The Structure of Poetry METER If one reads poetry aloud he soon becomes sensible of a certain rhythm or regular recurrence of accented syllables that gives a measured movement to the lines. It is a recognition of this rhythm that makes a child read in a "sing-song " tone, as natural a thing as it is to sing. If we hear constantly repeated at frequent and regular intervals any noise there is a tendency to group these separate sounds and measure them off regularly. The clock ticks with always the same force and with the same space of time between the ticks, yet we hear tick-tack, tick-tack; we can prove the difference to be in our ear for it requires but little effort to hear tick-tack, tick-tack or tacktick, tack-tick. The ticking has not varied in the least. The poet takes advantage of this rhythmical tendency of nature and by using accented syllables at regular intervals compels us to recognize the swing of his lines. When he reduces this to a system he has established the meter of his production. The poetical accents sometimes fall on unaccented syllables and sometimes on monosyllabic words that are not emphatic but usually the metrical accent of any given word corresponds to its logical accent. The accentuation of a syllable tends to lengthen the time used in the pronuncia tion of that syllable, and so we call it long though the sound of its vowel may be short. Short syllables are those which bear no accent even though the vowel has the long sound. The meter of a line may be indicated by placing accent marks in their proper places, or it may be shown, as is more frequently the case, by the same characters used to designate long and short vowel sounds. For instance in the line from Bryant, The stormy month of March is come at last, the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth syllables are accented, that is, are long, though it will be seen at once that the vowels in month, come, and last, are all short sounds. The meter might with equal propriety be shown thus: The stor'my month' of March' is come' at last'. These accents are seen to divide the line into five sections which we may indicate in this man ner: The stor❘ my month of March | is come at last. Each one of these divisions called a foot, contains one unaccented syllable and one accented syllable that marks the division and gives distinction to the foot. The line just studied has five feet. But lines vary in length some containing but one accent and others having many. The meter of a line is de The Structure of Poetry termined by the number and character of its feet. The names of these feet are compounds of the Greek numerals and the word meter. One foot is mono+meter=monom'eter. "" = tetrameter=tetram'eter. pentameter=pentam'eter. Four feet Five feet 66 hepta+meter heptam'eter. Seven feet 66 octa+meter=octam'eter. Technically a verse is a line of poetry, and the group of lines to which is frequently given that name should be called a stanza, the different types of which will be discussed later. But all verses are not like the one just read. Here are two from Longfellow : Trust no future, howe'er pleasant. Art is long and time is fleeting. When read aloud, it will be seen at once that the first, third, fifth, and seventh syllables are accented and the metrical reading will be represented in this manner : Trust no fu ture how e'er pleas ant. Art is long and time is fleet ing. These two verses are tetrameter, while the first was pentameter. But in the first example the second syllable of each foot was accented and the foot is called an iambus (adjective form, iambic). |