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Prosody 101:

Prosody 101:. The Science of Versification. What is prosody & why is Mrs. Preusser making us learn it?. Prosody is the rhythm and pattern of sounds of poetry and language. Prosody is very deliberately used by playwrights and therefore demands the utmost attention from actors and readers.

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Prosody 101:

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  1. Prosody 101: The Science of Versification

  2. What is prosody & why is Mrs. Preusser making us learn it? • Prosody is the rhythm and pattern of sounds of poetry and language. • Prosody is very deliberately used by playwrights and therefore demands the utmost attention from actors and readers. • **Variation in meter provides clues to the character and the emotional state of mind.**

  3. There are 2 types of writing: • 1. non-metrical: prose • 2. metrical: verse • meter: pattern of stressed & relatively unstressed syllables (in metered verse, typically each line has the same # of feet & the same type of foot) • foot: unit of meter • In English, some words change meaning depending on which syllable you stress: • address: (n. where you live) • address: (v. to speak to someone)

  4. Types of feet* Types of meter monometer = 1 foot dimeter = 2 feet trimeter = 3 feet tetrameter = 4 feet pentameter = 5 feet hexameter = 6 feet heptameter = 7 feet octometer = 8 feet iamb: ᵕ / (away, above) trochee: / ᵕ (apple) anapest: ᵕᵕ / (unaware) dactyl: / ᵕᵕ (tenderly) spondee: / / (football) pyrrhic: ᵕᵕ (?) * ᵕ = unstressed, / = stressed

  5. Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter: That you were once unkind befriends me now. When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes.

  6. Types of verse: • rhymed - regular meter and rhyming end • blank - iambic pentameter with no rhyme • free - no regular meter and no rhyme • slant rhyme (near rhyme, half rhyme) - an imperfect rhyme (words sound similar but don’t rhyme, like “young” and “song”)

  7. Devices of Sound • rhyme - repetition of the vowel sound in the final stressed syllable (can be ending or internal) (moon, June) • alliteration - repetition of initial sound (“Hannah’s home has heat, hopefully”) • onomatopoeia - word representing natural sounds (“clip-clopped”) • assonance - similarity of vowel sounds ("lake fate”)  • consonance - similarity of consonant sounds ("seems asleep”) • refrain - repetition of lines (like the chorus of a song) • repetition - reiterating a word or phrase • antithesis (contrast) - balances words or ideas in sync or opposition (life and death, good and evil)

  8. Other Devices • enjambment - sense and/or rhythm of one line runs into the next • caesura - rhythmic pauses (breath) derived from the context (hint: often coupled with punctuation) • masculine endings - line's last syllable stressed • feminine endings - line's last syllable unstressed • elision - syllable combined with another (“o’er” for “over”) • rhymed couplet - when the last words in the last two lines rhyme

  9. Other Devices **iambs and enjambment create the illusion of natural speech** Wretched in this alone that thou mayest take All this away and me most wretched make.

  10. Scansion Notations c indicates caesura Δ indicates transition or shift (in topic, tone, etc.) indicates enjambed line ’ indicates elision indicates irregular line/extra beat indicates irregular line/missing beat / indicates division of feet

  11. Practice If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. Speaker: Duke to Brabantio (1.3.330-31)

  12. Practice Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee. Speaker: Brabantio to Othello (1.3.333-34)

  13. Practice This is the night* That either makes me or fordoes me quite. *Previous character says the other 3 feet Speaker: Iago to himself (5.2.150-51)

  14. Closure: Scan your full name / ᵕ / ᵕ Heather Preusser

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