Poetic Forms

Introduction

Poetry is written in closed or open form.

Closed form poetry is characterized by patterns: verse, rhyme, meter and/or syllable. The content fits into the form.Open form poetry is characterized by the lack of pattern. The content creates the form.

Open Form PoetryContent determines the form of the poem.

Punctuation, line breaks, and white spaces become very important in open form poetry.

“Free verse”Concrete poems

Shaped poems

Free Verse:

poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter

Free VerseCavalry Crossing a Ford

A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,

They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun -- hark to the musical

clank

Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink,

Behold the the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles.

Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford --while,

Scarlet and blue and snowy white,

The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.

Walt Whitman, 1865

Concrete Poems

I <')))><ing. Billy Eckles

Lee Gately

Roger McGough

LEO PEÑA

Shaped PoemsCreate a picture or visual pattern

Content is more important than shape

Content follows general grammatical rules

Shape complements content of poem

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,Though foolishly he lost the same,

Decaying more and more,Till he became

Most poore:

With TheeO let me rise,

As larks, harmoniously,And sing this day Thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne;And still with sicknesses and shame

Thou didst so punish sinne,That I becameMost thinne.

With TheeLet me combine,

And feel this day Thy victorie;For, if I imp my wing on Thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Easter Wings

by George Herbert

Dusk Above the water hang the loud flies Here O so gray then What A pale signal will appear When Soon before its shadow fades Where Here in this pool of opened eye In us No Upon us As at the very edges of where we take shape in the dark air this object bares its image awakening ripples of recognition that will brush darkness up into light even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now already passing out of sight toward yet-untroubled reflection this image bears its object darkening into memorial shades Scattered bits of light No of water Or something across water Breaking up No Being regathered soon Yet by then a swan will have gone Yes out of mind into what vast pale hush of a place past sudden dark as if a swan sang

Swan and Shadow

John Hollander

Closed Form Poems

Recognizable patterns

Patterns can be determined by:Stanza length

Metrical pattern (ex: iambic pentameter)Rhyme scheme

Syllable count

Rhyme Scheme

Pattern of end rhyme in lines of poetry

Proud of the spoil that thou hast gotOf simple hearts, thorough love’s shot;By whom, unkind, thou has them won,Think not he hath his bow forgot,Although my lute and I have done.

a

a

b

a

b

Meter

Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables

The basic unit of meter is a foot.Most common feet in English poetry:

Iamb / Trochee / Anapest /Dactyl / Spondee / /Pyrrhic

• The meter of a poem emphasizes the musical quality of the language.

“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!”

Hamlet, I.v

Metrical LinesOne foot monometerTwo feet dimeterThree feet trimeterFour feet tetrameterFive feet pentameterSix feet hexameterSeven feet heptameterEight feet octameter

SCANSION

•The action of marking off of verse in metric feet,

•the analysis and visual representation of a poem's metrical structure or pattern.

•Scansion in English prosody (the science or study of poetic meters and versification) employs a system of symbols to reveal:

•the mechanics of a poem-i.e., the predominant type of foot

(the smallest metrical unit of stressed and unstressed syllables);

•the number of feet per line; •and the rhyme scheme.

The purpose of scansion is to enhance the reader's sensitivity to the ways in which rhythmic elements in a poem convey meaning. Deviations in a poem's metrical pattern are often significant to its meaning.

Prosody

•the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech.

•Is an aspect of sound.

•Involves the technical elements of a poem that affect the sound of the poem: meter, rhyme scheme, punctuation, stanza type, etc.

•Prosody conveys the emotion behind the words and creates meaning for the audience.

Example:

I want the red car.

I want the red car.

I want the red car.

Blank verse:Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

“O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,Taw, and resolve itself into a dew!Or that the Everlasting had not fix’dHis canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitableSeem to me all the uses of this world!”

Stanzas stanza : poem :: paragraph : essay

A stanza is a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem.

2 line stanzas: couplets3 line stanzas:

tercets triplets: aaa bbb ccc dddterza rima: aba bcb cdc ded

4 line stanzas: quatrains5 line stanzas: cinquains6 line stanzas: sestets7 line stanzas: septets8 line stanzas: octaves

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much dependsupon

a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rainwater

beside the whitechickens

William Carlos Williams

COUPLETS

Lyric Poetry

Lyric

A short poem in which a single speaker expresses personal thoughts and feelings

Most poems other than dramatic and narrative poems are lyrics.

In ancient Greece, lyrics were meant to be sung.

Word lyric comes from lyre, the name of a musical instrument used to accompany songs.

Renaissance Themes in Lyric Poems

Courtly love (elegant in language and manner; attempts to

gain attention and favor; language courts or

“woos” the object of the poet’s affections)

Unrequited love—love that is rejected or ignored

The Sonnet

The SonnetItalian origin: The word sonnet comes from Italian

sonetto, meaning "little sound" or "little song."

Lyric poems

14 lines

Iambic pentameter: U / U / U / U / U /Use of conceits: a metaphor that the poet usually

extends and elaborates throughout the course of the

poem. (More on this to follow.)

