Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 08, 2013 | #1
Poetic Terms You Have to Learn
Many people who first read Shakespeare believe, for one reason or another, that his plays are written in prose. There could be many reasons for this, including the fact that almost all modern drama, in all the forms it takes (theatre, television, film, etc.) is composed in prose forms, usually highly reflective of contemporary speech. Another might be the fact that Shakespeare's characters speak in a type of English unfamiliar to modern audiences, and so they assume that people of the time talked like Shakespeare says they do in his plays; and while Shakespeare did well to capture many of the cadences of common speech in his day, people did not speak as he has them speaking. Believe it or not, almost every line of Shakespearian verse is written in a poetic form known as blank verse, which is poetry composed without rhyme but with a regular metrical arrangement.
The most common type of blank verse, and indeed what is understood by default when the term blank verse is used, is iambic pentameter, which describes a line containing five feet, with stresses on every second syllable beginning with the second. The following lines are composed in blank verse:
The dreams of lonely vagrants drift beyond
Abnormal bounds, without committing sin;
Perversion warms the limbs and frozen hearts.
Analyzing these lines more closely, we can see that each one contains ten syllables, and that each follows a regular stress pattern; try reading each line aloud, and you will find yourself falling into a lilting rhythm. Taking the first line, we can see it scans as follows, with stressed syllables in bold: "The dreams of lonely vagrants drift beyond." This divides neatly into five perfectly regular two-syllable feet, arranged in a - / (unstressed, stressed) pattern, which is the very definition of iambic pentameter. Looking at the lines taken together, we can see that the rhythm is not supported by any kind of consistent rhyming pattern (known as a rhyme scheme), and so these lines are a fine example of blank verse,
Although Shakespeare is the greatest practitioner of this form, he did not invent it, and he is not even the first to have used it in drama. Blank verse in English letters originates with Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who used it in his translation of the Aeneid, Virgil's famous epic poem, composed originally in Latin. The first people to bring this new form to the stage was Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville in their play Gorboduc written in 1561, and soon after this blank verse became the standard poetic form for both dramatic and purely poetic works. Blank verse enjoyed a long, successful life in the spotlight of English literature, remaining popular through the Victorian Period, and even into the early-mid 20th Century, with influential figures like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden continuing to employ the form with interesting divergences. The form's popularity has dwindled since the 1960's with free verse rising greatly in prominence and importance, greatly diminishing the influence of all metrical forms. However, even contemporary poets sometimes turn to this well established and highly efficient verse form, proving that while literary tastes may change, some aspects of verse will always retain a place in the poetic consciousness of a given language.
Blank Verse
Many people who first read Shakespeare believe, for one reason or another, that his plays are written in prose. There could be many reasons for this, including the fact that almost all modern drama, in all the forms it takes (theatre, television, film, etc.) is composed in prose forms, usually highly reflective of contemporary speech. Another might be the fact that Shakespeare's characters speak in a type of English unfamiliar to modern audiences, and so they assume that people of the time talked like Shakespeare says they do in his plays; and while Shakespeare did well to capture many of the cadences of common speech in his day, people did not speak as he has them speaking. Believe it or not, almost every line of Shakespearian verse is written in a poetic form known as blank verse, which is poetry composed without rhyme but with a regular metrical arrangement.
The most common type of blank verse, and indeed what is understood by default when the term blank verse is used, is iambic pentameter, which describes a line containing five feet, with stresses on every second syllable beginning with the second. The following lines are composed in blank verse:The dreams of lonely vagrants drift beyond
Abnormal bounds, without committing sin;
Perversion warms the limbs and frozen hearts.
Analyzing these lines more closely, we can see that each one contains ten syllables, and that each follows a regular stress pattern; try reading each line aloud, and you will find yourself falling into a lilting rhythm. Taking the first line, we can see it scans as follows, with stressed syllables in bold: "The dreams of lonely vagrants drift beyond." This divides neatly into five perfectly regular two-syllable feet, arranged in a - / (unstressed, stressed) pattern, which is the very definition of iambic pentameter. Looking at the lines taken together, we can see that the rhythm is not supported by any kind of consistent rhyming pattern (known as a rhyme scheme), and so these lines are a fine example of blank verse,
Although Shakespeare is the greatest practitioner of this form, he did not invent it, and he is not even the first to have used it in drama. Blank verse in English letters originates with Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who used it in his translation of the Aeneid, Virgil's famous epic poem, composed originally in Latin. The first people to bring this new form to the stage was Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville in their play Gorboduc written in 1561, and soon after this blank verse became the standard poetic form for both dramatic and purely poetic works. Blank verse enjoyed a long, successful life in the spotlight of English literature, remaining popular through the Victorian Period, and even into the early-mid 20th Century, with influential figures like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden continuing to employ the form with interesting divergences. The form's popularity has dwindled since the 1960's with free verse rising greatly in prominence and importance, greatly diminishing the influence of all metrical forms. However, even contemporary poets sometimes turn to this well established and highly efficient verse form, proving that while literary tastes may change, some aspects of verse will always retain a place in the poetic consciousness of a given language.