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Reference, On Poetry
By J.p. Van


This is being piecemealed together as I feel like working on it, sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Preface
section II. - V coming soon

------This writing is intended as a reference guide for those who are already interested in poetry. In general, I hope, the intended brevity of this is laced with enough information for those who are new to poetry too. Although the accent I have placed herein is directed toward those who already have some understanding of poetics, this should still help those who are unfamiliar with poetry. So, if you are that reader who feels that it looks like a daunting task--becoming involved with poetry-- do not stop here, read on!

• I. "On Poetic Metrics" is a section on various metrical systems that clarifies such terms as meter, cadence, and rhythm. The section is unusual in the fact that it does not look at metrics merely in the sense of structured verse; it examines the benefits of knowing and understanding metrics in the sense of structure to gain a clearer working of free-verse. That being said, I have tried to avoid removing structure as the underlying current. I feel that doing so would ruin any hope of giving the reader insight into verse as a whole.
• II. "The Sound of Sounds" is a section that begins with sonics, providing a complete definition of rhythm, cadence, and meter. Here, It is concerned with a poem as a "fusional whole;" the interrelationships, from this point, will be viewed as "visible," "sonic," "sensory," and that of the "ideational." Other things that will be discussed in this section include: rhyme, elision, alliteration, ect.
• III. The focus of section three, "The Language of Words," is on such things as allusion, symbolism, metaphor, irony, ambiguity, and so forth. This section, of all of the ones I have included, is by far the shortest; nevertheless, it is something that is invaluable. That being so, I have included a brief discussion of the ways in which one can bring these things to more use in their writing of poetry.
• IV. Inevitably section four, "A look at Forms," quickly becomes the meat of the matter. The section first includes a simple list of forms, then it moves to explain each form. At the very end of the section free-verse is examined, placed at the end for the logic reason of sections.
• V. "Benefiting From Form in Free-verse" is most probably an unlikely section any guide to verse, but it is section five. I feel that more can be said for the learning of good free-verse through an understanding of structure than one would initially find or be led to believe. Therefore, section five is an examination of how one might go about benefiting from it.

Abr. Intro

------Our heritage as poets--or people who would like to be--is very rich. The history goes back for thousands of years. --and the creative thinking, that has been brought forth throughout the years, still strikes the same cord in the hearts of folks that it did all those years ago. We are the stewards of an art. We are the handlers and lion tamers of our words. We are the pen that gives meaning to the page, and the knowledge herein is the thought that should rest behind that pen: (for who can look forward without having first looked back.)

------Here I should like to head-off any assumption that this is a guide to formal verse, such would be a misnomer. In fact, when talking about verse, the term "formal" is a misnomer: it implies that there's only accentual-syllabic verse. Such is just not the case you find when looking into the "geographic world of poetry." Pure accentualism is not formless, and to think it is, is pure nonsense. For the reader of this, I have taken the time show the phonological and typographical patterns that are involved.



I. On Poetic Metrics


------To study verse structure systematically, one most understand rhythm, for its the function of the poet to order rhythm. For an understanding of it, several words must be grasped by the reader. These words are rhythm, prosody, and meter; they are the most basic blocks that you need to form a foundation in poetry. The first word, rhythm, is defined as "the flow of cadences within written or spoken language. To go about the task of ordering rhythm, the poet must understand the art of versification, or prosody. The art of versification leads us to the term, meter: a particular system of metrical composition.

------The symbols for the features of prosody are: ´ ictus or accent, made by hitting "alt+e", the secondary accent ˙, made by hitting "alt+h"; and | a division between feet.

Author's Note:

Metrical "feet" or the singular "foot," refers to a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within a verse line. The root of metical, meter, comes from the Greek word for "measure," and refers to a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poetic line. There are a number of these patterns. They are:

• The Iamb
• The Trochee
• The Dactyl
• The Pyrrhic
• The Tribrach
• The Amphiracer

[color]-----[/color]The meter of a poem is determined by a predominant metrical foot, and by the number of feet per line that predominates in the poem. For our purposes here, predominate means "over half" e.g. not substituting over half the lines "feet" for other types of metrical feet or units. The different types or lengths of line are as follows:

• 
  * Monometer: A line made up of one metrical unit, as in the phrase ‘ | I left |.’
  
  * Diameter: A line made up of two metrical units, as in the praise ‘| I left | the store |.
  
  * Trimeter: A line made up of three metrical units, an is the sentence ‘| we both | had left | the store |.’
  
