Renaissance verse forms

Revised Lectures for the Medieval to Renaissance module

Spring term:

Week 3: Renaissance Verse Forms. Paul Botley Week 4: No lectures or seminars Week 5: No lectures or seminars Week 6: Reading Week Week 7: Sidney, Apology for Poetry. Máté Vince Week 8: Spenser, Faerie Queene. Vlad Brljak Week 9: Spenser, Faerie Queene. Tess Grant Week 10: Renaissance Epyllia. Iman Sheeha

Summer term: Week 1: Term begins on Wednesday due to this year’s late Easter. Week 2: The Poetry of Thomas Wyatt. Sarah Poynting Week 3: Sidney, Astrophil and Stella. Paul Botley

Dodo

Dodo

DódoDodó

Dódo

A word of two syllables, the first is stressed:

setmoth

totma

straw

flu

bo

nai

wau

writea

fat

oops

lam

What is stress?

Does it take a longer to say than the unstressed syllable? (duration/quantity)

Is it pronounced at a higher or lower pitch than the unstressed syllable? (pitch)

Is it articulated more clearly than the unstressed syllable?

Do you breath out more air as you say it?

Is the stressed syllable louder than the unstressed syllable? (volume)

Quantitative verse:

Used by Homer and Vergil

Alliterative verse:

Used in Beowulf and the Gawain poet

Quantitative verse:

• Some syllables take longer to pronounce than others.

• Regular patterns of short and long syllables are said to make up ‘feet’.

• ‘Feet’ are combined to produce the verse line.• A combination of six ‘feet’ composes the

heroic hexameter verse.

Then Juno, grieving that she should sustain A death so ling'ring, and so full of pain, Sent Iris down, to free her from the strife Of lab'ring nature, and dissolve her life. For since she died, not doom'd by Heav'n's

decree, Or her own crime, but human casualty, And rage of love, that plung'd her in despair, The Sisters had not cut the topmost hair, Which Proserpine and they can only know; Nor made her sacred to the shades below. Downward the various goddess took her flight, And drew a thousand colors from the light; Then stood above the dying lover's head, And said: "I thus devote thee to the dead. This off'ring to th' infernal gods I bear." Thus while she spoke, she cut the fatal hair: The struggling soul was loos'd, and life dissolv'd

in air.

Tum Iuno omnipotens longum miserata doloremdifficilisque obitus Irim demisit Olympoquae luctantem animam nexosque resolueret artus.nam quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat,sed misera ante diem subitoque accensa furore,nondum illi flauum Proserpina uertice crinemabstulerat Stygioque caput damnauerat Orco.ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennismille trahens uarios aduerso sole coloresdeuolat et supra caput astitit. 'hunc ego Ditisacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore soluo':sic ait et dextra crinem secat, omnis et unadilapsus calor atque in uentos uita recessit.

[Aeneid, Book 4, 493-704]

Strawberry jam pot

Then Juno, grieving that she should sustain A death so ling'ring, and so full of pain, Sent Iris down, to free her from the strife Of lab'ring nature, and dissolve her life. For since she died, not doom'd by Heav'n's

decree, Or her own crime, but human casualty, And rage of love, that plung'd her in despair, The Sisters had not cut the topmost hair, Which Proserpine and they can only know; Nor made her sacred to the shades below. Downward the various goddess took her flight, And drew a thousand colors from the light; Then stood above the dying lover's head, And said: "I thus devote thee to the dead. This off'ring to th' infernal gods I bear." Thus while she spoke, she cut the fatal hair: The struggling soul was loos'd, and life dissolv'd

in air.

Tum Iuno omnipotens longum miserata doloremdifficilisque obitus Irim demisit Olympoquae luctantem animam nexosque resolueret artus.nam quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat,sed misera ante diem subitoque accensa furore,nondum illi flauum Proserpina uertice crinemabstulerat Stygioque caput damnauerat Orco.ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennismille trahens uarios aduerso sole coloresdeuolat et supra caput astitit. 'hunc ego Ditisacrum iussa fero teque isto corpore soluo':sic ait et dextra crinem secat, omnis et unadilapsus calor atque in uentos uita recessit.

[Aeneid, Book 4, 493-704]

Then Juno omnipotent long pangs with mercye beholding,And this her hard passadge, dyd send from proppèd OlympusThee lustring Raynebow, from corps the spirit avoyding,With rustling coombat buckling, with slayne bodye justling.For whereas her parture noe due death nor destenye causèd,But before her season thee wretch through phrensye was ended,Her locks gould yellow therefore Proserpina would notShave from her whit pallet, ne her ding too damnable Orcus.Then loa the fayre Raynebow saffronlyke feathered, hoov’ringWith thowsand gay colours, by the soon contrarye reshyning,From the skye downe flickring, on her head moste joyfulye standing,Thus sayd: ‘I doo Gods heast, from corps thy spirit I sunder’.Streight withal her fayre locks with right hand speedelye snippèd:Foorthwith her heat fading, her liefe too windpuf avoyded.

