Poetry Sound Devices Meter - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Poetry

Sound DevicesSlide2

Meter

poetry's rhythm, or its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Meter is measured in units of

feet

; the five basic kinds of metric feet are indicated below.

Accent marks indicate stressed ( / ) or unstressed ( u ) syllables.Slide3

Type of Metric Feet

Iamb

˘

ˉ

ba

-loon

Troche

ˉ

˘ so-da

Spondee ˉ ˉ man-made

Anapest

˘

˘

ˉ

con-

tra

-

dict

Dactyl

ˉ

˘

˘

ma-ni-

ac

Amphribrach

˘ ˉ

˘ chi-ca-go

Amphrimacer

ˉ

˘

ˉ

att

-it-

ude

Slide4

Metrical units are the building blocks of lines of verse: lines are named according to the number of feet they contain:

Number of Metric Feet Type of Line

one foot monometer

two fee t

dimeter

three feet

trimeter

four feet tetrameter

five feet pentameter

six feet hexameter

seven feet heptameter

eight feet

octometer

Slide5

Stanzas are integral to the organizational structure of many poems equivalent to a paragraph in an essay, and also described by the number of lines they contain:

Number of lines Name of stanza

Two lines couplet

Three lines

tercet

Four lines quatrain

Five lines

cinquain

(or

quintain

)

Six lines sestet

Seven lines septet

Eight lines octaveSlide6

Scansion

is the analysis of these mechanical elements within a poem to determine meter. Feet are marked off with slashes

( / ) and accented appropriately

( ˉ -stressed, ˘ -unstressed).

 Slide7

anacrusis

an extra unaccented syllable at the beginning of a line before the regular meter begins. Musically, a pickup note.

What thou art we know not

;

What is most like thee?

From

rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see . . .

Percy

Bysshe

ShelleySlide8

catalexis

Incompleteness of the last foot of a line; truncation by omission of one or two final syllables

(opposite of anacrusis)

One more unfortunate

Weary of breath ___ ___

Rashly importunate

Gone to her death ___ ___

Thomas HoodSlide9

Feminine ending

Believe it or not, not every line of iambic pentameter contains ten syllables. Sometimes even Shakespeare himself will go to eleven or twelve. This is most commonly achieved by using an

amphribrach

for the last foot. Ending with an extra unstressed syllable like this is known as a feminine ending.

u / u / u / u / u / u

To be | or not | to be| that is | the questionSlide10

Triple ending

Then to really throw you off when you’re trying to scan and figure out meter, sometimes authors like Shakespeare will throw in a double feminine ending as in

u / u

u

u / u / u / u

u

What’s Hecuba to him, or he to HecubaSlide11

Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death

"

Because / I could / not stop / for Death

He kind- /

ly

stopped / for me

The car- /

riage

held / but just / our-selves

And

Im

- /

mor-tal

- /

ity

.

The feet in these lines are iambic ( ). The first and third lines have four feet and can be identified as iambic tetrameter. The second and fourth lines, with three feet each,

are examples of

catalexis.

Therefore, the basic meter is iambic tetrameter.Slide12

What’s The Point?

Poets often manipulate meter to speed or slow the rate at which a reader reads the line.

Stressed syllables serve to slow the pace

Unstressed syllables do the oppositeSlide13

Similar Devices

Poets also manipulate vowels, consonants, and consonant blends to achieve a similar purpose

Vowels are open and can be spoken rapidly

Consonants (and particularly consonant blends) are more difficult to form, hence they slow the pace of the lineSlide14

caesura

:a pause in the meter or rhythm of a line.

Flood-tide below me! || I see you face to face!

Walt Whitman: "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

 Slide15

enjambment

a run-on line, one continuing into the text without a grammatical break. The opposite is referred to as an end-stopped line.

Green rustlings, more-than-regal charities

Drift coolly from that tower of whispered light.

Hart Crane: "Royal Palm"Slide16

Assonance

repetition of two or more vowel sounds within a line.

Burnt the f

i

re of

th

i

ne

e

yes

(William Blake, "The Tiger")Slide17

Consonance

The

repetition of consonant sounds in a line.

Who

s

e wood

s

the

s

e are I think I know

Robert Frost

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningSlide18

Alliteration

repetition of two or more initial sounds in words within a line.

Bright black-eyed creature, brushed with brown.

