Metre and Line

The language of poetry

The first substyle we shall consider is verse. Its first differentiating property is its orderly from, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances. The rhythmic aspect calls forth syntactical and semantic peculiarities, which also fall into a more or less strict orderly arrangement. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the poetic substyle may be definite as compact, for are they held in check by rhythmical patterns. Both syntax and semantics comply with the restrictions imposed by the rhythmical pattern, and the result is brevity of expression, epigram-like utterance, and fresh, unexpected imagery. Syntactically this brevity is shown in elliptical and fragmentary sentences, in detached constructions, in inversion, asyndeton and other syntactical peculiarities. Rhythm and rhyme are immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic substyle provided they are wrought in to compositional patterns. They can be called the external differentiating features of the substyle, typical only of this one variety of the belles-letters style.

A) Compositional Patterns of Rhythmical Arrangement

(Композиционные Модели ритмической Классификации)

Metre and Line

The most observable and widely recognized compositional patterns of rhythm making up classical verse are based, on:

1) alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, x

2) equilinearity, that is, an equal number of syllables in the lines,

3) a natural pause at the end of the line, the line being a more or less complete semantic unit,

Less observable, although very apparent in modern versification, are all kinds of deviations from these rules, some of them going so far that classical poetry ceases to be strictly classical and becomes what is called free verse, which in extreme cases borders on prose.

English verse, like all verse, emanated from song.

most recognizable English metrical pa ft e r n-s.

There are five of them:

1. Iambic metre, in which the unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one. It is graphically represented thus: (w-).

2. Trochaic metre, where the order is reversed, i.e.. a stressed syllable is followed by one unstressed (-^).

3. Dactylic me t r e—one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed (-w).

4. Amphibrach i с metre—one stressed syllable is framed by two unstressed ^~w.

5. Anapaestic me tr e—iwo unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed (w-).These arrangements of qualitatively different syllables are the units of the metre, the repetition of which makes verse. One unit is called a foot. The number of feet in a line varies, but it has its limit; it rarely exceeds eight. If the line consists of only one foot it is called a monometerA a line consisting of two feet is a dimeter; three—t r i т е t e /*; four-tetrameter\ five—p entdmeter\ six—h e x a m e t e r\ seven—i septameter\ eight—о с t a m e t e r. In defining the measure, that! is the kind of ideal metrical scheme of a verse, it is necessary to point out both the type of metre and the length of the line. Thus, a line that con­sists of four iambic feet is called iambic tetrameter, correspond­ingly a line consisting of eight trochaic feet will be called trochaic octameter, and so on.

Here are a few examples illustrating various metrical arrangements of English verse., •

1. Iambic pentameter

Oh let me true in love but truly write

2. Trochaic tetrameter

•*.-, Would you ask-me whence these stories

3. Dactylic dimeter

Cannon to right of them

Cannon to' left of them

4. Amphibrachic tetrameter

O, where are you going to all you Big Steamers

5. Anapaestic tetrameter Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove

The sparrow, the dove

If we make a careful study of almost any poem, we will fmd what 1 are called irregularities or modifications of its normal metrical pat­tern. These modifications generally have some special significance,

usually connected with the sense, though in some cases they may be due to the nature of the language material itself. This is particularly the case with the first modification when the stress is lifted from a syllable on which the language will not allow stress, and we have what is called a pyrrhicfoot instead of an iambic or a trochaic foot, for example:

So, that now to still the beating of my heart I stood repeating (Рое)

But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy (Keats)

In both examples the stress is lifted from prepositions on which the stress seldom falls, therefore pyrrhics are very common and quite natural modifications in English verse. The second modification of the rhythm is the inverted order of stressed and unstressed syllables in one of the feet of the iambic or trochaic pattern. For example, in the sonnet by Roy Campbell "The Serf" which,'like all sonnets, is written in iambic pentameter, there creeps in a foot wjiere the order, unstressed—stressed, is inverted:

His naked skin clothed in the torrid mist

That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves

Here the third foot of the first line violates the rhythmic pattern. Such modifications are called rhythmic inversions and are used to add emphasis.

