trimeter A three-stress line. A three-stress line.
triolet A closed French form of some sweetness. Or perhaps it's just the name. It rhymes A closed French form of some sweetness. Or perhaps it's just the name. It rhymes ABaAbbAB ABaAbbAB where where A A and and B B are are rentrements rentrements.
triple rhyme Tri-syllabic (usually dactylic) rhyme, Tri-syllabic (usually dactylic) rhyme, merited/inherited, eternal/infernal, merrier/terrier merited/inherited, eternal/infernal, merrier/terrier etc. etc.
triplet Three-line couplet, Three-line couplet, aaa aaa, bbb bbb etc. Augustan poets braced them in a curly bracket. etc. Augustan poets braced them in a curly bracket.
trochee A binary metrical unit of stressed and unstressed syllables: A binary metrical unit of stressed and unstressed syllables: .
trope Any rhetorical or poetic trick, device or figure of speech that changes the literal meaning of words. Any rhetorical or poetic trick, device or figure of speech that changes the literal meaning of words. Metaphor Metaphor and other common figures are tropes. and other common figures are tropes.
tumbling verse See See Skeltonics. Skeltonics.
turn Ben Jonson's word for a Ben Jonson's word for a strophe strophe.
twiner Term used by Walter de la Mare to describe a kind of double limerick form. Term used by Walter de la Mare to describe a kind of double limerick form.
ubi sunt Lit. 'where are they?' Poetic formula addressing something vanished: 'Where are the songs of Spring?' (Keats, 'Ode to Autumn'), Lit. 'where are they?' Poetic formula addressing something vanished: 'Where are the songs of Spring?' (Keats, 'Ode to Autumn'), 'Ou sont les neiges d'antan 'Ou sont les neiges d'antan? Where are the snows of yesteryear?' (Ballade by Francois Villon).
vatic A poetic prophecy. A poetic prophecy.
Venus and Adonis Stanza A six-line stanzaic form of iambic pentameter that takes its name from Shakespeare's A six-line stanzaic form of iambic pentameter that takes its name from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis Venus and Adonis. It rhymes ababcc ababcc. Wordsworth's 'Daffodils' etc.
vers libre French for free verse. French for free verse.
vignette In poetry, a delicate but precise scene or description. In poetry, a delicate but precise scene or description.
villanelle See section devoted to it in Chapter Three. See section devoted to it in Chapter Three.
virgule In metrics, the mark used for foot division. In metrics, the mark used for foot division.
volta The 'turn' marking the change of mood or thought between the (Petrarchan) sonnet's The 'turn' marking the change of mood or thought between the (Petrarchan) sonnet's octave octave and and sestet sestet q.q.v. q.q.v.
Vorticism Word coined by Pound for British phalanx of the modernist movement. Most often used to refer to work (in paint and verse) of Wyndham Lewis. They had their own fanzine Word coined by Pound for British phalanx of the modernist movement. Most often used to refer to work (in paint and verse) of Wyndham Lewis. They had their own fanzineBlast!. Rejection of sentimentality and verbal profusion. Rejection of sentimentality and verbal profusion.
waka Original Japanese verse from which Original Japanese verse from which haikai haikai and and haiku haiku descended. descended.
weak ending See See feminine ending feminine ending, but take no offence therefrom.
wrenched accent Sound and sense of words vitiated by the need for them to fit the metre. Sound and sense of words vitiated by the need for them to fit the metre.
wrenched rhyme A word forced out of its natural pronunciation by its need to rhyme. A word forced out of its natural pronunciation by its need to rhyme.
wretched rhyme Bad rhyme. Bad rhyme.
wretched sinner Me. Me.
zeugma Lit. 'yoking': 'she wore a Chanel dress and an expression of disappointment'. Essentially the same as Lit. 'yoking': 'she wore a Chanel dress and an expression of disappointment'. Essentially the same as syllepsis syllepsis q.v. The differences between them are trivial and undecided. q.v. The differences between them are trivial and undecided.
zymurgy Word that always tries to get into glossaries and dictionaries last but is often beaten by Word that always tries to get into glossaries and dictionaries last but is often beaten by zythum zythum, which, ironically perhaps, it helps create. Something to do with fermentation. More connected to Yeast than Yeats.
zythum Ancient Egyptian beer. Ancient Egyptian beer.
