Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 2)

Rhyme

Rhyme in poetry refers to the identity of sound at the ends of lines.

l  Perfect rhyme vs. half-rhyme

Perfect rhyme occurs when the stressed vowels following differing consonants sounds are identical.

Half-rhymeoccurs when the final consonant sounds are identical

e.g.

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,

Thou foster- child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly then our rhyme:

Note:   The green italic words are the examples of half-rhyme

             The red italic words are the examples of perfect rhyme

 l  Masculine vs. feminine

Masculine: when the final syllables are stressed.

e.g. inquired-desired

Feminine: when the final syllables are unstressed

e.g. flowers – bowers

Internal rhyme: the rhyming words found within the line.

e.g.

the splendor falls on the castle walls

The long light shakes across the lakes

Rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhyme in a poem or stanza

e.g. 

a-b-a-b, b-a-b-a, etc.

At daybreak on the hill they stood
That overlooked the moor,
And thence they saw the bridge of wood,
A furlong from their door.

Alliteration (initial rhyme): The same sound starts several words.

e.g.

Far winter’s rains and ruins are over,

And all day the season of snows and sins;

The day dividing lover and lover,

The light and loses, the night that wins.

l  Assonance vs. consonance

Assonance: the use of identical vowel sounds surrounded by different kinds of consonant sounds

e.g. bird - thirst

Consonance: the use of different vowel sounds surrounded by same kinds of consonant sounds.

e.g. wood-weed

Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter

e.g.

. . . and when I have required
Some heavenly music (which even now I do)
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff
Bury it certain fathoms in the sea,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

(William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1611)

Free verse: Rhymed or unrhymed poetry composed without attention to conventional rules of meter.

e.g.

I love the way I feel today

But how I know the sun will fade

Darker days seem to be

What will always live in me

But still I run

It's hard to walk this path alone

Hard to know which way to go

Will I ever save this day

Will it ever change

Stanzaic Forms

q  Couplet: Two successive lines of verse that form a single unit because they rhyme

q  Triplet/ tercet: stanza composed three lines.

q  Quatrain: stanza composed four lines.

q  Sestet: stanza composed six lines.

q  Rhyme royal: stanza composed seven lines.

q  Octave: stanza composed eight lines.

q  Sonnet: stanza composed fourteen lines.

.......................................................................

See also:

• The Nature of Poetry
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 1)
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 2) 
• The Nature of Literature

Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 1)

Rhythm in poetry refers to the patterns of repeated sounds.

e.g.

Born to a throne, stronger than Rome

But Violent prone, poor people zone

Note: The italic words are the examples of rhythm

Feet: In accentual-syllabic versification the basic unit of measurement is known as the foot. The foot consists of one accented syllable accompanied by one or two unaccented syllables.

How to determine the feet in a line?

1. Determine how many syllables are there in the line;
2. Read naturally the sentence (in reading there must be stressed and unstressed syllables, these will be used to determine the kind of feet possesed by the line).

e.g.

 

Kinds of Feet

•    Iambic: 1 unaccented followed by 1 accented

e.g.

•  Trochaic: 1 accented followed by 1 unaccented

e.g.

• Dactylic: 1 accented followed by 2 unaccented

e.g.

• Anapestic: 2 unaccented followed by 1 accented

e.g. 

• Spondaic: 2 unaccented

e.g.

     

Metrical lines

l  Metric: the art or study of using meter/ syllabic pattern in poetry;

l  After discovering the pattern of the feet, the next step is to determine the meter;

l  To know the meter, just count how many patterns are in the line and put one of the name of line below after the name of the pattern.

e.g.

• The sentence is called iambic, since it has pattern one unstressed followed by one stressed;
• It has four feet, so that the meter is tetrameter;
• So the name of the above line is iambic tetrameter.

..................................................................................

See also:

• The Nature of Poetry
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 1)
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 2) 
• The Nature of Literature

The Nature of Poetry

The nature of poetry is always problematic and mysterious. Poets, readers, critics, and scholars define poetry based on their own definitions. However, the common conception that is used to refer to the poetry is that, form of literature, spoken or written, that emphasizes rhythm, other intricate patterns of sound and imagery, and the many possible ways that words can suggest meaning. The word itself derives from a Greek word, poesis, meaning “making” or “creating.” Whereas ordinary speech and writing, called prose, are organized in sentences and paragraphs, poetry in its simplest definition is organized in units called lines as well as in sentences, and often in stanzas, which are the paragraphs of poetry. The way a line of poetry is structured can be considered a kind of garment that shapes and clothes the thought within it. The oldest and most longstanding genres for classifying poetry are epic, a long narrative poem centered around a national hero, and lyric, a short poem expressing intense emotion.

