Poetry and sound devices Performer Heritage Marina Spiazzi

Poetry and sound devices Performer Heritage Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2016

Poetry and sound devices 1. The origin of the terms • Poetry derives its name from the Greek verb poiêin which means ‘to create’. It was born as an oral art, generally accompanied by dancing and music and is the oldest form of literature. • People used poetry as a means to express the most remarkable events in their lives. Performer Heritage to convey the feelings associated with them.

Poetry and sound devices 2. Musical patterns Performer Heritage • Poetry is characterised by musical patterns of sounds which are based on the natural qualities of spoken language. • Its language is far more condensed and intensified: the poet combines words to make his reader feel what he has felt and experience what he has experienced.

Poetry and sound devices 3. Basic structurals units The structural units of poetry are the line (the basic unit) the stanza (a section of a poem which consists of several lines) the canto or book All these can vary almost infinitely • A line of poetry in English is usually from eight to twelve syllables in length. • Stanzas are normally from two to twelve lines long. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 4. Common types of stanzas • The types of stanzas are: - the couplet (two lines); - the tercet (three lines); - the quatrain (four lines); - the sestet (six lines); - the octave (eight lines). A complete poem may consist of only two lines, as in the case of the epigram, while narrative poems may extend over thousands of lines. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 5. Rhythm • Rhythm generally refers to the pace or speed of a poem. • While the Italian language is syllable-timed, English is stress-timed. • Stress is much more important to rhythm than syllables. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 6. Metre • An important part of the rhythm is metre, which is the ‘beat’ of a poem, that is the distribution within the line of stressed and unstressed syllables. • It is measured in feet, with different names according to the arrangement of syllables. A foot is a group of two syllables. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 6. Metre • Adapted into English, the long syllables became the stressed syllables, marked with a ‘¯’, and the short syllables became unstressed syllables, marked with a ‘˘’: ‘And makes’ is a segment, or foot, which contains an unstressed syllable (˘) and a stressed syllable (¯). Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 7. Words Grammatical words unstressed Content words stressed Articles, auxiliaries, Adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, prepositions verbs and adverbs and pronouns are usually stressed unstressed words. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 8. Types of feet • unstress-stress Two types of feet stress-unstress • Stressed and unstressed syllables inside a word or a line can combine into different patterns the unstress-stress pattern (˘/¯) is called iamb and it is the most common foot in English poetry. Performer Heritage the stress-unstress pattern (¯/˘) is called trochee.

Poetry and sound devices 8. Types of feet • For many centuries the iambic foot, particularly the iambic pentameter (generally corresponding to ten syllables), has been the most common metre in English poetry. • Example: Will I / with wine / and was / sails so / convince (W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1) Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 9. Analyse rhythm • How to analyse rhythm in a poetic text? Here are some tips that may be useful when you deal with rhythm in the analysis of a poem: 1. write the stress on the syllables; 2. count the number of syllables in each line; 3. write the slant bars (/) in order to recognise the feet; 4. identify the pattern (iambic or trochaic). Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 10. Sound devices: rhyme • Poems are said to rhyme when the last word of two or more lines has the same ending sound: When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all • Conventionally, rhyme has often been used to mark the end of the line (which also makes the poem easier to memorise). When rhyme is used within the line, it is called internal rhyme: Her breath was strang, her hair was lang (Anonymous ballad, Kemp Owyne) • Performer Heritage Rhymes are identified by the letters of the alphabet. The pattern they create is called a rhyme scheme.

Poetry and sound devices 11. Blank verse • A common form based on iambic pentameter is blank verse. Blank verse • lines are unrhymed The use of blank verse achieves extreme flexibility, almost giving poetry the quality of everyday speech. This is why it is often found in Elizabethan drama, for example in Macbeth by Shakespeare. Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 12. Sound devices: run-on line • If a line ends in the middle of a phrase and the meaning break comes in the next line, we call this a run-on line or use the French word enjambement: So the company of men led a careless life, All was well with them: until One began To encompass evil, an enemy from hell. (Beowulf) Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 13. Sound devices: end-stopped line • Performer Heritage Lines are usually end-stopped. This is when the end of a line coincides with a grammatical pause, usually marked by a punctuation mark.

Poetry and sound devices 14. Sound devices: caesura • It is a pause, usually in the middle of a line and usually shown by a punctuation mark. To be, or not to be: that is the question. (William Shakespeare, Hamlet) Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 15. Sound devices: assonance Performer Heritage • The repetition of the same vowel sound can ‘colour’ part of a poem with that vowel quality. This device is called assonance. He was sad at heart, Unsettled yet ready, sensing his death. (Beowulf) • See how the line is permeated with the /e/ sound, which creates a sense of doom. Beowulf’s mood recalls the mood of tragic heroes.

Poetry and sound devices 16. Sound devices: alliteration • The repetition of the same initial consonant sound in consecutive words or words which are close together, is called alliteration. Grendel they called this cruel spirit, the fell and fen his fastness was, the march his haunt. (Beowulf) • Performer Heritage Sometimes the alliteration can come in the middle or at the end of words too. It can help create the tone of the poem or affect the regularity of rhythm.

Poetry and sound devices 17. Sound devices: onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia refers to a word whose sound illustrates its meaning. crack bang screech snuffle Performer Heritage

Poetry and sound devices 18. Sound devices: repetition • Phrases or lines may be repeated in the course of a poem to create a musical effect. This device is called repetition and sometimes refrain. Refrains often come in ballads as in the question repeated at the beginning of every stanza. O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son? And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man? Performer Heritage