APPENDIX.
Arnaut's Algorithm The line-ends of the first stanza (A, B, C, D, E and F) are chosen for the second and subsequent stanzas according to a 'spiral' algorithm illustrated in Figure 1. It can be seen that the position and relative order of the line ending alters in a complex manner from stanza to stanza.
Figure 1: The 'spiral' algorithm Consider line-end A: it moves down one line for the second stanza and then down two lines for the third stanza, down one line again for the fourth stanza and so on. The algorithm can therefore be considered as the sequence of displacements from the starting position, namely, +1; +2; +1,2; +3;5. The last displacement returns the first line-end (A) from the last line of the last stanza to the starting position.
Defining the sequence of translations as a a we see that: we see that:
How do the other line-ends behave after six iterations? Well, consider the situation after the first iteration; line-end A now occupies the position previously occupied by line-end B. Now carry out six iterations, namely +2; +1;2; +3;5 and finally the first of the next cycle: +1. This sequence also sums to zero, meaning that the line-end returns to where it was. In general therefore we can say for all line ends in the first stanza corresponding to the position of line-end A after interation m m;
which proves that the entire set of line-ends returns to the original position and order after a full cycle of six iterations, or in other words a seventh stanza would be identical (in respect of line-ends) to the first.
Acknowledgements My thanks, as always, go to JO C CROCKER for running my life with such efficiency, understanding and good humour while I have been engaged upon this book. My publisher S for running my life with such efficiency, understanding and good humour while I have been engaged upon this book. My publisher SUE F FREESTONE has shown her usual blend of patience, kindness, enthusiasm and accommodation, as have A has shown her usual blend of patience, kindness, enthusiasm and accommodation, as have ANTHONY G GOFF and L and LORRAINE H HAMILTON, my literary and dramatic agents. Thanks to JO L LAURIE for her game guinea-piggery in reading early sections on metre and trying out some of the exercises, and to my father for his baffling but beautiful sestina algorithm. Especial gratitude must go to I for her game guinea-piggery in reading early sections on metre and trying out some of the exercises, and to my father for his baffling but beautiful sestina algorithm. Especial gratitude must go to IAN P PATTERSON, poet, Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Queens' College, Cambridge, for casting his learned and benevolent eye over the manuscriptall errors are mine, not his. I thank him also for allowing me to include his excellent centos and sestina. My thanks to his predecessors at Queens', Professors A. C. SPEARING and I and IAN W WRIGHT, and to PETER H HOLLAND of Trinity Hall, who between them did their doomed best to make a scholar of me during my time there. Aside from my mother, the person who most awoke me to poetry was R of Trinity Hall, who between them did their doomed best to make a scholar of me during my time there. Aside from my mother, the person who most awoke me to poetry was RORY S STUART, a remarkable teacher who has now retired to Italy. I send him my eternal thanks. If every schoolchild had been lucky enough to have a teacher like him, the world would be a better and happier place.
The author and publisher acknowledge use of lines from the following works: Simon Armitage, 'Poem', Kid Kid, Faber, 1999 W. H. Auden, 'Letter to Lord Byron, II', 'The Age of Anxiety', 'Meiosis', 'Precious Five', 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats', 'Letter to Lord Byron', 'Miss Gee', 'Lullaby', Collected Poems Collected Poems, ed. Edward Mendelson, Faber 1976, rev. 1991 Carolyn Beard Whitlow, 'Rockin' a Man Stone Blind', Wild Meat Wild Meat, Lost Roads Publishers, USA, 1986 John Betjeman, 'Death in Leamington', Collected Poems Collected Poems, John Murray, 2003 Elizabeth Bishop, 'Sestina', Complete Poems Complete Poems, ed. Tom Paulin, Chatto & Windus, 2004 Jorge Luis Borges, Haikus and Tanaka from Obras Completas Obras Completas (4 vols), Emece Editores, Buenos Aires, 2005 (4 vols), Emece Editores, Buenos Aires, 2005 Anthony Brode, 'Breakfast with Gerard Manley Hopkins', The New Oxford Book of Light Verse The New Oxford Book of Light Verse, ed. Kingsley Amis, OUP, 1978 Anne Carson, 'Eros The Bittersweet', Dalkey Archive Press, 1998 G. K. Chesterton, 'The Ballade of