The third modification is the insertion of a foot of two stressed syllables, called a spondee. It is used instead of an iambus or a trochee. In Shakespeare's iambic pentameter these two modifications are frequently to be found. Here the first foot of the second line is rhythmic inversion, and the fourth is a spondee. Rhythmic inversion and the use of the spondee may be considered deliberate devices to reinforce the semantic significance of the word-combinations. Pyrrhics may appear in almost any foot in a line, though they are rarely found in the last foot. This is natural as the last foot generally has a rhyming word and rhyming words are always stressed. These three modifications of the rhythm are the result of the clash between the requirements of the metrical scheme and the natural tendency of the language material to conform to its own phonetic laws. The fourth modification has to do with the number of syllables in the line. There may be either a syllable missing or there may be an extra syllable. The fifth departure from the norms of classic verse is e n j a m b -meat, or ihe run-on line. This term is used to denote the transfer of a part of a syntagrtijrom one line to the following one.

Stanza

The stanza is the largest unit in verse. It is composed of a number of lines having a definite measure and rhyming system which is repeated throughout the poem.

The stanza is generally built up on definite principles with regard to the number of lines, the character of the metre and the rhyming pattern.

There are many widely recognized stanza patterns in English poetry, but we shall name only the following.

1) The heroic couple t — a stanza that consists of two iambic pentameters with the rhyming pattern aa.

Specialists in versification divide the history of the development of this stanza into two periods: the first is the period of Chaucer's "Can­terbury Tales" and the second the period of Marlowe, Chapman and other Elizabethan poets.

The first period is characterized by the marked flexi­bility of the verse, the relative freedom of its rhythmic arrangement in which there are all kinds of modifications. The second period is character­ized by rigid demands for the purity of its rhythmical structure. The heroic couplet, beginning with the 16th century and particularly in the poetry of Spencer, was enchained by strict rules of versification, and lost its flexibility and freedom of arrangement. The heroic couplet was later mostly used in elevated forms of poetry, in epics and odes. Alexander Pope used the heroic couplet in his "The Rape of the Lock" with a satirical purpose, that of parodying the epic. 2) The next model of stanza which once enjoyed popularity was the Spenceria-n stanza, named after Edmund Spencer, the 16th century poet who first used this type of stanza in his "Faerie Queene." It consists of nine liftes, the first eight of which are iambic pentameters and the ninth is one foot longer, that is, an iambic hexameter. The rhym­ing scheme is ababbcbcc. 3) The stanza named'ottava rima has also been popular in English poetry. It is composed of eight iambic pentameters, the rhym­ing scheme being abababcc. This type of stanza was borrowed from Italian poetry and was widely used by Philip Sidney and other poets of the 16th century. Then it fell into disuse but was revived at the end of the 18th century. Byron used it in his poem "Beppo" and in "Don Juan. 4) A looser form of stanza is the ballad stanza. This is generally an alternation of iambic tetrameters with iambic dimeters (or trimeters), and the rhyming scheme is abcb\ that is, the tetrameters are not rhymed— the trimeters are. True, there are variants of the ballad stanza, particu­larly in the length of the stanza.

The ballad, which is a very old, perhaps the oldest form gf English verse, is a short story in rhyme, sometimes with dialogue and direct speech. In the poem of Beowulf there are constant suggestions that the poem was made up from a collection of much earlier ballads. Modern bal­lads in form are imitations of the old English ballad. Here is a sample of the ballad stanza. 5) One of the most popular stanzas, which bears the name of stanza x only conventionally, is the s о n n e t. This is not a part of a larger unit, it is a complete independent work of a definite literary genre. The English sonnet is composed of fourteen iambic pentameters with the following rhyming scheme: ababcdcdefefgg, that is, three quatrains with cross rhymes and a couplet at the end. The English sonnet was borrowed from Italian poetry, but on English soil it underwent structural and sometimes certain semantic changes.

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