Poetic Devices and Elements (Sound and Structure)
Form and Poetry: Sound Effects
Rhyme
Definition: The repetition of syllables that have the same or similar sounds.
End-Rhymes: Rhyme words placed at the end of a line.
Example: From A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young"
> The time you won your town the race
> We chaired you through the market-place;
> Man and boy stood cheering by,
> And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Internal Rhymes: Words rhyming within a single line.
Example: From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
> The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew
> The furrow followed free;
> We were the first that ever burst
> Into that silent sea.
Masculine Rhyme (Heavy Stress Rhyme): Occurs when the rhyme is on a stressed syllable.
Feminine Rhyme (Falling or Dying Rhyme): Occurs when the rhyming word ends in an unstressed syllable.
Example for both Masculine and Feminine Rhyme: From Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" > On either side of the river lie > Long fields of barley and of rye > The clothe the wold and meet the sky > And through the field the road runs by > To many-towered Camelot… > Willows whiten, aspens quiver, > Little breezes dusk and shiver > Through the wave that runs forever > By the island in the river > Flowing down to Camelot.
Masculine: "lie" / "rye" / "sky" / "by"
Feminine: "quiver" / "shiver" / "forever" / "river"
Near Rhymes (Slant Rhymes):
Definition: Rhymes that are not perfect, but are close.
Purpose: They can break up a rhyming sequence, helping to avoid monotony. They can also create an unsettling effect by raising and then frustrating the expectation of a perfect rhyme.
Example: From Emily Dickinson
> I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—
> The stillness in the Room
> Was like the Stillness in the Air
> Between the Heaves of storm—
Eye-Rhymes:
Definition: Words that are spelled alike but do not sound alike.
Example: cough/enough
Alliteration
Definition: The connection of words that share the same initial consonant sound.
Functions:
Adds emphasis, highlighting individual words.
Lends force to the rhythm.
In descriptive poetry, it can reinforce an impression or mood through repeated sounds.
Examples:
From Gerard Manley Hopkins' "The Windhover"
> Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride,
> plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then,
> a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!From Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind"
> Thou on whose stream, ‘mid the steep sky’s commotion,
> Loose clouds like Earth’s decaying leaves are shed,
> Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean…
Onomatopoeia
Definition: A figure of speech where a word imitates a sound, or where the sound of a word seems to reflect its meaning.
Consonance and Assonance
Consonance:
Definition: The pairing of words with similar initial and ending consonant sounds, but with different vowel sounds.
Examples: live/love, wander/wonder
Assonance:
Definition: The echoing of similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of words that have differing consonants.
Examples: lane/hail, penitent/reticence
Example: From Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lotos-Eaters"
> The Lotos blooms below the barren peak,
> The Lotos blows by every winding creek;
> All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone;
> Through every hollow cave and alley lone
> Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos dust is blown.
Rhythm and Scansion
Scansion: The formal analysis of the rhythm (or "metre") within a line or set of lines of poetry.
Identifying Poetic Metre:
Metre: Established by dividing a line into roughly equal parts, based on the rise and fall of rhythmic beats.
Foot: Each division within the metre. It consists of a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.
To identify the metre of a poem, determine the predominant type of foot and then count the number of feet in each line.
Types of Poetic Feet:
Iambic (x /): A foot with one weak stress followed by one strong stress.
Example: "Look home ward, Ang el, now and melt with ruth"
Trochaic (/ x): A foot with one strong stress followed by one weak stress.
Example: "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright"
Anapestic (x x /): A foot with two weak stresses followed by one strong stress.
Example: "I have passed with a nod of the head"
Dactylic (/ x x): A foot with one strong stress followed by two weak stresses.
Example: "Hickory dickory dock"
Spondaic (/ /**): A foot with two strong stresses.
Example: "God’s blood would not mine kill you?"
Number of Feet in a Line:
Monometer: 1 foot
Dimeter: 2 feet
Trimeter: 3 feet
Tetrameter: 4 feet
Pentameter: 5 feet
Hexameter: 6 feet
Note: The prevailing metre in English poetry is iambic.
Examples of poems to analyze for rhythm (from transcript):
From W.H. Auden
> Earth receive an honoured guest;
> William Yeats is laid to rest:
> Let the Irish vessel lie
> Emptied of its poetry.From Ben Jonson
> Come, my Celia, let us prove,
> While we may, the sports of love.
> Time will not be ours forever;
> He, at length, our good will sever.From Robert Browning
> I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
> I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three.
Other Poetic Terms
Caesura:
Definition: A pause or break in a line of verse, occurring where a phrase, clause, or sentence ends. It is indicated in scansion by the mark \text{//} $$.
Medial Caesura: A caesura that occurs in the middle of a line.
Purpose: Used for emphasis or to create a specific rhythm.
Example: From Robert Kroetsch's "Collected Poem"
> The world is always ending. When you get to the beginning stop.
End-Stopped Line:
Definition: A line of poetry that concludes with a distinct pause, typically marked by punctuation.
Run-on Line (Enjambment):
Definition: A line where the sense or grammatical structure carries over into the next line without a pause.
Example: From Alexander Pope
> Yet if we look more closely we shall find
> Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind:
> Nature affords at least a glimmering light;
> The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right.
Free Verse (Open Form):
Definition: Poetry that does not follow any regular metre, line length, or rhyming scheme.
Characteristics: Often follows the complex natural "rules" and rhythmical patterns (cadences) of speech.
Relevance: Much modern poetry is written in free verse.
Example: From F. R. Scott's "Laurentian Shield"
> Hidden in wonder and snow, or sudden with summer
> This land stares at the sun in a huge silence
> Endlessly repeating something we cannot hear.
> Inarticulate, arctic,
> Not written on by history, empty as paper,
> It leans away from the world with songs in its lakes
> Older than love, and lost in the miles.
Tone:
Definition: The writer’s attitude toward a given subject or audience, as expressed through an authorial persona or "voice."
Projection: Tone can be projected in poetry through specific choices of wording, imagery, figures of speech, and rhythmic devices.
Examples:
From Robert Haydon's "Those Winter Sundays" (suggests a tone of reflection, perhaps regret or quiet appreciation)
> Sundays too my father got up early
> And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.From Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" (suggests a tone of anger, defiance, and intense emotional release)
> There’s a stake in your fat black heart
> And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.