Suicide', The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton, Dodd Mead, 1980 Wendy Cope, 'Valentine', Serious Concerns Serious Concerns, Faber, 1992 'Engineer's Corner', Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis, Faber, 1986 Frances Cornford, 'Fat Lady Seen From A Train', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Enitharmon Press, 1996 Cummings, E. E., '1 (a', 'r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r', Selected Poems Selected Poems, Liveright Books, 1994 Elizabeth Daryush, 'Still Life', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Carcanet, 1972 Hilda Doolittle, 'Sea Poppies', Selected Poems Selected Poems, Carcanet, 1997 Norman Douglas, 'Wagtail' and Anacreontics from Norman Douglas: A Portrait Norman Douglas: A Portrait, Edizioni La Conchiglia, Capri, Italy, 2004 Marriott Edgar, The Lion and Albert The Lion and Albert, Methuen, 1978 T. S. Eliot, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', 'The Waste Land', Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot, Faber, 1969 Robert Frost, 'Spring Pools', 'The Death of the Hired Man', 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening', 'Mending Wall', The Poetry of Robert The Poetry of Robert Frost, Vintage, 2001 Thomas Hardy, 'The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the Loss of the Titanic)', 'The Lacking Sense', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Wordsworth Editions, 1994 Seamus Heaney, 'Blackberry Picking', 'From the Frontier of Writing', Opened Ground: Poems 196696 Opened Ground: Poems 196696, Faber, 1998 Michael Heller, 'She', Exigent Futures: New and Selected Poems Exigent Futures: New and Selected Poems, Salt Publishing, 2003 A. E. Housman, 'The Colour of his Hair', Collected Poems Collected Poems, ed. J. Sparrow, Penguin, 1995 Ted Hughes, 'Wilfred Owen's Photographs', 'Thistle', 'The Sluttiest Sheep in England', 'Eagle', Collected Poems Collected Poems, ed. Paul Keegan, Faber, 2003 Donald Justice, 'The Tourist from Syracuse', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Knopf, USA, 2004 Rudyard Kipling, 'Tommy', 'If', The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling, Wordsworth Editions, 1994 Carolyn Kizer, 'Parents' Pantoum', Copper Canyon Press, USA, 1996 Philip Larkin, 'An Arundel Tomb', 'Toads', 'For Sidney Bechet', 'The Trees', Collected Poems Collected Poems, ed. Anthony Thwaite, Faber, 2003 Derek Mahon, 'Antarctica', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Gallery Press, 1999 Marianne Moore, 'The Fish', The Poems of Marianne Moore The Poems of Marianne Moore, ed. Grace Schulman, Penguin, 2005 Ogden Nash, 'The Sniffle', Best of Ogden Nash Best of Ogden Nash, ed. Smith and Eberstadt, Methuen, 1985 Dorothy Parker, 'Rondeau Redouble (and Scarcely Worth the Trouble at That)', 'Ballade of Unfortunate Mammals', The Collected Dorothy Parker The Collected Dorothy Parker, Penguin, 2001 Ian Patterson, 'Sestina', Time to Get Here: Selected Poems 19692002 Time to Get Here: Selected Poems 19692002, Salt Publishing, 2003 'Shakespeare Cento' and 'A. E. Housman Cento' are previously unpublished and are reproduced with the author's permission Ezra Pound, 'In A Station of the Metro', 'The Sea Farer: from the Anglo Saxon', ABC of Reading ABC of Reading, Norton, 1960 'Apparuit', Personae: The Shorter Poems of Ezra Pound Personae: The Shorter Poems of Ezra Pound, Faber, 2001 Robert Service, 'Dangerous Dan McGrew', The Best of Robert Service The Best of Robert Service, A. & C. Black, 1995 (first English edition edited by Ernest Benn, 1978) 1960 Germaine Service Wallace Stevens, 'Le Monocle de Mon Oncle', The Complete Poems The Complete Poems, Vintage, 1990 Dylan Thomas, 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', 'In My Craft and Sullen Art', Collected Poems Collected Poems, Everyman Edition, Phoenix, 2000 R. S. Thomas, 'The Welsh Hill Country', Everyman Selected Poems of R. S. Thomas Everyman Selected Poems of R. S. Thomas, ed. Anthony Thwaite, J. M. Dent, 1996 W. B. Yeats, 'Among School Children', 'The Choice', 'Easter 1916', 'Sailing to Byzantium', 'When You Are Old', The Poems The Poems, ed. Richard Finneran, Macmillan, 1983 Benjamin Zephaniah, 'Talking Turkey', Talking Turkeys Talking Turkeys, Puffin Books, 1995
Further Reading