Robert Frost

To a Moth Seen in Winter

 Slide19

Onomatopoeia

the technique of using a word whose sound suggests its meaning.

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard

Robert Frost

Out, OutSlide20

Euphony

the use of compatible, harmonious sounds to produce pleasing, melodious effect.

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,

When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them.

Theodore Roethke

I Knew a WomanSlide21

Cacophony

the use of inharmonious sounds in close conjunction for effect; opposite of euphony.

Or, my scrofulous French novel

On grey paper with blunt type!

Simply glance at it, you grovel

Hand and foot in Belial's gripe:

Robert Browning

Soliloquy of the Spanish CloisterSlide22

RHYMESlide23

End Rhyme:

rhyme occurring at end of verse line; most common rhyme form.

I was angry with my

friend

,

I told my wrath, my wrath

did end

.

(William Blake, "A Poison Tree")Slide24

Internal Rhyme

:

rhyme contained within a line of verse.

The splendor

falls

on castle

walls

And snowy summits old in story:

The long light

shakes

across the

lakes

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson,

Blow, Bugle, BlowSlide25

Rhyme Scheme

pattern of rhymes within a unit of verse; in analysis, each end rhyme-sound is represented by a letter.

Take, O take those lips away, a

That so sweetly were forsworn; b

And those eyes, the break of day, a

Lights that do mislead the morn: b

But my kisses bring again, bring again; c

Seals of love, but

seal'd

in vain,

seal'd

in vain. c

William Shakespeare

Take, O Take Those Lips AwaySlide26

Masculine Rhyme:

rhyme in which only the last, accented syllable of the rhyming words correspond exactly in sound; most common kind of end rhyme.

She walks in beauty like the

night

Of cloudless climes and starry

skies

;

And all that's best of dark and

bright

Meet in her aspect and her

eyes

:

Thus mellowed to that tender

light

Which heaven to gaudy day

denies

.

Lord Byron

She Walks in BeautySlide27

Feminine Rhyme

rhyme in which two consecutive syllables of the rhyme-words correspond, the first syllable carrying the accent; double rhyme.

Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,

O the pain, the bliss of dying!

Alexander Pope

Vital Spark of Heavenly FlameSlide28

Half Rhyme (Slant Rhyme):

imperfect, approximate rhyme.

In the

mustardseed

sun.

By full tilt river and switchback sea

Where the cormorants scud,

In his house on stilts high among beaks

Dylan Thomas

Poem on His BirthdaySlide29

C’mon, do authors and musicians actually use this

stuff

?

Dr. Seuss did

:

4 iambs = Iambic tetrameter

I will not take them soft or scrambled

,

fem

Despite an argument well-rambled

.

endings

No fan

I am

of the egg at hand.

Destroy that egg! Today! Today!

Today

I say!

Look! A pun on iamb!

Without delay!Slide30

Yeah, but what about today? . . .

Rappers, song writers, musicians, all kinds of writers use various strategies to control prosody, create rhythm, and build phonetic coherence.

Subtexts

and reinforcement of subject matter can also happen through sound and meter, as we saw with “Because I could not stop for death,” Let’s look at another example:Slide31

Yeah, but what about today? . . .

Eminem: “The Way I am”

Anapestic tetrameter + . . .

assonance

I sit

back

with this

pack

of Zig-

Zags

and this

bag

more assonance

Of this

weed

it give

me

s---

need

ed to

be

Assonance form the previous line giving way to slant rhyme

The most

mean

est

MC

on this, on this

Earth

Slant to rhyme/repetition

And since

birth

I’ve been

cursed

with this

curse

to just

curse

Slanting hard with both assonance and consonance

And it

sells

and it

helps

in it

self

to re

lieve

More slant/assonance/consonance

All this

ten

sion dis

pens

ing these

sen

tences

And more still, with

s

and

e

sounds

Getting this

stress

that’s been

eat

ing me

re

cently

off

of this

chestSlide32

“My Papa’s Waltz”

by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans

5

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother’s countenance

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

10

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

15

Still clinging to your shirt

.

 Slide33

“My Papa’s Waltz”

by Theodore Roethke

Waltz:

a

ballroom dance in

3

⁄

4

time with strong accent on the first beat and a basic pattern of step-step-close (Merriam- Webster) or one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three,

which

Roethke recreates through the meter of this poem, although occasional lines contain an extra syllable or half foot, i.e. a missed step.