VOLTA

•Italian word for “turn.”

• In a sonnet, the volta is the turn of thought or argument.

• In Petrarchan or Italian sonnets it occurs between the octave and the sestet.

•In Shakespearean or English before the •final couplet.

Poets chronicled stories of unrequited love in

sonnet sequences, which were several sonnets tied

together with the thread of narrative.

Development of the Sonnet

The first sonnets were written in Italy in the Thirteenth Century. The most famous of the Italian sonneteers were Dante and Petrarch who wrote entire sonnet sequences in the Italian vernacular.

The Italian sonnet was introduced into English poetry by Sir Thomas Wyatt.

In the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, English writers began to imitate their earlier Italian counterparts by writing sonnets in the English vernacular.

The most important sonnet sequences written in English were written by Edmund Spenser (Amoretti , published in 1595), Sir Philip Sidney (Astrophel and Stella, published in 1582), and William Shakespeare (his untitled sequence of 154 sonnets was published in 1609).

By the reign of Queen Elizabeth, sonnet production became the vogue for its aspiring writers

ITALIAN or

PETRARCHANSONNETS

Francesco Petrarca1304-1374

Francesco Petrarca

Famous for his poems addressed to Laura, an idealized beloved whom he met in 1327 and who died in 1348.

Italian scholar, poet, and humanist, a major force in the development of the Renaissance,

Petrarch was regarded as the greatest scholar of his age. He wrote the majority of his works in Latin, although his sonnets and canzoni written in Italian were equally influential.

Canzoniere: Petrarch’s Sonnets

Canzoniere (song book) a collection of 366 lyrics (including sonnets and other types of poems), totaling the number of days in the yearly cycle, was inspired by the lady whom Petrarch names Laura.

However, his love was not returned; her presence causes him unspeakable joy, and on the other hand it creates unendurable desires.

There is no definite information concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, with golden hair, and her bearing is modest and dignified.

Upon her death, the poet finds that his grief is as difficult to live with as was his former despair.

The persona is a "humble servant" tossed by a tempest on the sea of despair.

The beloved can wound with a glance.

Her beauty is described in stereotypical fashion: her eyes sparkle, her complexion is ivory, her lips are ruby red, her hair is blonde, and her bearing is angelic.

Sonnet 90

She used to let her golden hair fly freeFor the wind to toy and tangle and molest;Her eyes were brighter than the radiant west.(Seldom they shine so now.) I used to seePity look out of those deep eyes on me.("It was false pity," you would now protest.)I had love's tinder heaped within my breast:What wonder that the flame burned furiously?She did not walk in any mortal way,But with angelic progress; when she spoke,Unearthly voices sang in unison.She seemed divine among the dreary folkOf earth. You say she is not so today?Well, though the bow's unbent, the wound bleeds on.

Translated by Maurice Bishop

Sonnet 181

Love made a snare, a beautiful device woven of gold and pearls, and this he laid twined in the grass, under the sorrowful shade of the laurel tree to which I sacrifice.

Sweetmeats were strown therein, of greatest price, though bitter at the core. I took them unafraid. Ever unearthly-lovely music played, Unheard since Adam's hour in Paradise. The radiance of her eyes outdid the sun, transfiguring the earth in a holy blaze. Then with her ivory hand she twitched the rope! And so I fell in the net, and was undone by her angelic words, her darling ways; also by pleasure, by desire; by hope.

Translated by Maurice Bishop

SONNETS

Italian or Petrarchan FORMStanzas:

Octave – 8 lines; presents problem

followed bySestet – 6 lines; resolution or meditation upon problem

Rhyme:Octave -- abbaabbaSestet -- cdecde or cdccdc or cddcdd or variation

Petrarchan Conceits

A conceit is a fanciful notion, generally expressed through an elaborate analogy or metaphor.

From Petrarch, the sonneteers of the Renaissance took not only a conventional form but also conventional sentiments. The relation between the poet and his beloved is presented in terms of an idealized courtly love:

Example:

There is a Garden in her face, Where Roses and white Lillies grow;Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.There Cherries grow, which none may buyTill Cherry ripe themselves do cry.

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

Spenserian sonnet: abab bcbc cdcd ee

Amoretti: “little loves” or “little cupids”

Sonnet sequence celebrating the poet’s

courtship and marriage to Elizabeth Boyle

Portrays a happy and successful love

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

154 sonnets

Addressed to a young nobleman (perhaps a patron) and a dark, sensuous, promiscuous mistress (the Dark Lady)

Nothing is really known about “the story” of the sequence.

Wide variety of emotions expressed: love, grief, despair, melancholy, delight, shame, fear, etc.

English or ShakespeareanStanzas:

3 Quatrains – 4 line stanzas

present similar images

followed byHeroic Couplet – rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines.

Presents pardoxical resolution.

Rhyme:3 Quatrains --

ababcdcdefef

1 Couplet --gg

XVIIIShall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.