|
|
|
christopher l Teggatz* |
Notes for background lectures
on writing poetry*
English poetry is based on four principles:
1. Assonance
2. Consonance
3. Rhyme
4. Rhythm
Assonance is when you use the same sounds at the beginning
of words. For example, here is part of Shakespeare's Sonnet #30:
When to the sessions of sweet silent
thought
I summon up remembrance of things past
You can see he makes use of the "s" sound here.
Consonance is the same idea, but when you use the same
consonant sounds in the middle or the end of a word. Shakespeare's sonnet here
uses both assonance and consonance with the "s" sound:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past
Rhyme is when you use the same vowel sounds at the end of
a word. For example, here is part of a poem by Robert Frost:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Frost is rhyming with the
"o" sound in lines 1, 2, and 4.
Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables. For example, the stressed syllables below are in bold:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
This poem has a very regular rhyme, following an o-x
pattern throughout. Shakespeare's lines have a more complex rhythm:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past
In line 1, his rhythm follows an x-o-o pattern. Line 2 has
a rhythm of o-x-o-o-o-x-o-o-o-x.
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming in the poem. For
example:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near…
The rhyme scheme for the first verse (section) is A-A-B-A
and the second verse is connected by the use of the B rhyme on the "eer" sound.
A sonnet is generally considered the most elegant form of
English poetry. It is usually used for love poems. It was a form of poetry
borrowed from the Italians in the 1500s. The most famous writer of sonnets in
English is Shakespeare.
Sonnets are very difficult to write because they have so
many rules. You can see a complex discussion of the rules at http://www.sonnets.org/canon.htm
but in brief, a sonnet must have 14 lines, with the following rhyme scheme:
A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, G-G.
SONNET XVIII (This is one of the most famous of all the sonnets,
justifiably so.)
1. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2. Thou art more lovely and
more temperate:
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4. And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
7. And every fair from fair
sometime declines,
8. By chance, or nature's
changing course untrimmed:
9. But thy eternal summer
shall not fade,
10. Nor lose possession of
that fair thou ow'st,
11. Nor shall death brag
thou wander'st in his shade,
12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14. So long lives this, and
this gives life to thee.
Written in the Middle English of Shakespeare's time, the
sonnet would look like this:
SHall I compare thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more louely and
more temperate:
Rough windes do ſhake the darling buds of Maie,
And Sommers leaſe hath all too ſhorte
a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heauen
ſhines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,
And euery faire from faire
ſome-time declines,
By chance,or
natures changing courſe vntrim'd:
But thy eternall Sommer ſhall not fade,
Nor looſe poſſeſſion of that faire thou ow'ſt,
Nor ſhall death brag
thou wandr'ſt in his ſhade,
When in eternall lines to
time thou grow'ſt,
So long as men can breath or eyes can ſee,
So long liues this,and this giues
life to thee,
1. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
This is taken usually to mean 'What if I were to compare thee etc?' Comparisons of the loved one to
all the beautiful things in nature are very common in English.
2. Thou art more lovely and
more temperate:
The youth's beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a
summer day. more temperate - more
gentle, more restrained, whereas the summer's day might have violent storms or
a burning sun.
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
May is usually considered the most romantic and beautiful
month in English culture. "Darling buds of May"
- the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer; favorite flowers.
4. And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Legal terminology. The summer holds a lease on part
of the year, but the lease is too short, and has an early termination (date).
5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
Sometime = on occasion, sometimes;
the eye of heaven = the sun.
6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
his gold complexion = his (the sun's) golden face. It
would be dimmed by clouds and on overcast days generally.
7. And every fair from fair
sometime declines,
All beautiful things (every fair) occasionally
become inferior in comparison with their essential previous state of beauty (from
fair). They all decline from perfection.
8. By chance, or nature's
changing course untrimmed:
8. By chance accidents, or
by the fluctuating tides of nature, which are not subject to control, nature's
changing course untrimmed.
untrimmed - this can refer to the ballast
(bottom weight) on a ship which keeps it stable; or to a lack of ornament and
decoration.
nature's changing course could refer to women's monthly
cycle
9. But thy eternal summer
shall not fade,
Referring forwards to the eternity promised by the living
poet in the next few lines because of his poem.
10. Nor lose possession of
that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall it (your eternal summer) lose its hold on that
beauty which you so richly possess. ow'st = ownest, possess.
11. Nor shall death brag
thou wander'st in his shade,
Death won't take the lover, because this poem has made her
(him?) immortal.
12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
in eternal lines = in the undying lines of my
verse.
13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
For as long as humans live and breathe upon the earth, for
as long as there are seeing eyes on the earth.
14. So long lives this, and
this gives life to thee.
That is how long these verses will live, celebrating you,
and continually renewing your life. But one is left with a slight residual
feeling that perhaps the youth's beauty will last no longer than a summer's
day, despite the poet's proud boast.
|
|