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 1993 edition, Preminger and Brogan, is, in my view, the standard work and final authority on all matters prosodic and poetical. Timothy Steel, Professor of English at Cal State, Los Angeles is one of the best living writers on metrics and I would recommend his two sprightly but deeply scholarly books Missing Measures Missing Measures and and All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing. Vladimir Nabokov's Notes on Prosody Notes on Prosody bears all the hallmarks of astuteness, clarity and cogent idiosyncrasy you would expect of the great manit is essentially an examination of tetrameter (iambic octosyllabics properly), with especial reference to Pushkin's bears all the hallmarks of astuteness, clarity and cogent idiosyncrasy you would expect of the great manit is essentially an examination of tetrameter (iambic octosyllabics properly), with especial reference to Pushkin's Eugene Onegin Eugene Onegin and you may find one gin is not enough... and you may find one gin is not enough...
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland contains excellent examples of many of the forms I have examined. I would also recommend John Lennard's student-orientated by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland contains excellent examples of many of the forms I have examined. I would also recommend John Lennard's student-orientated The Poetry Handbook, a Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism The Poetry Handbook, a Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism.
W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound wrote on poetry and poetics with great brilliance and knowledge: as illustrious practising poets, their (sometimes polemical) insights naturally have great authority. The most rewarding academics on the subject in my view are Christopher Ricks, Frank Kermode and Anne Barton. I also fall terribly eagerly on Terry Eagleton and with affectionate scepticism on old Harold Bloom whenever they publish.
Poets whose work showed and has shown particular interest in formal writing include Tennyson, Swinburne, Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Donald Justice, Richard Wilbur, Wendy Cope, J. V. Cunningham and Seamus Heaney. Between them they have written in many of the forms I concentrate on in Chapter Three.
The good old Internet naturally contains all kinds of information: I would be hesitant to recommend any single site as authoritative on matters prosodic, but poemhunter.com has 'Top 500' lists, which indicate fluctuations in popularity as well as offering online poetry for inspection and links to nearly a thousand other poetry-based sites.
1 Pitch Pitch matters matters, of course it does. It matters in speech and in poetry, but for the moment we will concentrate on stress
2 Unless otherwise stated, I use 'English' here and throughout the book to refer to the English Unless otherwise stated, I use 'English' here and throughout the book to refer to the English language language, not the country.
3 'Convenient and innocuous nomenclatorial handles,' as Vladimir Nabokov calls them in his 'Convenient and innocuous nomenclatorial handles,' as Vladimir Nabokov calls them in his Notes on Prosody Notes on Prosody.
4 He sat up without another word and split the rope in two with his axe. He sat up without another word and split the rope in two with his axe.
5 From From An Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism.
6 Caesuras have a more ordered and specific role to play in French verse, dramatic or otherwise. French poems, like their geometrically planned gardens, were laid out with much greater formality than ours. They are more like regular rests in musical bars. We need not worry about this formal use. Caesuras have a more ordered and specific role to play in French verse, dramatic or otherwise. French poems, like their geometrically planned gardens, were laid out with much greater formality than ours. They are more like regular rests in musical bars. We need not worry about this formal use.
7 Hence too, possibly, caesarean section, though some argue that this is named after Julius Caesar who was delivered that way. Others claim that this was why Julius was called Caesar in the first place, because he was from his mother's womb untimely ripped. We needn't worry about that, either. Incidentally, in America they are spelled 'cesura'. Hence too, possibly, caesarean section, though some argue that this is named after Julius Caesar who was delivered that way. Others claim that this was why Julius was called Caesar in the first place, because he was from his mother's womb untimely ripped. We needn't worry about that, either. Incidentally, in America they are spelled 'cesura'.
8 Wordsworth, sonnet: 'Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room. Wordsworth, sonnet: 'Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room.
