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Understanding Meter

Understanding Meter. Poetic Structure. Meter. Meter is the rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse . All words in English naturally have stressed (or accented) and unstressed syllables.

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Understanding Meter

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  1. Understanding Meter Poetic Structure

  2. Meter • Meter is the rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse. • All words in English naturally have stressed (or accented) and unstressed syllables. • PRACTICE: How many syllables are in each word below? Which syllables are stressed? • Doctor • Elephant • Refrigerator

  3. Meter • Lines of verse often follow a consistent meter. • Read the lines below aloud and decide which syllables are receive the “stress.” • “Out of the night that covers me, • Black as the pit from pole to pole, • I thank whatever Gods may be • For my unconquerable soul.”

  4. meter • One pair of “unstressed-stressed” is called an iamb. • One pair of “stressed-unstressed” is called a troche..

  5. Syllable patterns • Four iambs in a line of verse = 8 syllables = iambic tetrameter. • Five iambs in a line of verse = 10 syllables = iambic pentameter. • Four troches in a line of verse = 8 syllables = trochaic tetrameter. • Five troches in a line of verse = 10 syllables = trochaic pentameter.

  6. Practice • When I see your face • There's not a thing that I would change • 'Cause you're amazing • Just the way you are

  7. Sonnets • There are three major forms of sonnets in English poetry: • Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet • Italian or Petrarchan sonnet (cross this out on your notes) • Spenserian sonnet (and write this instead) • Guess which form Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” uses?

  8. “Sonnet 75” • One day I wrote her name upon the strand, • But came the waves and washed it away: • Again I wrote it with a second hand, • But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. • Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay • A mortal thing so to immortalize, • For I myself shall like to this decay, • And eek my name be wiped out likewise. • Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise • To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: • My verse your virtues rare shall eternize, • And in the heavens write your glorious name. • Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue, • Our love shall live, and later life renew.

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