METERMetre

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

What is meter?

The rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables which are organized into patterns (called feet).

The linguistic sound patterns of a verse.

The recurrence of similar verse-factors.

Accent and Stress: What’s the difference?

Word Accent

- The relatively greater force which is put upon one syllable over another is called word accent.

- Syllables without primary or secondary accent are called unaccented.

- Monosyllables may, for convenience, be regarded as single accented syllables.

sorrow sublimedemonstration cumulative

Verse stress

The ictus placed on certain syllables recurring at regular intervals in a verse of poetry. It determines the rhythm of the verse.

Does the verse-stress always coincide with the word-accent?

- /     -     /     -  /  - /  -   /

Absent thee from feli city awhile.

- - /     -     - /     -    -  /

And the light thereof hurled and the noise

- - /

thereof rolled.

Guidelines

The verse-stress never falls on an unaccented syllable; nor on a secondary accent, unless the primary accent of the same word is also stressed.

But, the verse-stress does not necessarily fall on every accented syllable; that is, accented syllables may be unstressed in the verse.

Monosyllables, since they are regarded as accented syllables, may receive verse-stress.

Put simply:

Unaccented syllables are unstressed.

Accented syllables, including monosyllables, may be stressed or unstressed.

METRICAL FOOT

What is metrical foot?

A unit of meter. Any regular, single group of stressed

and unstressed syllables.

In English, feet are named for the combination of accented and unaccented syllables.

How many feet are there in each of the following verses?

- /     -     /     -  /  - /  -   /

Absent thee from feli city awhile.

- - /     -     - /     -    -  /

And the light thereof hurled and the noise

- - /

thereof rolled.

Four principal feet:

Iambus

1 unstressed and

1 stressed

Anapest

2 unstressed and

1 stressed

Trochee

1 stressed and

1 unstressed

Dactyl

1 stressed and

2 unstressed

"To be or not to be.

-Hamlet (William Shakespeare)

"Come live with me and be my love.”

-The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (Christopher Marlowe)

"By the shores of GitcheGumee By the shining Big-Sea-water.”

- The Song of Hiawatha (Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow)

"Double, double, toil and trouble.”

- Macbeth (William Shakespeare)

"Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb I arise and unbuild it again."

- The Cloud (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

“This is the/ forest prim-/eval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks,

- Evangeline

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

What is verse?

A line of poetry made up usually of several feet, but sometimes containing only one.

A verse consisting of one foot is called a monometer; 2 feet, dimeter; 3 feet, trimeter; 4 feet, tetrameter; 5 feet, pentameter; 6 feet, hexameter; 7 feet, heptameter; 8 feet, octameter.

What is scansion?

The analysis of poetry's metrical and rhythmic patterns.

The analysis of a line of poetry for foot and meter.

To "scan" a line of poetry means to analyze it rhythmically.

Scan the following verses:

1. Fair daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon.

2. To a precipice goes,

Where a leap from above

Would soon finish his woes.

3. Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December.

4. Still it kept flowing and flowing, and other streams ran to its bosom.

Answers:

1. Fair daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon. (IAMBIC)

2. To a precipice goes,

Where a leap from above

Would soon finish his woes. (ANAPESTIC)

3. Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December. (TROCHAIC)

4. Still it kept flowing and flowing, and other streams ran to its bosom. (DACTYLIC)

Metrical Variations

English verse does not adhere rigidly to a given type (i.e. the entire line is not always made up of a regular succession of iambi or anapests or trochees or dactyls.)

Metrical variations are employed which help give the flexible quality of a verse.

Substitution - An anapestic foot frequently takes the place of an iambus, and vice versa. The same is true between trochees and dactyls.

My thoughts still cling to the moul dering past. (shift from iambic to anapestic)

Inversion – Feet are sometimes inverted; that is, a trochee takes the place of an iambus; a dactyl of an anapest; and vice versa.

Through cav erns meas ureless to man,Down to a sun less sea. (shift from

iambic to trochaic)

Catalexis – The unstressed syllable (or syllables) beginning an iambic (or anapestic) verse may be omitted; similarly the unstressed syllable (or syllables) at the end of a trochaic (or dactylic) verse. The verse is said to be catalectic.

^ Who would beA mer man bold,^ Sit ting alone,^ Sing ing alone,^ Un der the sea.

Characteristic Effects of Various Feet and Metrical Variations

1. Anapestic and dactylic lines, containing as they do a large proportion of unaccented syllables, have a lighter and more rapid movement than iambic and trochaic lines. Hence, they are suited to fervid emotion, quick action, flowing melody.

2. Meters consisting of feet beginning with unstressed syllables (iambi and anapests) create the sense of an upward movement, and the general impression tends to be grave and conclusive.

Those that start with stressed syllables (trochees and dactyls) suggest a downward movement, and give the impression of lightness and expectancy.

3. Perfect regularity of meter gives the character of steadiness, and suggests quiet, unobtrusive emotion, sometimes lends a formal dignity to the verse.

Assignment =)

1. Scan the poem “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

2. Research on the following feet; define and give an example of each:

a. spondaic

b. pyrrhic