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ENG3BAR Week 3: Rhyming Schemes & Metrical Patterns
1
Rhyming, Meter & Form in
Romantic Poetry
What is meter?
- the rhythm
- the pattern of beats
- the stressed & unstressed syllables in the lines
Types of Meter
Some examples:
- iamb (i-RENE)
- trochee (THOM-as)
- dactyl (DOR-o-thy)
- anapest (an-toin-ETTE)
Can you identify the meter used in one of the poems we have looked at so far?
Frist stanza of 'Adonais' by Shelley
I weep for Adonais—he is dead!
Oh, weep for Adonais! though our tears
Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!
And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years
To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,
And teach them thine own sorrow, say: "With me
Died Adonais; till the Future dares
Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be
An echo and a light unto eternity!"
What is rhyme?
More on meter...
Do some examples...
What is the rhyming & metrical form of 'Kubla Khan'?
What about Wordsworth's 'The Prelude'?
And Blake's 'The Lamb'?
Now a tricky one: Blake's 'The Chimney Sweeper'?
The terms of the stressed and unstressed syllables are usually accompanied by a term denoting the number of metrical feet in each line:
- monometer (1 foot)
- dimeter (2 feet)
- trimeter (3 feet)
- tetrameter (4 feet)
- pentameter (5 feet)
- hexameter (6 feet)
- heptameter (7 feet)
- octameter (8 feet)
- formal verse
- blank verse
- free verse (more modern, not used in Romantic era)
Other form terminology
And still more forms...
Quatrain: a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternating rhyme.
Couplet: a pair of successive lines of verse, typically rhyming and of the same length.
Sonnet: 3 quatrains + one couplet
Sonnet (English): 3 quatrains + 1 couplet
• Common rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
• May follow the two-part scheme of the Italian sonnet, but the couplet is very important in providing answer to problem/question.
Sonnet (Italian): Octave (set of 8 lines) abbaabba + Seset (set of 6 lines): rhyme scheme varies (cdecde, cdcdcd, cdccdc)
• First part of the poem asks a question poses a problem, second part answers the question/resolves the problem
More forms...
Conversation poem: created by Coleridge, where the poem seems to speak to a silent listener.
Lyric: emotional song-like poetry.
Ballade: traditionally written in common meter which consists of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.
Many ballads have a refrain (a line or stanza that repeats throughout the poem), much like the chorus of modern day songs.