Poetry is like other literary works such as prose and drama, it also has its own structures, purposes, languages and general characteristics. Commonly, poetry written in verse in which consists of lines and stanza. According to Reaske (1966) at least poetry also contains of sounds devices such as rhyme, rhythm, repetition, meter, and onomatopoeia and speech of language such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and personification. All of the elements of parts of poetry can be used to find information or ideas in comprehending and appreciating it. The readers can start to analyze poetry or poem from poetic devices, types, sound devices, structural devices and all aspects of poetry that can be analyzed. 

Based on some definitions above, it cannot be concluded that poetry has particular definition. When readers analyzed or appreciated poetry is not focused on the definition. The essence of poetry remains elusive and open to a range of definitions. The more important things of comprehending and appreciating the poetry are what the contents of poetry. Schakel and Ridl, (1997:12) state that reading poetry differs from reading a newspaper or a memo and a book. Reading poetry is a process of finding particular information, ideas, experiences, message, values and themes for pleasure or serious analysis. Poems also lead the readers feel intensely, to experiences deeply, and often to extend our understanding of experiences different from the readers’ experience or to affirm own ideas and experiences of the readers.

..................................................................................

See also:

• The Nature of Poetry
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 1)
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 2) 
• The Nature of Literature

The Nature of Literature

Literature can be defined as an expression of human feelings, thoughts, and ideas whose medium is language, oral and written. Literature is not only about human ideas, thoughts, and feelings but also about experiences of the authors. Literature can be medium for human to communicate what they feel, think, experience to the readers. 


There are many ways to define the term ‘literature’ based on different point of views such as literature is art, literature is language, literature is aesthetic, literature is fictional, literature is expressive, and literature is affective. Literature is everything in print. It means any writing can be categorized as literature. Another way of defining literature is to limit it to ‘great books’ which are ‘notable for literary form or expression’. Ellis (1989:30) defines literature as the verbal expression of human imagination and one of the primary means by which a culture transmits itself. Based on thus definitions, literature contains universal ideas, human imagination, and human interest that written in any writings and use language as medium to express human’s ideas and feelings.


In conjunction with literature as art form,  it is broken down into imaginative literature and non-imaginative literature. Imaginative literature and non-imaginative literature are distinguished based on the particular use made of language in literature. Language of imaginative literature is highly ‘connotative’ and language of non-imaginative literature is purely ‘denotative’. The connotative meaning means words that used in literary works have feeling and shades of meaning that words to tend to evoke while denotative meaning means that the words refer to meaning in dictionary. 


The language that is used by literature differ form ordinary spoken or written language. Literature uses special words, structures, and characteristics. Primarily the language of literature differs from ordinary language in three ways: (1) language is concentrated and meaningful,   (2) its purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or make a point but rather to give a sense of pleasure in the discovery of a new experience, and (3) it demands intense concentration from the readers. It indicates that the language of literature has originality, quality, creativity, and pleasure.


In this case, to differentiate between the literary texts and non-literary texts (imaginative and non-imaginative), Kleden (2004:7-8) states that literature can be differentiate based on the kind of meanings that exist in a text. Literary text consists of textual meaning and referential meaning and non-literary text only consists of referential meaning. The textual meaning is the meaning that is produced by the relationship of text itself. While referential meaning is meaning that is produced by the relationship between internal text and external text (world beyond the text). 


From the use of language and the existence of meaning in literary works, it can be concluded that poetry, prose and drama are put in literary works article, journalism, news, bibliography, memoir, and so on can be categorized as non-literary works. 

..................................................................................

See also:

• The Nature of Poetry
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 1)
• Basic Versification of Poetry (Part 2) 
• The Nature of Literature

Mythological and Archetypal Approach to Analyze Literature

According to the common misconception and misuse of the term, myths are merely primitive fictions, illusions, or opinions based upon false reasoning. Actually, mythology encompasses more than grade school stories about the Greek and Roman deities or clever fables invented for the amusement of children (or the harassment of students in college literature courses). It may be true that myths do not meet our current standards of factual reality, but then neither does any great literature. Instead, they both reflect a more profound reality. Myth is fundamental, the dramatic representation of our deepest instinctual life, of a primary awareness of man in the universe, capable of many configurations, upon which all particular opinions and attitudes depend (Guerin, 2005). Myth is to be defined as a complex of stories-some no doubt fact, and some fantasy-which, for various reasons, human beings regard as demonstrations of the inner meaning of the universe and of human life. Myths are by nature collective and communal; they bind a tribe or a nation together in common psychological and spiritual activities.

