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