  * Tetrameter: A line made up of four metrical units, as in the sentence ‘| we both | had left | the store |to run |’.
  
  * Pentameter: A line made up of five metrical units, as in the sentence ‘| we both | had left | the store |to run | and play |.’
  
  * Hexameter: A line made up of six metrical units, as in the following ‘| we both | had left | the store | to run | and play | but mike |.’
  
  * Octometer: A line made up of eight metrical units, as in the sentence ‘| we both | had left | the store | to run | and play | but mike | was sick | of rain |.’
  

------In the above examples the phrases and sentences consist purely of iambs; the Iamb is by far the most common within English verse. However, when the measure becomes longer we often find that it is fairly uncommon. Within normal speech, it is hard to find more than a few Iambs grouped together. After all, There is nothing more monotonous or boring than a regular beat carried over an extended length of time.

NOTE: there are terms for longer lines, but the fact is that as a line gets toward eight feet it tends to become read as two lines. This is because of something called the caesura. When lines reaches a length of 9 or 10 syllables, a slight pause occures somewhere within the line. The "pause" an important element in poetic rhythm; it will oftentimes occure around the middle of a line, signified by the end of a phrase, a comma, or an emphasize syllable.

(caesura indicated by °):

"I would be a devil, ° devils would be"

. . . .and can be moved around to emphasize words or phrases. Take for example the first line, Alexander Pope's lines below and how he emphasizes "none" by not only having placed it in the rhyming position but also by preceding it with a caesura. Likewise, notice how, in the second line, he emphasizes and creates contrast by preceding it with one:

"'Tis with our judgements as our watches, # none
Go just alike,# yet each believes his own."


When you see the terms:

• 
  1. Normative Meter: The "meter" of a poem is determined by the type and number of feet which appear in a single line. A line which consists of 4 iambs is called "iambic tetrameter"; a line which consists of 3 trochees is called "trochaic trimeter." The most common meter in English is "iambic pentameter," i.e., 5 iambs. This basic pattern
  is called the "normative meter" of a poem.
  
  
  2. Measure: a collection of metrical feet. i.e., as mono- means one; di- means two; tri-means three; tetra- means four; hexa- means six; and so forth it is the measure that becomes longer.

The Trochee Substitutions:
In the following examples, capital letters represent the substitutions.

• 
  A. Substitution in the 1st foot.
  | RAINing | and rain | ing syll | ables, | in Line |
  
  
  B. Substitution in the 2nd foot.
  | as beats | CHANGE in | the flow | of sounds. | And then |
  
  
  C. Substitution in the 3rd foot.
  | again | the rain | STARTS in | with sounds | in time |
  
  
  D. Substitution in the 4th foot.
  | and rain | ing syll | ables | FLOW to| the line.|

------NOTICE that in the above examples I have not included a substitution in the fifth metrical foot. The reason being, some problems occur when substituting a trochee in the last foot. For instance, If a rhyme were to fall in the last syllable of last foot, in line D, one would have to rhyme the stressed syllable of D with the following unstressed syllable of the next line. This rhyming--out of stress--might throw the reader for a loop; it is best if you avoid last foot substitutions of the trochee.


------REMEMBER that you can substitute up to half of an iambic line; But what is important here is that you never substitute more than half of the feet. If you do, then, the normative meter is lost.



The Spondee Substitutions:

• 
  A. Substitution in the 1st foot.
  | NO MORE | the mul | titude | of words | is locked |
  
  
  B. Substitution in the 2nd foot.
  | The whole | EARTH SINGS | the tunes | of days | and ways |
  
  
  C. Substitution in the 3rd foot.
  | The last | of them | SANG HYMNS | and the | earth cried |
  
  
  D. Substitution in the 4th foot.
  | With tears | of blues | and grays | FAR DEEP | er still |
  
  
  E. Substitution in the 5th foot.
  | than all | the seas | and lakes | and their | SAD HUES |

------NOTICE how in example A., the word multitude falls within the line, and how in the previous example it falls differently. ALL words can fall in any place within a line, but you cannot change their sound. However, there is a way to drop a syllable from a word, which we will go into later.

------In the forth foot of example C. you may have notice that their are two soft syllables followed by two long syllables; these syllables are the topic of this next section.



The Double Iamb Substitutions:


While the double iamb is not considered a substitution, it is the combination of two different metrical feet to make a new combination of sounds. This new combination of sounds is formed from a pyrrhic foot followed by a spondaic foot. The new double ionic foot is the topic of this section.

