The following supplementary is designed to be a small and quick guide to reading and writing poetry from a purely technical point of view. The artistry we will leave to the poet, but the poetic terms, tools and devices, are all things we should be more aware of when considering poetry critically. Without at least some working knowledge of these things, we will read poetry as though blind, hear poetry as though deaf and create poetry as though dumb. Like any language, if we disregard the grammar, we soon lose structure which will in turn inhibit or destroy meaning.
This supplementary is a general guide to poetry and not exclusively for Australian Great War Poetry. The rules and concepts here are rules and concepts which apply to all poetry (certainly English poetry), but we may definitely apply these rules and concepts to Australian Great War Poetry. The supplementary is thus written to help all students of poetry, but also those readers of Australian Great War Poetry.
In order then to keep this supplementary as concise as possible, it will comprise of brief explanations under each of the main headings. The headings are as follows: feet, genders, meters, stanzas, rhyming scheme, devices and types of poem.
This paper is a supplementary to an article called, “Walking in the Foot Prints of Australian Great War Poetry”, which can be found on: https://dpgsheridan.wixsite.com/agwp/home/walking-in-the-foot-prints-of-australian-great-war-poetry
Feet
The unit of metre referred to as a ‘foot’ is made up of different combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables, called, macron (ictus) and breve (nonictus). The Macron, or Ictus, is a stressed syllable in rhythmic scansion. The Breve, or Nonictus, is an unstressed syllable in rhythmic scansion. The macron, or ictus, is marked in poetic technical form by the sign ‘/’ whereas the breve, or nonictus, is marked by the sign ‘u’. So, an example of a foot could look like: ‘u /’ (unstressed followed by stressed) which is an iamb foot.
The English word “foot” is a translation of the Latin term pes, plural pedes, which in turn is a translation of the Ancient Greek ποῦς, pl. πόδες. The Ancient Greek prosodists, who invented this terminology, specified that a foot must have both an arsis and a thesis, that is, a place where the foot was raised (arsis) and where it was put down (thesis) in beating time or in marching or dancing. So, we might recognise that the iamb example above – ‘u /’ – would read as (arsis thesis). Another example, say, ‘anapest’, which looks like ‘u u /’, would read as (arsis arsis thesis).
In some kinds of metre, such as the Greek iambic trimester, two feet are combined into a larger unit called a metron (pl. metra) or dipody. This is perhaps not so common in English poetry, but it is still possible to use, and can create more complex forms of the foot.
Below are listed the names given to the poetic feet by classical metrics. The feet are classified first by the number of syllables in the foot (disyllables have two, trisyllables three, and tetrasyllables four) and secondarily by the pattern of vowel lengths (in classical languages) or syllable stresses (in English poetry) which they comprise.
The following lists describe the feet in terms of vowel length (as in classical languages). Translated into syllable stresses (as in English poetry), ‘long’ becomes ‘stressed’ (‘accented’), and ‘short’ becomes ‘unstressed’ (‘unaccented’). For example, an iamb, which is short-long in classical meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the English word “betray”.
Disyllables
1. / / spondee (masculine)
2. u u pyrrhus (feminine)
3. / u trochee (feminine)
4. u / iamb (masculine)
Trisyllables
1. / / / molossus (masculine)
2. u u u tribrach (feminine)
3. / / u antibacchius (feminine)
4. / u u daktyl (feminine)
5. u u / anapest (masculine)
6. u / / bacchius (masculine)
7. / u / cretic (masculine)
8. u / u amphilbrach (feminine)
Tetrasyllables
1. u u u u tetrabrach, proceleusmatic (feminine)
2. / u u u primus paeon (feminine)
3. u / u u secundus paeon (feminine)
4. u u / u tertius paeon (feminine)
5. u u u / quartus paeon (masculine)
6. / / u u major ionic, double trochee (feminine)
7. u u / / minor ionic, double iamb (masculine)
8. / u / u ditrochee (feminine)
9. u / u / diiamb (masculine)
10. / u u / choriamb (masculine)
11. u / / u antispast (feminine)
12. u / / / first epitrite (masculine)
13. / u / / second epitrite (masculine)
14. / / u / third epitrite (masculine)
15. / / / u fourth epitrite (feminine)
16. / / / / dispondee (masculine)
Genders
The different feet are either masculine or feminine. The masculine feet end with a macron, or stressed syllable [/], whereas the feminine feet end with a breve, or unstressed syllable [u]. To see the gender of each foot, refer to the table above.
