Poetry TermsPoetry TermsUsing

Casey at the Batby

Ernest Lawrence Thayer

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

Rhyme SchemeRhyme Scheme

This poem is divided into stanzas of four lines, with two couplets (2 lines in which the last word rhymes) in each stanza.

coupletcouplet

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

a

a

b

b

Rhyme Scheme 2Rhyme Scheme 2

Rhyme scheme is labeled using letters. Each letter stands for a new rhyme. The rhyme scheme of this stanza is aabb.

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

Meter is measured by looking at the syllables in a line of poetry.

MeterMeter

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

The first line has fourteen syllables. The other lines follow the same pattern.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Meter 2Meter 2

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

Every other syllable is stressed, or said louder. Stressed syllables are marked with an accent mark, and unstressed syllables are marked with an arc.

/ / / / // /

Meter 3Meter 3

The outTwo syllables that consist of an unstressed first syllable and a stressed second syllable is called an IAMB.

/

Meter 4Meter 4

A Quick Lesson in Greek (Yes, Greek):

A pentagon is a 5-sided figure, so penta means .A sextagon is a 6-sided figure, so sexta means .A heptagon is a 7-sided figure, so hepta means .An octagon is an 8-sided figure, so octa means .

Remember this, especially the Greek word for 7--

Meter 5Meter 5

5

76

8

HEPTA

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game. There are 7 iambs in this line.

/ / / / // / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Now here is the really cool term for this. . . IAMBIC HEPTAMETER

Meter 6Meter 6

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day; The score stood four to two, with but one inning left to play; And so when Cooney died at first, and Burrows did the same, A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

AlliterationAlliteration

There is another poetry technique we can see in this poem. Two words that start with the same letter very close together is called ALLITERATION.

“Casey at the Bat” is a poem made up of four line _________. Each ________ consists of two rhyming _________, so the rhyme scheme is _________. There are 7 ________ in each line, so it is written in ________________. The first stanza also has two or more words close together beginning with the same sound. This is called ____________.

stanzas stanzacouplets

iambsiambic heptameter

aabb

You got them all, didn’t you?

Test Yourself Test Yourself

alliteration

By Linda MacCleaveBy Linda MacCleaveIntroduction to “Casey at the Bat”Introduction to “Casey at the Bat”