• 
  A. Substitution in the 1st Foot
  | AS THE | COLD WIND | and rain | within | the storm | {ing}*
  
  
  B. Substitution in the 2nd Foot
  | The rain | IN THE | PARK STOPPED | to laugh | at all |
  
  
  C. Substitution in the 3rd Foot
  | Within | the storm | ING OF | ALL SYLL | ables |
  
  
  D. Substitution in the 4th Foot
  | The mus | ic waits | to play | AND THE | MUSE SINGS |

We have worked out the basic substitutions; that of the trochee; that of the spondee, and that of the double iamb. So now, we can create a normative metered iambic line that has only one true iamb. This line I call the singular Iamb.


The singular Iamb lines:

• 
  A. The Double Iamb in the 1st/2nd feet:
  | In the | cold depths | of morn | bury | thy bones |
  
  B. The Double Iamb in the 2nd/3rd feet:
  | And fling | them in | like old | bits of | whole bread |
  
  C. The double Iamb in the 3rd/ 4th foot:
  | throw them | down, down | in the | cold pit | of morn, |

------Of coarse, you can flip the trochee and the spondee around, like so. However, if you are not careful the line can sound jumbled.

• 
  D. With the spondee and trochee flipped:
  | just don’t | leave them | to the | full moon, | but throw |
  
  
  E. The double Iamb in the 4th/ 5th feet:
  | throw them | sad things | away | to the | morn’s cold. |

The Anapestic Substitution:
(Avoid or use with caution)

------The anapest can be substituted in strict iambic pentameter in any foot besides the first. However, it should be reserved for altering the meaning of metaphors, words, or phrases. If it is used too frequently within the line, or if used simply as any other foot is, the reader might read the line as a different meter then originally intended. I.e. Us as a modifier.

------This is a complicated issue, given what it entails, but here are two examples. In the first example the anapestic foot is used simply as any other foot, while in the second it is used to modify. Can you hear the difference?

• 
  A.
  
  | it's slow | ing fing | URES MOVE ON | but you | feel lost |

The above line may be scanned as:

• 
  | it's slow | ing fing | URES MOVE | ON but | you feel | lost ?|

[------It is only an example, but poorly placed anapests can have a very bad sounds. It is best that they are used with some thought, as is the following, where the word “Brownian” is a reference to the scientist who described the random motions of molecules.

• 
  B.
  
  /DOWN to/ the BROWN/i an MOVE/ meant of/ PAIL STREAMS/ [1]

------Here, in the second example, the anapestic foot relates directly to the man who discovered the random motion of molecules in liquid state elements. When the anapest is used like this, the extra syllable leads the mind to an understanding of the meaning.


The Headless Iamb:


------Now, there is one more substitution that is considered acceptable in strict iambic pentameter. The headless Iamb or acephalous will be our next topic.

------The acephalous should be used only after the first line, and only in the first foot of those lines. Try to avoid using to many of these, because they can easily be read as trochiac.

• 
  A.
  
  | ^ LEAP | ing like | a cat | but nev | er land | ing right |

[/an]

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List of Forms: (qouted from Lewis Turco's book of poetic forms)


-The One Line Forms
adonic (see sapphics)
Alexandrine (see Poulter's measure)
Anglo-saxon prosody
Blank verse
choriambics
cyhydedd naw ban
classical hexameter (see elegiacs)
classical pentameter
fourteener (see Poulter's measure)
free verse

Nasher
antithetical parallel
climactic parallel
synonymous parallel
synthetic parallel

hendecasyllabolics
heroic line (see heroics)
Hudibrastics (see satirics)
mote
rhupunt
sappic line (see sappics)
septenary (see Poulter's measure)
twaddgyrch cadwynog (see rhupunt)



-The Two Line Forms
carol texte
couplet

cyhydedd fer
cywydd deuair fyrion
cywydd deuair hirion
qasida
short couplet
split couplet

elegiacs
heroic couplet (see heroics)
Hydibrastics (see satirics)
Poulter's measure
primer couplet (see didactics)
tanka couplet (see tanka)


