Understanding the meter of a poem to better understand and appreciate content A poem is metrical when we see countable regularity through stressedunstressed syllables AND A regular line width Meter ID: 618651
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Slide1
Prosody
Understanding the meter of a poem to better understand and appreciate contentSlide2
A poem is metrical when we see
countable regularity through stressed/unstressed syllables AND
A regular line width
MeterSlide3
A poetic foot consists of one stressed syllable, usually accompanied by one or two unstressed syllables.
FootSlide4
Iambic: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
EXAMPLE: The curfew tolls the knell of parting day
Types of feet and examplesSlide5
Two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable
Example: Where the youth pined away with desire
AnapesticSlide6
One stressed followed by one unstressed
Example: Once upon a midnight dreary
TrochaicSlide7
One stressed followed by two unstressed
Example: This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks
DactylicSlide8
Spondaic: Two equally stressed syllables
Example: Good strong thick stupefying incense smoke
Pyrrhic: Two equally unstressed syllables
Example: My way is to begin at the beginning
Spondaic and pyrrhic (substitutions only in a poetic line)Slide9
To count the number of feet per poetic line, pretend the foot is a musical beat.
TWO WAYS TO FIND OUT THE LINE WIDTH: 1. Clap the stressed syllables either aloud, or think them as you read.
2. Count the TOTAL number of syllables and divide by two or three, depending on the foot type. If the division is uneven, then you must revert to method #1.
Line widthSlide10
Monometer: one foot per line
Dimeter
: two feet per lineTrimeter
: three feet per line
Tetrameter: four feet per line
Pentameter: five
f
eet per line
Hexameter: six feet per line
Heptameter: seven feet per line
Octameter
: eight feet per line
Types of linesSlide11
Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” (I am capitalizing stressed syllables for ease of reading)
Two ROADS
diVERGED in a
YELlow
WOOD,
And
SORry
I COULD not
TRAvel
BOTH
And BE one
TRAVEler
, LONG
i
STOOD
And LOOKED down ONE as FAR as
i
COULD
To WHERE it BENT in the
UNdergGROWTH
.
Example of counting width and foot type