※Metre
In poetry, metre (meter in US spelling) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre,
or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study and the
actual use of metres and forms of versification are both known as prosody.
(Within linguistics, "prosody" is used in a more general sense
that includes not only poetic metre but also the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or informal, that vary from language to
language, and sometimes between poetic traditions.)
※Blank Verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but
unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as
"probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has
taken since the 16th century",[2] and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about
three quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse".
The first documented use of blank verse
in the English language was by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in his translation of the Æneid (composed c. 1540; published
1554–1557). He was possibly inspired by the Latin original, as classical Latin verse (as well as Ancient Greek verse)
did not use rhyme; or he may have been inspired by the Italian verse form of versi sciolti, which also contained no
rhyme.
History
The 1561 play Gorboduc by
Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville was the first English play to use blank
verse.
Christopher Marlowe was the first
English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse. The major
achievements in English blank verse were made by William Shakespeare, who wrote
much of the content of his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and John
Milton, whose Paradise Lost is written in blank verse.
Miltonic blank verse was widely imitated in the 18th century by such poets as
James Thomson (in The Seasons) and William Cowper (in The
Task). Romantic English poets such as William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe
Shelley, and John Keats used blank verse as a major form. Shortly afterwards,
Alfred, Lord Tennyson became particularly devoted to blank verse, using it for
example in his long narrative poem "The Princess", as well as for one
of his most famous poems: "Ulysses". Among American poets, Hart Crane
and Wallace Stevens are notable for using blank verse in extended compositions
at a time when many other poets were turning to free verse.
※Spondee
A spondee (Latin: spondeus) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables,
as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters.
The word comes from the Greek σπονδή, spondi, "libation".
The spondee typically does not provide
the basis for a metrical line in poetry. Instead, spondees are found as
irregular feet in meter based on another type of foot.
※Iamb
An iamb or iambus is
a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of
the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long
syllable (as in "delay"). This terminology was adopted in the
description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, where it refers to a foot comprising an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in a-bove).
※Rhyme
A rhyme is a
repetition of similar sounds (or the same sound) in two or more words,
most often in the final syllables of lines in poems and songs. The word rhyme is also a pars pro toto ("a part (taken) for the
whole") that means a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such
as nursery rhymes.Rhyme partly seems to be enjoyed simply
as a repeating pattern that is pleasant to hear. It also serves as a
powerful mnemonic device, facilitating memorization.
The regular use of tail rhyme helps to mark off the ends of
lines, thus clarifying the metrical structure for the listener. As with other
poetic techniques, poets use it to suit their own purposes; for example William Shakespeare often used a rhyming couplet to mark off the end of a scene in
a play.The word rhyme can be used in a specific and a general
sense. In the specific sense, two words rhyme if their final stressed vowel and
all following sounds are identical; two lines of poetry rhyme if their final
strong positions are filled with rhyming words. A rhyme in the strict sense is
also called a perfect rhyme.
※Couplet
A couplet is a
pair of lines of metre in
poetry. A couplet usually consists of two lines that rhymeand
have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a
formal (or closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that
there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (or
open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.
※Figurative Language
Literal and figurative language is a
distinction within some fields of language analysis, in particular stylistics,
rhetoric, and semantics.
In literary analysis
A simile is a comparison of two things,
indicated by some connective, usually "like", "as",
"than", or a verb such as "resembles" to show how they are
similar.
Example: "His cheeks were like
roses, his nose like a cherry.../And the beard on his chin
was as white as the snow." (emph added)—Clement Clark Moore[
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two "essentially
unlike things" are shown to have a type of resemblance or create a new
image. The similarities between the objects being compared may be implied
rather than directly stated.
Example: "The sky steps out of her
daywear/Slips into her shot-silk evening dress./An entourage of bats whirr and
swing at her hem, ...She's tried on every item in her wardrobe." Dilys Rose
Onomatopoeia is a word designed to be an
imitation of a sound.
Example: “Bark! Bark!” went the dog as
he chased the car that vroomed past.
Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or character to
inanimate objects or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical
figure.
Example: "Because I could not stop
for Death,/He kindly stopped for me;/The carriage held but just ourselves/And
Immortality."—Emily Dickinson. Dickinson portrays death as a carriage
driver.
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which a
pair of opposite or contradictory terms is used together for emphasis.
Examples: Organized chaos, Same
difference, Bittersweet.
Example: This statement is a lie.
Hyperbole is a figure of speech which uses
an extravagant or exaggerated statement to express strong feelings.
Example: They had been walking so long
that John thought he might drink the entire lake when they came upon it.