9 There are metrists who would argue that there are more caesuras than that: there may be 'weak' breaks in some of the other lines, but my reading stands, so there. There are metrists who would argue that there are more caesuras than that: there may be 'weak' breaks in some of the other lines, but my reading stands, so there.
10 A A scholiast scholiast is an inkhorn or pedantic grammarian and a is an inkhorn or pedantic grammarian and a poetaster poetaster a tediously bad poet a tediously bad poetnot, as you might think, someone who samples the work of Edgar Allan Poe...
is a schwa schwa, that slack 'e' sound, the uh uh in in bigger bigger or or written written
12 T. Steele. T. Steele. All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing, Ohio University Press.
13 'Nature so spurs them on that people long to go on pilgrimages.' 'Nature so spurs them on that people long to go on pilgrimages.'
14 Milton, like many seventeenth-and eighteenth-century exponents of iambic pentameter, seemed very reluctant to use feminine endings, going so far as always to mark 'heaven' as the monosyllable 'heav'n' whenever it ended a line. Finding two hendecasyllables in a row in Milton, like many seventeenth-and eighteenth-century exponents of iambic pentameter, seemed very reluctant to use feminine endings, going so far as always to mark 'heaven' as the monosyllable 'heav'n' whenever it ended a line. Finding two hendecasyllables in a row in Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is like looking for a condom machine in the Vatican. is like looking for a condom machine in the Vatican.
15 Ditto: Pope took great pride in the decasyllabic nature of his rhyming couplets. This is one of only two feminine endings in the whole (over 1,500 line) poem, the other being a rhyme of 'silly' with 'Sir Billy': it seems it was acceptable to Pope so long as the rhyming words were proper names. Maybe here he hears Cowards as Cards and Howards as Hards... Ditto: Pope took great pride in the decasyllabic nature of his rhyming couplets. This is one of only two feminine endings in the whole (over 1,500 line) poem, the other being a rhyme of 'silly' with 'Sir Billy': it seems it was acceptable to Pope so long as the rhyming words were proper names. Maybe here he hears Cowards as Cards and Howards as Hards...
16 The Prelude Wordsworth's hero was, poetically and politically, Milton and W shows the same disdain for weak endings. I'm fairly convinced that for him 'being' is actually elided into the monosyllable 'beeng'! The Prelude Wordsworth's hero was, poetically and politically, Milton and W shows the same disdain for weak endings. I'm fairly convinced that for him 'being' is actually elided into the monosyllable 'beeng'!
17 Many prosodists would argue, as I have said earlier, that there is no such thing as a spondee in English verse, partly because no two contiguous syllables can be pronounced with absolute equal stress and partly because a spondee is really a description not of accent, but of Many prosodists would argue, as I have said earlier, that there is no such thing as a spondee in English verse, partly because no two contiguous syllables can be pronounced with absolute equal stress and partly because a spondee is really a description not of accent, but of vowel length vowel length, an entirely different concept, and one essentially alien to English prosody.
If you already know your feet and think that this is really an amphibrach, a dactyl and two iambs, I'm afraid I shall have to kill you.
19 When I wrote this, we had just lost the first Test against Australia and I was pessimistic... When I wrote this, we had just lost the first Test against Australia and I was pessimistic...
20 Named from a twelfth-century French poem, Le Roman d'Alexandre Le Roman d'Alexandre
21 After all, in French (as opposed to Spanish, say), a After all, in French (as opposed to Spanish, say), a diacritical mark diacritical mark (a written accent) is not about syllabic emphasis: (a written accent) is not about syllabic emphasis: ecole ecole is evenly stressed, the accent is just there to is evenly stressed, the accent is just there to modify modify the vowel sound, not impart extra stress to it. the vowel sound, not impart extra stress to it.
22 Dickinson's works remain untitled: the numbers refer to their order in the 1955 Harvard variorum edition. Dickinson's works remain untitled: the numbers refer to their order in the 1955 Harvard variorum edition.
23 At first attempt I mistyped that as 'A Robin Red breast in a Cafe', 'Makes Heaven go all daffy', I suppose... At first attempt I mistyped that as 'A Robin Red breast in a Cafe', 'Makes Heaven go all daffy', I suppose...
24 A common but metrically meaningless convention. A common but metrically meaningless convention.