Now, to some technical morsels about poetry.
Metre is the pulse of the words as the lines are said. It seldom varies in a poem. Each metre is found by counting the number of stressed syllables in a line. Metre is measured in feet (this is not really a math class!) They are designated as follows:
monometre = one foot (one stressed syllable per line)
dimetre = two feet / line
trimetre = three feet / line
tetrametre = four feet / line
pentametre = five feet / line
hexametre = six feet / line
heptametre = seven feet / line
octametre = eight feet / line
To go with this, there are terms to talk about the shape of the foot consistently used. These are:
Iambic - (each stressed syllable is preceeded by an unstressed
one.
(Eg. tonight, receive, confess)
Trochaic - (each stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed
one.
(Eg. simply, daily, poorly)
Anapestic - (each stressed syllable is preceeded by two
unstressed ones.
(Eg. intercept, saboteur)
Dactylic (each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones.
(Eg. animal, capable)
Rhyme scheme refers to the pattern of sounds at the ends of lines of poetry. The lines can be labelled, using letters of the alphabet, and convention states that the first line is "a".
Look at the poem "Come Live With Me And Be My Love", below, and you will find that the rhyme scheme is aabb ccdd eeff ggaa. Throughout the poem the lines are rhyming couplets, two couplets to a stanza, and the last two lines rhyme with the first two, so there is a repetition of the "a" sound, because the last two lines rhyme with the first two.
| Come live with me and be
my love, And we will all the pleasures prove that valleys, groves, hills and fields, Woods or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks by shallow rivers, to whose falls melodious birds sing madrigals. A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Fair-lines slippers for the cold, With buckles of purest gold; A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my love. |
a a b b c c d d e e f f g g a a |
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