syllable is stressed, it is called scanning the poem.
A verse is a line of poetry. A stanza is made up of two or more lines of verse.
Blank verse is iambic pentameter without the end words rhyming, Shakespeare makes frequent use
of this form of verse.
Free verse is the new type of verse that is free from rhyme, rhythm, regular length of line or regular
stanzas. Its chief value lies in its imagery and the expression of sentiment.