-The Three Line Forms
tercet

enclosed tercet
haicu
sicilain tercet

tersa rima
triplet

enclosed triplet
englyn milwr
englyn penfyr
sicilian triplet

triversen stanza


-The Four Line Forms
ae freislighe
alcaics
awdl wywydd
ballad stanza
ballade envoy

ballade a double refrain envoy

byr a thodaid
carol stanza
casbairdno
common measure

hymnal stanza
long hymnal stanza
long measure
short hymnal stanza
short measure

deibhidhe
englyn cych (see englyns)

englyn lleddfbroest
englyn proest dalgron
englyn proesr gadwynog
englyn crwca
englyn union

glose texte
gwawdodyn
heroic stanza (see heroics)
kyrielle
pantoum
quatrain

envelope stanza
Italian quatrain
redondilla
sicilian quatrain

rannaigheacht ghairid (see rannaigheachts)

deachnadh mor
randaigecht chetharchubaid
rannaigheacht bheag
rannaigheacht mhor

roinnaird tri n-ard
risspetto stanza
rubai
sapphics
seadna

seadna mor

sneadhbhairdne
toddaid
wheel (see bob and wheel)


-The Five Line Forms
ballade supreme envoy
bob and wheel
chant royal envoy
cinquain
limerick

mad song stanza

quintet

quintilla
siclilian quintet

tanka


-The Six Line Forms
clogyrnach
cywydd llosgyrnog
gwawdodyn hir (see gwawdodyn)
hir a thoddaid
rime couee

standard habbie

seset

heroic sestet
Italian sestet
sextilla
sicilian sestet

short particular measure (see common measure)
stave

couplet envelope

-The Seven Line Forms
rime royal
rondelet
septet

sicilian sestet

-The Nine Line Forms
lai

virelai

Ronsardian ode stanza
Spenserian stanza
triad (see terset)

-The Ten Line Forms
ballede supreme stanza

dizain
double ballade stanza(see ode)

english ode stanza
glose stanza
madrigal


-The Eleven Line Forms
chant royal stanza
madrigal
roundel


-The Twelve Line Forms
pearline stanza
rondeau (see rondeau)


-The Thirteen Line Forms
madrigal
rondel


-The Fourteen Line Forms
bref double

quatorzian

rondel prime (see rondel)
sonetto rispetto (see rispetto)
Sonnet

English sonnet
Italian sonnet
Spenserian sonnet

terza rima sonnet (see terza rima)


-The Fifteen Line Forms
rondeau

-The Eighteen Line Forms
heroic sonnet (see sonnet)
triversen


-The Nineteen Line Forms
terzanelle
villanelle


-The Twenty Line Forms
Caudated sonnet (see sonnet)


-The Twenty-Five Line Forms
rondeau redouble (see rondeau)


-The Twenty-Eight Line Forms
ballade

Ballade a double refrain

-The Thirty Line Forms
English Ode (see ode)


-The Thirty-Five Line Forms
ballade supreme (see ballade)


-The Thirty-Nine Line Forms
sestina


-The Forty-Eight Line Forms
double ballade (see ballade)


-The Sixty Line Forms
chant royal
double ballade supreme (see ballade)


The Ninety-Eight Line Forms
Crown of sonnets


The Two-Hundred Line Forms
Qasida

The Two-Hundred-Ten Line Forms
sonnet redouble (see sonnet)

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Saved for who knows what, want to avoid the off chance that someone posts and I run out of room due to the 20,000 ch post limit. That being said, yes I am back and working to finish this.

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mammamaia

is this all your own original work, or are you copying it here from another source?... you really need to make that clear, as using another's work without citing the author and the source and without having permission to do so is plagiarism...

so, if this is your own work, better put that up top, where it's clear for all to see...

and if it's not, you'd best take it all down if you don't have permission to use it...

if you do, that must be noted on each post...

if this is your own work, i'm impressed at the monumental scope of it and my mind boggles at considering the time it must have taken to assemble it all... in any case, i can see you mean to be helpful and i'd hate to see you either not get full credit for you own efforts or get in trouble if others' work is being offered and you forgot to add the requisite citations...

love and hugs, maia [an appreciative full time poet, mentor to aspiring ones]

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Argh, this is my own work, (I am jp and can verify by a login if need be). The list of terms, however, is not mine but was cited.

Edit: [writes more "formal" post**]

Mama, this has been gradualy updated in the course of my poetic studies, and thus it has been posted in a few different formats. Both of the previous post of this have been under the username JP, but were not very complete. This time around, however, I hope to be able to cover the topics a lot better. I slow tho, and this might be slow in coming.

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mammamaia

a daunting task, indeed!... can't imagine how much time it took you to assemble all that... i might suggest you cite the sources you got lists and such from, just to keep things kosher...

nice of you to go to so much trouble to enlighten others... hugs, m

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