Meters
Metre is from the Greek word for measuring; at its most basic, metre is a system of describing what we can measure about the audible features of a poem. The systems that have been used in history to structure metres are: the number of syllables (syllabic); the duration of syllables (quantitative); the number of stressed syllables, or accents (accentual); and combinations of the above. English is not a language that works easily in quantitative metre (although this has not stopped people trying), and it has developed an accentual-syllabic metre for its formal verse. This means that, in a formal poem, the poet will be counting the syllables, the stresses, and keeping them to a pattern.
Lines of less than 3 or more than 6 feet are rare in formal poems. However, to describe the pattern, the stressed and unstressed syllables are gathered into groups known as feet, as we have seen above, and the number of feet to a line gives a name thus:
Types of meter Syllables per line
1. monometer . 1 foot Monosyllabic
2. dimeter . 2 feet Disyllabic
3. trimester . 3 feet Trisyllabic
4. tetrameter . 4 feet Tetrasyllabic
5. pentameter . 5 feet Pentasyllabic
6. hexameter . 6 feet Hexasyllabic
7. heptameter . 7 feet Heptasyllabic
8. octameter . 8 feet Octasyllabic
The pattern of the syllables within a foot is also noted. A foot that is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, for example, is an iamb; three of these in a row would be an iambic trimester, while five make the famous iambic pentameter.
Like the rhythm in a piece of music, the metre is an underlying structure. Poets often slip in extra feet, or remove them, or change stress patterns around to prevent monotony, like playing rubato (the temporary disregarding of strict tempo to allow an expressive quickening or slackening, usually without altering the overall pace). Sometimes a poem seems to be exploring how far a line can be pushed without losing all connection with the underlying metre. This means that the discovery of a foot other than an iamb in the middle of what is otherwise iambic, say, does not stop the poem from being iambic; rather the attention ends up lingering at that point, so the word on the different foot ends up more powerful as it has the attention longer. An example of this can be found in Peter Dale’s ‘Half-Light’; he writes “I’m trying not to give another glance. / Lit window thirty years back up that path.” The first line is a perfectly regular iambic pentameter, but the second introduces an extra stress on “Lit”, so that what the speaker’s trying not to be drawn to seems more powerful, perhaps helping us empathise with him when he does look back and “catch her eye an instant”.
Stanzas
In order the poet to employ poetic devices effectively, there must be an overall structure which keeps everything connected and organised in a way which allows the reader to instantly recognise the structure, while assisting the poem to enable all of the other poetic devices. To this end, the poet will employ stanzas. The use of stanzas is quite important, because a stanza is something like a framework, or scaffolding for the poem to hang on. Stanza forms can be classified by the number of lines they employ. Ascending from two to eight, stanzas can form a couplet, triplet, quatrain, quintet, hexastich, heptastich and octave. All of these types of stanza create both visual and audial structures for the written and spoken poem respectively. So, looking back, we could have a poem made up, for example, or iambic pentameter quatrains.
Stanza forms can be classified by the number of lines they employ:
1. -
2. Couplet
3. Triplet
4. Quatrain
5. Quintet / Quinquain / Quintain
6. Hexastich
7. Heptastich
8. Octave
Rhyming Scheme
While it is true that not all poems rhyme, or even need to, but rhyming schemes can strongly affect the poem’s impact on the reader, as the aesthetic acoustics of rhyming sounds has a far more lasting impression on the mind’s ear than does prosaic sound forms. Most commonly, rhymes occur at the end of the line, which rhymes with the last word of the previous line, as in the case of couplets, but rhyming schemes can also occur in other ways, such as in a quatrain A,B,A,B, or A,B,B,A or A,A,B,B. Other, more complicated rhyming schemes can incorporate inter-line rhyming. For example, (A,A) B (C,C) B. The combinations are many, and old Irish poetry will show how rhyming schemes can incorporate extremely complicated rhyming schemes, for example, the second last syllable in the stanza might rhyme with the fifth syllable of the next stanza, and so on. The complex system is something possibly lost to modern study, but it does show that various combinations of the rhyming scheme can drive the rhythm and pulse of the poem.
When we look at classical sonnets, we might recognise two distinct rhyming schemes, the Italian, or Petrarchan, and the English, or Shakespearean. Both are basically made up of an Octave and a Hexastich.
