EXPLICATION/EXPLICATE: act of
interpreting or discovering the meaning of a
text, usually involves close reading and special
attention to figurative language.
pros·o·dy/noun
1. The patterns of rhythm and sound
used in poetry.
2. The patterns of stress and
intonation in a language.
All prosody is either:
Quantitative - The prosody varies throughout
the lines, strophes or stanzas.
Normative – All the lines, strophes or stanzas
follow the same prosody
Verbal: Arrangement by word count
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens
Spatial: arrangement by visual pattern
Syllabic: Arrangement by syllable count
(Haiku translated from Japanese)
O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!
- Kobayaski Issa
Accentual: Arrangement by stresses
what if a much of a which of a wind gives the truth to summer’s lie; bloodies with dizzying leaves the sun and yanks immortal stars awry? -e.e.cummings
Acctentual-Syllabic: Arrangement by syllable
and stresses
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Unstressed syllable: the syllable within the metric
foot given little or no emphasis when spoken out loud.
•Parts of Speech which are ALWAYS unstressed:
articles (a, the, an), prefixes (ex-. in-, un-, re-, etc) and
suffixes (-ing, -er, -ed, etc)
•Parts of speech which are usually unstressed:
pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions
Stressed syllable: the syllable within the metric foot
given heavy emphasis when spoken out loud.
•Root words are ALWAYS stressed!
Iambic Pentameter: An arrangement of poetry
in to 10syllable lines (five 2syllable feet) consisting
of primarily iambs. The most common meter used
in the English language.
Ex. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Common feet in iambic pentameter
Iamb: a lightly stressed syllable followed by a
heavily stressed syllable
Trochee: a heavily stressed syllable followed by a
lightly stressed syllable
Occasional feet in iambic pentameter
Spondee: two consecutive heavily stressed
syllables
Phyric: two consecutive lightly stressed syllables
Uncommon feet in iambic pentameter
Anapest: two lightly stressed syllables followed
by a heavily stressed syllable
Dactyl: one heavily stressed syllables followed
by two lightly stressed syllables
Ellision: the omission of a sound or syllable
to accommodate a certain number of syllables
in a line of verse, the usual mark for elision is
' Ex. o’erwhelmed
Scansion: The metrical
analysis of verse. The usual marks for scansion are ˘ for a short or lightly stressed syllable, ̷
for a long or heavily stressed syllable, |
for a foot division, and // for a caesura.
Common Meter
Trimeter: a line of verse consisting of three
metrical feet.
Ex. When I |was one-|and-twenty I heard |a wise |man say, 'Give crowns| and pounds| and guineas But not| your heart| away;
-E. Housman
Common Meter (cont.)
Tetrameter: a line of verse consisting of four
metrical feet.
Ex.
I wand|ered, lone|ly as| a cloud That floats| on high| o’er dales| and hills When, all| at once, | I saw| a crowd A host |of gold|en daff|odils. -Wordsworth
Common Meter (cont.)
Pentameter: a line of verse consisting of five
metrical feet.
Ex.
Where are |the songs |of Spring? |Ay, where| are they? Think not |of them, |thou hast |thy mus|ic too,
-John Keats
Common Meter (cont.)
Hexameter: a line of verse consisting of six
metrical feet.
Ex. The moon| rains out| her beams, | and Heav|en is |overflow’d.
-Percy Shelley
Naming Meter:
Meter is named according to its primary foot and foot
count. The above meter is all iambic, so it would be
named iambic trimeter, iambic tetrameter, iambic
pentameter and iambic hexameter. Below are a couple
examples of the same meters with different primary feet:
Dactylic Hexameter (Heroic verse)
́ ̆ ̆
́ ̆ ̆
́ ̆
̆
́
̆ ̆
́
̆ ̆
́ ̆
Ex. This is the| forest pri|meval. The| murmuring |pines and the| hemlocks,
-Wadsworth
Anapestic Trimeter
̆
Ex.
̆
́
̆
̆
́
̆
̆
́
I am lord |of the fowl |and the brute.
Practice 1:
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
Practice 2:
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
Practice 3:
I ’M nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They ’d banish us, you know