This approach emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.” Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history, and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.” One key concept in mythlogical criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character, situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response,” which entered literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. According to Jung, all individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”, often deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the collective unconscious”.

..................................................................................
See also:

• Critical Approaches to Study Literature
• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach
• The Formalist Approach

Psychological Approach to Analyze Literature

The aim of psychological study folds in three natures. Foremost, the objective of understanding behavior, that is by defining factors that combine the development and expression of behavior. Secondly, the psychologist striving to develop procedure for the accurate prediction of behavior. Thirdly, psychology aims at developing techniques that will permit the control of behavior that is, way of “ shaping”  or course of psychological development through manipulating those basic factors to the growth and the expression of behavior.

The psychological approach leads most directly to a substantial amplification of the meaning of a literary work. When we discuss psychology and its place in a literary work, we are primarily studying the author’s imagination. As all literary works are based on some kind of experience, and as all authors are human, we are necessarily caught up in the wide spectrum of emotional problems (caused by experience). Not all recourse of psychology in the analysis of literary work is undertaken to arrive at the understanding of the literary work, to a certain extent, we must be willing to use psychology to discuss probability.

.................................................................................
See also:

• Critical Approaches to Study Literature
• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach 
• The Formalist Approach

Biographical Approach to Analyze Literature

According to Christopher Russell Reaske, Biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death), biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents the subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Biographical approach examines the literary work  in relation to the author’s life. And often a particular poem or song is subject to this kind of analysis simply by nature of its material in relation to the background of the author's personal experience. Or simply we can say, Biographical approach is an approach used to understand and comprehend a literary work by studying deeper about the life of the author. 

The good example of analysis by using this approach is the study of Emily's Chariot, since almost the whole contents of the poem tell about Emily's personal life.

.......................................................................................
See also:

• Critical Approaches to Study Literature
• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach
• The Formalist Approach

Historical Approach to Analyze Literature

One of the most basic approach used in the analysis of literary work refers to the historical method of literary criticism. In line with this, (Russell 1966: 52) assures that the critic interprets the poem within the history, or contemporary frame of reference, behind the poem. In other words, Historical approach is one of the method to analysis literary work in which the author and the reader comprehend the message of the literary work by remembering the moment/historic moment a long with the literary work written.

It means that if one takes historical approach, he/she have to be willing to do the basic exclusion of all other approaches or at least he must not use any of the other approaches until this historical approach has exhausted.While those using the historical approach admit that a poem can mean something different to the readers of a later century, he still maintains that the original meaning is the only true one, and that it can be discovered only through historical analysis.

Interesting fact can be spelled out through a literary work. The literary work which fits best using this approach in the attempt to gain better and deeper understanding of the content is that the song 'Wind of Change' by Scorpion which presents the history of the WW II's ending. You'll never know the meaning of this song without knowing the history of WWII.
......................................................................................
See also:

• Critical Approaches to Study Literature
• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach 
• The Formalist Approach

Subjective Approach to Analyze Literature

The subjective approach to a literary work begins with personal interest in it. That is, when one has read a literary work he has encountered the statement of a certain experience. Then he wants to respond to that experience through a consideration of his own experience.

In the Frost poem, for example, one might, for subjective reasons, concludes that the speaker is an tired old man or a young man who feels tired when he considers how many years remained for him. A girl might, for subjective reasons, feels enough kinship to the speaker to decide it is a woman, rather than a man. Therefore,  subjective approach in a literary work is an approach to analyze a literary work from the point of view of the reader. So the interpretation is based on what is in reader’s mind or according to the experience felt by the reader.
........................................................................................
See also:

• Critical Approaches to Study Literature
• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach 
• The Formalist Approach

Critical Approaches to Study Literature

The study of literature, nowadays, has shifted the focus, from the elements terms to the criticism. The study of literary works is no longer only focused on the analysis of plot, setting, character, or symbolism but has been broader to the area of criticism. Criticism does not mean "finding fault with". In this study, literary criticism as an academic activity should be viewed as the expression of the writer's point of view of what is happening to the text. Here are some approaches used to study literature:

• Objective Approach
• Subjective Approach
• Historical Approach
• Biographical Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Mythological and Archetypal Approach
• The Formalist Approach  

...............................................................................................