Italian English
A,B,B,A A,B,A,B
A,B,B,A C,D,C,D
C,D,E (or C,D,C) E,F,E,F
C,D,E (or D,C,D) G,G
Devices
What follows is only a small selection of the many poetic devices, however, once you understand something more about their existence, you will be able to search the internet for more. The effective use of these poetic devices, like anything, takes practice, both in the writing and the reading processes. It is a good idea to take some poem and look for these devices so that you will be able to recognise them more readily. This will help enhance your reading and give you better access to the poet’s meaning.
Caesuras: Everyone speaks, and everyone breathes while speaking. For instance, when you say, “Maria has taken a break,” you take a breath before further saying, “But Adam did not.” Then again you take a little breath and say, “He fell on his ankle.” Such pauses come from natural rhythm of your speech. Poetry also uses pauses in its lines. One such pause is known as “caesura,” which is a rhythmical pause in a poetic line or a sentence. It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end. At times, it occurs with punctuation; at other times it does not. Poets indicate such a pause with a parallel symbol thus: ||. Caesura can be medial (occurring in the middle of line), initial (occurring at the beginning of poetic line), or terminal (occurring at the end of a poetic line).
Enjambment: Enjambment, derived from the French word enjambment, means to step over, or put legs across. In poetry it means moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or sense, phrase or clause, in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break, but moves over to the next line. In simple words, it is the running on of a sense from one couplet or line to the next without a major pause or syntactical break.
Elision: An elision is the removal of an unstressed syllable, consonants, or letters from a word or phrase, for the purpose of decreasing the number of letters or syllables when mixing words together. The missing letter is replaced by an apostrophe. Generally, the middle or end letter or syllable is eliminated, or two words are blended together, and an apostrophe is inserted.
Alliteration: Alliteration is a commonly used style of figurative language that most people don’t even realize they are using. The word “alliteration” comes from the Latin word latira, which means “letters of the alphabet.” This may be because alliteration deals directly with the letters that comprise a phrase, and the sounds the words make, instead of the words themselves. It is characterized by a number of words, typically three or more, that have the same first consonant sound within the same sentence or phrase.
Assonance: Assonance takes place when two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start with different consonant sounds.
Ellipsis: Ellipsis is a literary device that is used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is usually written between the sentences as a series of three dots, like this: “…”
Metaphor: A Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.
In simple English, when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically. The following phrase is an example of metaphor, “My brother is the black sheep of the family,” because he is neither a sheep nor is he black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal, which typically stays away from the herd, and the person being described shares similar characteristics.
Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as.” Therefore, it is a direct comparison.
We can find simile examples in our daily speech. We often hear comments like, “John is as slow as a snail.” Snails are notorious for their slow pace, and here the slowness of John is compared to that of a snail. The use of “as” in the example helps to draw the resemblance. Now we know the definition of simile, let’s look at some examples of common similes.
Metonymy: Metonymy is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. We can come across examples of metonymy both from literature and in everyday life.
Synecdoche: Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole, or it may use a whole to represent a part. Synecdoche may also use larger groups to refer to smaller groups, or vice versa. It may also call a thing by the name of the material it is made of, or it may refer to a thing in a container or packaging by the name of that container or packing.
Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia, pronounced on-uh-mat-uh–pee–uh, is defined as a word which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting.
Types of Poem
There are many types of poem we can consider, but the list is really very exhaustive, so it would serve this supplementary to poetic terms to include a few so that we might, as with the devices, feel better equipped to search the internet for others.
Allegory: A poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Ballad: A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next.
Blank verse: Verse without rhyme, especially that which uses iambic pentameters.
Elegy: A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Epic: A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation.
Epitaph: An epitaph is an inscription or written tribute in memory of a person on a tombstone or in a piece of literature. An example of an epitaph is a loving poem written about a deceased friend.
Free verse: Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular rhythm.
Limerick: A humorous five-line poem with a rhyme scheme aabba.
Lyric: Expressing the writer's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms.
Narrative: Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. ... Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls, and lays.
Ode: A lyric poem, typically one in the form of an address to a particular subject, written in varied or irregular metre. A classical poem of a kind originally meant to be sung.
Pastoral: One of the poetic favourites is pastoral poetry because it elicits such wonderful senses of peace and harmony.
Refrain: A verse, a line, a set, or a group of lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections. It originated in France, where it is popular as, refraindre, which means “to repeat.” Refrain is a poetic device that repeats, at regular intervals, in different stanzas.
Sonnet: A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line
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