Versification Techniques part 1

Introduction

Sound is one of the most pleasing features in a poem along with rhythm; it constitutes the foundation of the musical quality that associated with poetry as a form of literature. When effectively deployed in a poem, sound effects enable the reader to achieve a state of mind in which he can more readily appreciate the emotions and meanings conveyed in the poem by the writer. The poet employs Sound devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme...etc., to place desired emphasis on particular words as well as achieve specific emotions or sensations in his work

1.Rhythm and Meter

Meter is poetry’s rhythm, or its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, according to Attridge it refers to “a series of alternations of build-up and release, movement and counter-movement, tending toward regularity but complicated by constant variations and local inflections.” (1995: 3).  Rhythm is significant because poets “invite” the readers to change speeds while reading—to slow down and linger or pass rapidly over some words and sounds or to give more or less vocal stress or emphasis on certain syllables.

English poetry employs five basic rhythms of varying stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. The meters are iambs, trochees, spondees, anapests and dactyls (Bold marks indicate stressed or unstressed syllables.)

2. Type of Metric Foot  Accent/Stress  Example

Iambic             unstressed-stressed                            bal-loon

Trochaic          stressed-unstressed                            so-da

Anapestic        unstressed-unstressed-stressed           con-tra-dict

Dactyllic         stressed-unstressed-unstressed           ma-ni-ac

Spondaic        stressed-stressed                               man-made

 Metrical units are the building blocks of lines of verse; lines are named according to the number of feet they contain:

  Number of Metric Feet   Type of Line

  one foot ....................................................monometer

  two feet  ...................................................dimeter

  three feet ..................................................trimeter

  four feet....................................................tetrameter

  five feet ....................................................pentameter

  six feet......................................................hexameter

  seven feet .................................................heptameter 

  eight feet ..................................................octometer (rare)

Scansion is the analysis of these mechanical elements within a poem to determine meter. Feet are marked off with slashes (/) and accented appropriately (stress, unstress). Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is scanned here:

Be-cause / I could / not stop / for Death

He kind- / ly stopped / for me

The Car- / riage held / but just / our-selves

And Im- / mor-tal- / i-ty.

The feet in these lines are iambic. The first and third lines have four feet and can be identified as iambic tetrameter. The second and fourth lines, with three feet each, are iambic trimeter. Therefore, the basic meter is iambic tetrameter.