Poetry Meter Vocabulary Notation Feet units of stressed

Poetry

Meter: Vocabulary & Notation Feet: units of stressed and unstressed syllables Stressed / Unstressed Why long and short or stressed and unstressed? Trochee /Spondee // Ancient Greek was a language based on long Dactyl /-and short syllables, not stressed or unstressed. Basically a long Greek syllable is Iamb -/ stressed English syllable. Anapest --/ Amphibrach -/Amphimacer /-/

Form Stanzas Lines The number of feet + the type of feet = the meter Ex. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day 5 + iambic = iambic pentameter

Metrical Feet - the poem Trochee trips from long to short 4 + trochee = trochaic tetrameter Why does a trochee trip? Here the word trip doesn’t mean fall; it means to move lightly or quickly. A way of speeding up a line of poetry or giving it a rolling feeling. But can a unit of measurement trip? No. It’s an example of personification…. and alliteration.

From long to long in solemn sort What do you notice about these two lines? Sort rhymes with short and when we have two rhymes in a row like this, we call it a rhyming couplet. But we’re not done yet! Say “long in solemn” The repeated vowel sounds are called assonance.

Slow Spondee stalks, strong foot! Yet ill able A description of a “strong foot” (a metrical and metaphorical foot) that moves in a slow but solid way. . . stalking, like Frankenstein. It’s “ill able” or unable to Ever come up with Dactyl’s trisyllable. Or, catch up.

Assignment Now it is your turn. Annotate the first stanza of the poem for meter and poetic devices. To indicate metrical feet, annotate above the line using - and / Then, annotate both stanzas for meaning.