Friday, January 6, 2012
What are the meanings to these poetry terms? (any Shakespeare fans)
Put first things first. A foot is a unit of measure Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, each da-dum is an iamb, one foot of an unstressed paired with a stressed beat, Shakespeare typically wrote in iambic pentameter, that is five iambs to the line, To be, or not to be, that is the question, note the da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum rhythm, although question by itself is the reverse, dum-da, called a spondee, a different kind of foot producing a different rhythm, there are yet other kinds of feet, but these two are the simplest to understand. Meter is the measure of the piece taken as a whole, i.e. iambic pentameter. Rhyme is matching sounds, produced by onance or consonance, usually both in conjunction, onance the vowels, consonance the consonants. English with over 54 different vowel sounds is rhyme poor, languages with fewer and purer vowel sounds produce more rhymes. A stanza is a unit of verse, the Star Spangled Banner has four stanzas. In quatrain each stanza has four lines, usually paired or alternating couplets, lines with the same end rhyme, such as say,day; sign, dine. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound over and over, We whistled with our whiskey on Wednesday when we were wacky. Personification is a particular type of imagery giving something the qualities of a person, I like my coffee hot and black, sweet and smooth like a Creole woman. The simile I used compared coffee to a woman. Put in the opposite direction the coffee becomes a metaphor for the woman. This should get you started. You have to pick your own poems from Shakespeare. I'd suggest one of his sonnets, and a song from one of his plays. Blank verse works by free ociation, without rhyme or meter. Free verse is similar, but alternates, using different meters and rhymes. Concrete poetry is in a fixed style with a clearly defined meter and rhyme scheme, such as a sonnet. There are poetry websites where you can find fuller descriptions, and also learn how to write your own. Steer clear of those that try to sell you something, and teach you nothing.
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