[Richard Stanyhurst, 1582]

The oldest English accented metreOf four unfailing fairly audibleStrongly struck stresses seldomAttended to anything other thanDefinite downbeats: how many dimUnstressed upbeats in any lineMattered not much; motion was measuredWith low leaps of alliterationHandily harping on heavy accents.

[John Hollander, 1981]

Wæs se grimma gæst Grendel haten,mære mearcstapa, se þe moras heold,fen ond fæsten; fifelcynnes eardwonsæli wer weardode hwile,siþðan him scyppend forscrifen hæfdein Caines cynne. þone cwealm gewræcece drihten, þæs þe he Abel slog ...

[Beowulf, 102-109]

That grim demon was named GrendelA notorious border-stalker who ruled the marshes,Fen and fastness; in the land of the monster-raceThe unhappy being dwelt a while,Ever since the Maker him had condemnedAmong Cain’s kin – he avenged that killing,the eternal lord, on the one who slew Abel ...

1591 Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, printed posthumously.

1592 Samuel Daniel, Delia.Henry Constable, Diana.

1593 Thomas Lodge, Phillis.Barnabe Barnes, Parthenophil and Parthenophe.Thomas Watson, The Tears of Fancie, or Love Disdained .Giles Fletcher, Licia.

1594 Michael Drayton, Idea’s Mirror.William Percy, Coelia.Anonymous, Zepheria.

1595 Edmund Spenser, Amoretti. Richard Barnfield, Cynthia.

Barnes (again), A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets.

1596 Bartholomew Griffin, Fidessa.Richard Linche, Diella.William Smith, Chloris.

‘Then have you Sonnets: some think that all poems (being short) may be called Sonnets, as indeed it is a diminutive word derived of Sonare, but yet I can best allow to call those Sonnets which are of fourteen lines, every line containing ten syllables’.

[George Gascoigne, Certayne Notes of Instruction, 1575]

All excellencies being sold us at the hard price of labour, it follows [that] where we bestow most thereof, [there] we buy the best success. And rhyme, being far more laborious than loose measures… must needs, meeting with wit and industry, breed greater and worthier effects in our language… Nor is this certain limit – observed in sonnets – any tyrannical bounding of the conceit but rather a reducing it in girum [in a circle] and a just form ... For the body of our imagination – being as an unformed chaos without fashion, without day – if by the divine power of the spirit it be wrought into an orb of order and form, is it not more pleasing to Nature…? Besides, is it not most delightful to see much excellently ordered in a small room, or little, gallantly disposed and made to fill up a space of like capacity, in such sort that the one would not appear so beautiful in a larger circuit, nor the other do well in a less?

[Samuel Daniel, A Defence of Rhyme, 1603]

1) quatrain = a contained 4-line unit

2) octave = an 8-line unit composed of two quatrains

3) sestet = a 6-line unit

4) tercet = a 3-line unit (common in Petrarch)

5) couplet = a 2-line unit

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, ABut as for me, alas, I may no more. BThe vain travail hath wearied me so sore, BI am of them that farthest cometh behind. AYet may I by no means my wearied mind ADraw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore BFainting I follow. I leave off therefore BSince in a net I seek to hold the wind. AWho list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, CAs well as I may spend his time in vain. DAnd graven with diamonds in letters plain DThere is written her fair neck round about: C‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am, EAnd wild for to hold though I seem tame’. E

ABBA ABBA CDDC EE

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show AThat she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain: BPleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, AKnowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain; BI sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe, AStudying inventions fine, her wits to entertain: BOft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow ASome fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn’d brain. BBut words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay, CInvention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows, DAnd others’ feet still seem’d but strangers in my way. CThus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, DBiting my truant pen, beating myself for spite-- E“Fool,” said my Muse to me, “look in thy heart and write.” E

ABAB ABAB CDCD EE

Now if nature should intermit her course and leave altogether, though it were but for a while,

the observation of her own laws;if those principal and mother elements of the world,

whereof all things in this lower world are made,should lose the qualities which now they have;

if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our headsshould loosen and dissolve itself;

if celestial spheres should lose their wonted motionsand by irregular volubility turn themselves anyway,

as it might happen;if the prince of the lights of heaven

which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course,should as it were through a languishing faintness

begin to stand and to rest himself;if the moon should wander from her beaten way,the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture,the winds breath out their last gasp,the clouds yield no rain,the earth be defeated of heavenly influence,the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother

no longer able to yield them relief,what would become of man himselfwhom these things now do all serve?

Now if nature should intermit her course and leave altogether, though it were but for a while, the observation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should lose their wonted motions and by irregular volubility turn themselves anyway, as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course, should as it were through a languishing faintness begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breath out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of heavenly influence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered breasts of their mother no longer able to yield them relief, what would become of man himself whom these things now do all serve?

Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book 1.