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Poetry
- - A patterned form of verbal and written expression of ideas in concentrated, imaginative, and rhythmical terms
- -Usually contains rhyme and a specific meter, but not necessarily
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Meter
- The pattern of stressed (') and unstressed (u) syllables established in a line of poetry
- Consider importance of word and position in metrical pattern when determining meter
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Foot
- A unit of meter
- Two or three syllables
- Generally one stressed, one or more unstressed
- Make up a line of poetry (line may have one foot, two feet. etc)
- Lines are classified based on number of feet
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Types of Metrical Feet
- iambic foot
- trochaic foot
- anapestic foot
- dactylic foot
- spondaic foot
- pyhrric foot
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Iamb
- Unstressed + Stressed (two syllables)
- i.e be-low, de-light, a-muse
- A book / of ver / ses un / der neath / the bough. / (Line Break) A jug / of wine, / a loaf / of bread / --and thou.
- Additional notes:
- -Most common foot in English
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Trochee
- Stressed + Unstressed
- i.e ne-ver, ga-ther, hap-py
- Dou-ble, / dou-ble, / toil and / trou-ble (Line Break) Fi-re / burn and / caul-dron / bub-ble
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Anapest
- Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed (Three Syllables)
- i.e cav-a-lier, Loch-in-var, in-ter-twine
- With the sheep / in the fold / and the cows / in their stalls
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Dactyl
- Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed
- i.e hap-pi-ness, mer-ri-ly, mur-mur-ing
- love a-gain / song a-gain / nest a-gain / young a-gain
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Spondee
- Stressed + Stressed (Two Syllables)
- i.e heart-break, child-hood, foot-ball
- Additional notes:
- -used for variation
- -compound words
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Pyrrhic
- Unstressed + Unstressed
- Additional notes:
- -very rare; often interspersed with other feet
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Kinds of Metrical Lines
- Monometer--one foot line
- Dimeter--two foot line
- Trimeter--three foot line
- Tetrameter--four foot line
- Pentameter--five foot line
- Hexameter--six foot line
- Heptameter--seven foot line
- Octometer--eight foot line
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Example (Iambic Monometer)
- Upon His Departure
- Thus I
- Pass by
- And die,
- As one,
- Unknown
- And gone
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Example (Trochaic Dimeter)
- Money
- Workers earn it,
- Spendthrifts burn it
- Bankers lend it,
- Women spend it,
- Forgers fake it,
- * * *
- I could use it.
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Example (Iambic Trimeter)
- The Idle Life I Lead
- The idle life I lead
- Is like a pleasant sleep,
- Wherein I rest and heed
- The dreams that by me sweep.
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Example (Iambic Tetrameter)
- Not Quite Far
- The hills, the meadows, and the lakes,
- Enchant not for their own sweet sakes.
- They cannot know, they cannot care
- To know that they are thought so fair.
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Example (Iambic Pentameter)
- Quotations from Alexander Pope
- True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd
- What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.
- The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
- With loads of learned lumber in his head.
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Example (Iambic Hexameter-also referred to as an Alexandrine)
- The Eves of St. Agnes
- To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails
- Fifine at the Fair
- If hunger, proverbs say, allures the wolf from wood,
- Much more the bird must dare a dash at something good.
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Example (Iambic Heptameter)
- Casey At The Bat
- It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day,
- The score stood four to six with but an inning left to play
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Example (Trochaic Octameter)
- The Raven
- Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
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Verse Forms
- Based on meter and rhyme:
- rhymed verse
- blank verse
- free verse
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Rhymed Verse
Usually regular meter + end rhyme
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Blank Verse
Lines of iambic pentameter + no end rhyme
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Rhyme
- The similiarity or likeness of sound existing between two words
- i.e fun and run
- Additional notes: true rhyme
- -indentical-sounding syllables that are stressed
- -different letters preceding vowel sounds
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End Rhyme
- Similarity occuring at the end of two or more lines of verse
- i.e I wish my room had a floor
- I don't so much care for a door
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Internal Rhyme
- Similarity occuring between two or more words in the same line of verse
- i.e Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
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Free Verse
No regular meter + do not contain rhyme
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