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Reading Poetry

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... form of diction that expresses an idea in a harmonious and very compact way. the basic unit is the poetic line. ... A poem has meter if its rhythm is ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Reading Poetry


1
Reading Poetry
  • Poetry is a compressed form of diction that
    expresses an idea in a harmonious and very
    compact way.
  • the basic unit is the poetic line.
  • the poetic line is uniquely conscious of rhythm
    and, sometimes, rhyme.

2
Meter
  • The word meter comes from the Greek word for
    measure.
  • A poem has meter if its rhythm is structured
    into a recurrence of regular (that is,
    approximately equal) units.

3
Rhyme
  • Rhyme refers to the sound of the last stressed
    vowel of each line. Poetry can rhyme or not.
  • If a poem uses rhyme, you can identify the rhymes
    and come up with a rhyming pattern
  • Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
  • Old time is still a-flying
  • And this same flower that smiles today
  • Tomorrow will be dying.
  • The rhyme scheme here is abab. Notice each group
    of rhymes forms a stanza, which is demarcated
    both by its rhythmic and rhyming structure. This
    poem, Robert Herricks To the Virgins, is
    divided into quatrains that is, four lines of
    rhymed or unrhymed poetry.

4
Scansion
  • Every sentence has a natural series of stressed
    and unstressed syllables. Most people pay little
    or no attention to the sequence of stressed and
    unstressed syllables in their speaking and
    writing, but to a poet there is no more important
    element of a poem.
  • When we figure out where the stressed and
    unstressed syllables of a poetic line are found,
    we call it scansion
  • Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
  • Old time is still a-flying

5
Two Common Metrical Lines
  • Iambic an unstressed followed by a stressed
    syllable. This is considered the meter closest
    to that of ordinary speech.
  • Had we but world enough and time,
  • This coyness, lady, were no crime.
  • Trochaic a stressed followed by an unstressed
    syllable.
  • London bridge is falling down.
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