some basic knowledge of poetry英文资料.docVIP

Some Basic Knowledge of Poetry Poetry has its roots in song. The earliest poetic forms were the epics and ballads sung by travelling bards and minstrels. Though no longer sung, poems retain their musical quality. Poetry starts from meaning then transcends the semantic domain by evoking the reader’s imagination with vivid description and a proper arrangement of rhythm and rhyme. English metric poems are written rhythmically and every line is divided into a certain number of feet. The rhythm of English poetry is based upon a fixed arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Scansion Scansion is the analysis of verse in terms of meter. Meter is measured in units called feet. A foot consists of one stressed syllable and, usually, one or two unstressed syllables. A line of poetry has as many feet as it has stressed syllables. Meter Loosely defined meter is the “beat” or rhythm of the poem. It is the pattern of, stressed and unstressed syllables used in the poem. Meter is shown by a visual code. A foot consists of one stressed syllable and, usually, one or two unstressed syllables. Standard poetic feet include: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic and spondaic. These metrical feet, in repetition, build the rhythm of the poem. When a line of poetry is divided into metrical feet, the line is named after the number of feet contained therein. The types of lines are: monometer, dimeter, trimester, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octometer. Rhyme (or rime) Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds at regular intervals. (usually this repetition occurs at the ends of lines.) 4.Sonnet The sonnet is a lyrical poem of fourteen lines which follow a designated rhyme scheme. The sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. The two basic types of sonnet are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean (or English). The Petrarchan sonnet follows the rhyme scheme: abbaabba cdecde, or abbaabba cdccdc. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided