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Poetry: Brief History Elements Metrics and Versification

This document provides an overview of poetry, including its definition, brief history, and elements. It defines poetry as a branch of humanities that artistically renders human thoughts and feelings. The document then gives a brief history of poetry from epic poetry in preliterate societies to modern poetry that breaks traditional rules. It also outlines some of the key elements of poetry, such as language, tone, imagery, sound and rhythm, thought or meaning, and metrics and versification.

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April Rose Santos
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67 views26 pages

Poetry: Brief History Elements Metrics and Versification

This document provides an overview of poetry, including its definition, brief history, and elements. It defines poetry as a branch of humanities that artistically renders human thoughts and feelings. The document then gives a brief history of poetry from epic poetry in preliterate societies to modern poetry that breaks traditional rules. It also outlines some of the key elements of poetry, such as language, tone, imagery, sound and rhythm, thought or meaning, and metrics and versification.

Uploaded by

April Rose Santos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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POETRY

Definition
Brief History
Elements
Metrics and Versification
POETRY IS…

• a branch of humanities that renders


artistically, imaginatively, the best of man’s
thoughts and feelings.
• The Universal Language of Feelings
• a statement of human experience and its two
outstanding qualities are the formal structure and
intensity of language.
POETRY…

• has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but


this is by no means necessary.
• is an ancientform that has gone through
numerous and drastic reinvention over time.
…

The very nature of poetry as an


authentic and individual mode of
expression makes it nearly
impossible to define.
BRIEF HISTORY
POETRY THEN AND NOW

EPIC POETRY MODERN POETRY


• preliterate societies ELIZABETHAN POETRY • Poets breaking
• Oral tradition eventually • 17th and 19th Centuries
rules
written • “this is how poetry should be written.”
• Long narratives (1st person
• New definitions are
• Emphasis is on rules regarding rhythm,
POV) formed
rhyme, and meter.
• Example: Odyssey
• Self discovery, politics, and originality
EXAMPLES

MODERN POETRY
l(a
EPIC POETRY le
“Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious
ELIZABETHAN POETRY af
hero who travelled far and wide
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
after he had sacked the famous town fa
of Troy…he suffered much by sea Thou art more lovely and more temperate: ll
while trying to save his own life and Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, s)
bring his men safely home… so the
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: one
god prevented them from ever
reaching home….” l

iness
ELEMENTS
The essential or characteristic parts or aspects of poetry
LANGUAGE
• Simple to eloquent
• Heightened through compression, expansion,
omission, and repetition (FIGURATIVE)
• Connotation (FIGURATIVE)
• More nouns and verbs than adjectives and
adverbs
TONE
• Atmosphere
• It is the feeling, attitude, stance, or the poet’s
way of looking at his subject.
• May be serious, bitter, joyful, etc.
IMAGERY
• Total sensory suggestion of poetry: visual,
auditory, tactile, gustatory, bodily
• Poet becomes an image- maker, one who
reinforces his thoughts through concrete words
• Metaphor suggests symbol, myth.
SOUND AND RHYTHM
• Poetic Feet/ Patterns (iamb, trochee, anapest,
dactyl, spondee)
• Line length/ meter (monometer, dimeter,
trimester, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter,
heptameter, octameter)
• Rhythm- Sounds characterized by the metrical
stress
• Onomatopoeia
THOUGHT OR MEANING

• “How does the poem mean?”


• Reenactment of an experience
• “What it feels like to…?”
l(a
THOUGHT OR MEANING
le

• “How does the poem mean?” af


fa
• Reenactment of an experience
• “What it feels like to…?” ll
s)
• REMEMBER THIS POEM?
one
l
iness
METRICS AND
VERSIFICATION
Scansion
POETIC FOOT

• is a basic repeated sequence composed of


two or more accented or unaccented
syllables; stressed or unstressed syllables.
TYPES OF PRIMARY FEET

• Iamb (x /) renew
• Trochee (/ x) double
• Anapest (x x /) intervene
• Dactyl (/ x x) tenderly
A line that is consisting of Iambs is called IAMBIC.
Trochee- Trochaic
Anapest- Anapestic
Dactyl- Dactylic
SUBSTITUTIVE FEET

• Spondee (/ /)
• Pyrrhic ( x x)
• used to supplement and vary a primary
foot
x x / / x x / /
• And the white breast of the dim sea,
LINE LENGTH

•The number of
feet/meter in a line.
LINE LENGTH/ METER
• One foot: Monometer
• Two feet: Dimeter (ex.: there are two IAMBS in a line)
• Three feet: Trimeter
• Four feet: Tetrameter
• Five feet: Pentameter
• Six feet: Hexameter
• Seven feet: Heptameter
• Eight feet: Octameter
HOW IS SCANSION DONE?
1. Count the number of syllables in a line. If divisible only by two, your options
are Iambic or Trochaic. If it can only be divided by 3, your options are Anapestic or
Dactylic. If the line may be divided by either 2 or 3, you have no choice but “listen”
to the proper way of reading each words in the line.

2. Check if the words are properly accented. For example, if the word “double”
is in the line, is it read ad DUH-bul or duh-BUL? The placement of stress marks will
give you a hint on whether you chose the correct meter or not.

3. Feel the line. Based on your chosen meter, read the line with feelings and see if it
sounds right.

4. Count the number of feet in the line. Identify the line length.
LINE LENGTH

• That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold

• Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers

• And the sound | of a voice | that is still


LINE LENGTH

• That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold

• Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers

• And the sound | of a voice | that is still


CATALECTIC LINE
• Derived from a Greek word meaning "incomplete," a
catalectic line of verse is one missing a syllable from the
expected structure, in this case iambic tetrameter (dee DUM
dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM).
• Opposite is ACATALECTIC- complete structure; no missing
syllable
• See example on the next slide
CATALECTIC LINE
POETRY
For a video crash course, click this link:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/metrical-
feet-characteristics-lesson-
quiz.html#transcriptHeader

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