Allusion is a reference to a famous
character or event.
Example: A single step can take you
through the looking glass if you're not careful.
An idiom is
an expression that has a figurative meaning unrelated to the literal meaning of
the phrase.
Example: You should keep your eye out
for him.
To keep an eye out for someone means to
watch out for them.
A pun is an
expression intended for a humorous or rhetorical effect by exploiting different
meanings of words.
Example: I wondered why the ball was
getting bigger. Then it hit me.
"Then it hit me." has two
different meanings
※Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English
poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version,
published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674,
arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a
note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton's
major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest
English poets of his time.
The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is
to "justify the ways of God to men".
※The Raven
plot
It's late at night, and late in the year
(after midnight on a December evening, to be precise). A man is sitting in his
room, half reading, half falling asleep, and trying to forget his lost love,
Lenore. Suddenly, he hears someone (or something) knocking at the
door.
He calls out, apologizing to the
"visitor" he imagines must be outside. Then he opens the door and
finds…nothing. This freaks him out a little, and he reassures himself that it
is just the wind against the window. So he goes and opens the window, and in
flies (you guessed it) a raven.
The Raven settles in on a statue above
the door, and for some reason, our speaker's first instinct is to talk to it.
He asks for its name, just like you usually do with strange birds that fly into
your house, right? Amazingly enough, though, the Raven answers back, with a
single word: "Nevermore."
Understandably surprised, the man asks
more questions. The bird's vocabulary turns out to be pretty limited, though;
all it says is "Nevermore." Our narrator catches on to this rather
slowly and asks more and more questions, which get more painful and personal.
The Raven, though, doesn't change his story, and the poor speaker starts to
lose his sanity.
※Ode to the West Wind
"Ode to the West Wind"
is an ode, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was originally published in 1820 by Charles and Edmund Ollier in London as part of the
collection Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With
Other Poems. Some have
interpreted the poem as the speaker lamenting his inability to directly help
those in England owing to his being in Italy. At the same time, the poem
expresses the hope that its words will inspire and influence those who read or
hear it. Perhaps more than anything else, Shelley wanted his message of
reform and revolution spread, and the wind becomes the trope for spreading the word of change
through the poet-prophet figure. Some also believe that the poem was written in
response to the loss of his son, William (born to Mary Shelley) in 1819. The ensuing pain influenced
Shelley. The poem allegorises the role of the poet as the voice of change and
revolution. At the time of composing this poem, Shelley without doubt had
the Peterloo Massacre of
August 1819 in mind. His other poems written at the same time—The Masque of Anarchy, Prometheus Unbound, and "England in 1819"—take up these same themes of
political change, revolution, and role of the poet.
※To Helen
by Edger Allan Poe
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!
※Dover Beach
"Dover Beach" is
a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in
the collection New Poems, but surviving notes indicate its
composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851.
※The Lake Isle of
Innisfree
by W.B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to
Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay
and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive
for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for
peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning
to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon
a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always
night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low
sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the
pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
※I Wandered Lonely as a
by William Wordsworth
Cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and
hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the
trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the
breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending
line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly
dance.
The waves beside them danced; but
they
Out-did the sparkling waves in
glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little
thought
What wealth the show to me had
brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure
fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
※Primavera
Primavera, also known as Allegory of Spring,
is a temperapanel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli painted about 1482. It has been
described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings
in the world", and also "one of the most popular paintings in
Western art".
Most critics agree that the painting,
depicting a group of mythological figures in a garden, is allegorical for the lush growth of Spring.
Other meanings have also been explored. Among them, the work is sometimes cited
as illustrating the ideal of Neoplatonic love. The title of La
Primaverawas first recorded by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, in 1550.
The history of the painting is not
certainly known, though it seems to have been commissioned by one of the Medici family. It contains references to the Roman
poets Ovid and Lucretius, and may also allude to a poem by Poliziano. Since 1919 the painting has been
part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
※Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche is a story
originally from Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), written in the
2nd Century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis
(or Platonicus). It concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love
between Psyche ( "Soul" or "Breath of Life")and Cupid (Latin Cupido, "Desire")
or Amor ("Love", Greek Eros ’′Ερως),
and their ultimate union in a sacred
marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius, Eros and
Psyche appear in Greek
art as
early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements
and allusions to mystery
religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and
it has been analyzed as an allegory and
in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy
tale, and myth.
Since
the rediscovery of Apuleius's novel in the Renaissance,
the reception of Cupid
and Psyche in the classical tradition has been
extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted
widely in painting, sculpture, and even wallpaper. Psyche's
Roman name through direct translation is Anima.
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