Masculine rhyme: the recurrence of soundressed syllable eg. cold — bold
On the basis of the number of syllables Feminine rhyme: the stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables eg. spiteful— delightful
• 1.4.1. emotional, passionate, • Expressing and arousing strong feeling such as love, pity, fear, sadness, joy, etc from the author or from the reader
Triple rhyme: the rhyming stressed syllable is followed by two identical unstressed syllables eg. tenderly —slenderly
On the basis of the position in a line
• c. meter[格律]: poetic metre with a given number of feet, or fixed arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables. • Rising feet/meter: iamb (iambic), anapest (anapestic) • Falling feet/meter: trochee (trochaic), dactyl (dactylic)
1.2.2. Lyric poetry
• a. Epigram[诙谐诗]: short poem expressing an idea in clear and amusing way • b. Elegy: a lament for the dead. • c. Ode: a long stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. • d. Sonnet: 14 lines, the Italian (or Petrarchan: 8-line octave + 6-line sestet; typical rhyming: abbaabba+cdcdcd/cdecde) and the English (or Shakespearean: three 4line quatrains + a concluding 2-line couplet)
1.3.7. Sound Rhyme: two or more words or phrases
contain an identical or similar vowel-sound, usually stressed, and the consonant sounds that follow the vowel-sound are identical and preceded by different consonants. eg. bright and night heaven and seven see and thee
• 1.4.2. Symbolic • A symbol is something that stands for something else. In literature, it refers to any word, object, action, or character that embodies and evokes a range of additional meaning and significance. • Imagery is the use of figurative language to produce a picture in the minds of readers or hearers.
• Number of feet per line • Monometer • Dimeter • Trimeter • Tetrameter • Pentameter • Hexameter • Heptameter • Octameter
1.4. Some features of poetry
Assonance is the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a noticeable range. Eg. All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone.
Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)
I.
Introduction to poetry 1.1. What is poetry
• a. Emily Dickinson: “when I read something I feel so cold that no fire can warm me, I know it’s poetry; when I read something I feel my head is chopped off, I know it’s poetry.”
Alliteration is the repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of words or stressed syllables.
Eg. The willows waved violently in the wind.
1.3. Elements of poetry
• 1.3.1. Voice: speaker and tone • 1.3.2. Diction: the best words in the best order (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) • 1.3.3. Imagery: a concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea. • Images: visual, aural, tactile, olfactory (something smelled), gustatory (sth tasted) • 1.3.4. Figures of speech: simile and metaphor
1.2.Types of poetry
• 1.2.1. Narrative poetry • a. Epic: long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits [brave or adventurous deeds or action] are important to the history of a nation. As Homeric epics (a blind bard): The Iliad and The Odyssey • b. Ballad: a simple poem(less ambitious than epics) that tells a story. • c. Romance: another type of narrative poem, in which adventure is a central feature.
• 1.3.5. Symbolism: a symbol is any object or action that means more than itself, any object or action that represents sth beyond itself. • 1.3.6. Syntax: the grammatical structure of words in sentences and the development of sentences in longer units throughout the poem.
• e. The traditional American dictionary defines poetry as : A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of condensed languages chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.
• b. The poet has found the emotion, the emotion has found the word. • c. Wordsworth: “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. • d.“A good poem is the crystalization of word and emotions.”
Consonance is the repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.
Eg. tit and tat creak and crack
• 1.3.8. Rhythm and meter • a. rhythm: beat we feel in a phrase of music or a line of poetry, the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in poem. • b. foot[音步]: unit of rhythm in a line of poetry containing one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables, as in the four division of “four man/may come/and men /may go”