What metre are the following verses written in? - PDF document

What metre are the following verses written in? Had we but World enough, and Time, This coyness Lady were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long Loves Day. - Marvell Cannon to right of them Cannon to left of them Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered - Tennyson Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door” - Poe I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. - Blake Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found Was blind but now I see. - American Spiritual Come gather round people wherever you roam And admit that the water around you has grown And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone - Dylan Wild Nights—Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury! - Dickinson Scanning Blank Verse most English verse from 1550-1900, for that matter) is written in This means that the metre (which is to say, the Oh Lord! Methought what pain it was to drown, What dreadful noise of waters in my ears, What sights of ugly death within my eyes. The first rule of scansion is that if a line can be reasonably and convincingly spoken in accordance with the metre, then it ought to changes. A very common dilemma that you’ll face involves the pronunciation of final “-ed”, and the rule here is that this suffix is pronounced as a syllable if necessary and not if not. Most choice forsaken, and most loved despised We’ll make foul weather with despised tears Similarly, straightforward elisions are often necessary to preserve the metre, and such elisions do not count as metrical irregularities: I had rather be a dog and bay the moon When he the ambitious Norway combated An honest tale speeds best being plainly told She is a virtuous and a reverend lady Note especially that the letter “v” will very For I never saw true beauty till this night From Athens is her house remote seven leagues Very often, Shakespeare uses metre and rhythm as a way of giving cues to the actors about But Brutus says he was ambitious And Brutus is an honourable man Where things get interesting, though, are where Shakespeare breaks out from the pattern, Now is the winter of our discontent Feminine endings are common and allowable varioften uses them to dramatic effect, especially to show weakness or to suggest femininity. A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion But where we see Shakespeare exercising real control over his actors is when he varies their rhythm in the middle of a line: A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! Pay attention as well to the way that Shakespeare controls the pace of a line using To be or not to be: that is the question And lastly, note that in the early plays, Shakespeare’s verse is most often end-stoppedwhich is to say, his clauses being at the beginning of lines and end at the end of lines. I called thee then vain flourish of my fortune; I called thee then poor shadow, painted queen; The presentation of but what I was; The flattering index of a direful pageant; One heaved a-high, to be hurled down below; A mother only mocked with two sweet babes; A dream of what thou wert, a breath, a bubble, A sign of dignity, a garish flag, To be the aim of every dangerous shot, A queen in jest, only to fill the scene. The later plays tend to rely more on you hear the iambs but not the pentameter). There be some sports are painful, and their labour Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness Are nobly undergone and most poor matters Point to rich ends. This my mean task Would be as heavy to me as odious, but The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead And makes my labours pleasures. O, she is Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed, And he's composed of harshness. I must remove Some thousands of these logs and pile them up, Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness Had never like executor. I forget: But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours, Most busil’est when I do it.