Basic
Elements of Poetry
1.Prosody
– Prosody means all the principles of poetry writing such as metre, rhythm,
rhyme and stanza forms.
a. Metre
: Metre is a Greek word meaning “metron” or measure. Metre means stressed and
unstressed syllables in verse. Example: iambic (unstressed followed by
stressed), trochaic (stressed followed by unstressed), anapestic, dactylic and
spondee depending upon the number of feet. They are monometer (one feet),
dimeter (two), trimester (three), tetrameter (four), pentameter (five),
hexameter (six), heptameter (seven), Octameter (eight).
b.
Rhythm: Rhythm is also a Greek word meaning “flowing”. This flowing is made
possible by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllable. This flowing
is possible in both verse and prose. According to Plato rhythm is the regular
flow of verse. Rhythm is the actual sound that comes from a line of stressed
and unstressed syllable in a line.
c. Rhyme:
It is the similarity of sound at the end of every line. The structure of a
syllable is represented as CVC which means the initial consonant or consonant
cluster (C), and V is the vowel sound
and final C is the final consonant cluster.
CVC means (alliteration), (assonance) and (consonance).
There
are three types of rhymes. They are Hard
rhyme, Soft rhyme, and Internal rhyme.
Hard
Rhyme: The final accented vowel and all following consonants or syllables are
similar. Eg. Time, lime, crime, dime.
Soft
Rhyme: Last consonant is the same but not the vowel Eg. Soft, waft.
Internal
Rhyme: Rhyme is made in different words in the same line of the poem. Eg. After
school, I take a dip in the pool, which is really on the wall.
2. Alliteration. It is a Latin word meaning
repeating and playing upon the same letter. Alliteration is a figure of speech
and it is the repetition of an initial consonant or consonant cluster in
stressed syllables. Ex. She sells
seashells by the seashore. “Dull
sublunary lovers’ love” ( John Donne)
3.
Assonance: Assonance is also a figure of speech widely used by poets. It is a
Latin word “answering with the same sound”.
Assonance is made when two or more words repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant
sounds. Eg. “Men sell the wedding bells”. “Whose soul is sense- cannot admit of
absence” (John Donne).
4.
Diction: Diction means the vocabulary
used by a writer. The diction used by a poet is quite different from the
diction used by a novelist or a dramatist. Different kinds of vocabulary are
used in different genres of poetry. For example the vocabulary used by a
satirist poet like Alexander Pope or W. H. Auden is quite different from the
vocabulary used by William Wordsworth who is a Romantic poet.
4. Figures of Speech
a. Simile : A comparison between two different things
indicated by the word ‘like’ or ‘as’
Ex. “O my love’s like a red rose, red
rose” - (Robert Burns),
‘My dear, you are like a blue lotus
to me’.
b.
Metaphor: A comparison between two different things directly without the
usage of ‘like’ or
‘as’.
Ex. You are my red rose. ‘All
the world’s a stage, and all the men
and women mere
Players’ -( William Shakespeare)
c.
Personification: It is a figure
of speech that ascribes human qualities to that which is
non-human. Ex. ‘Because I could not stop for Death
–
He
kindly stopped for me’ - Emily
Dickinson
‘Can Honour’s voice provoke the
silent dust,
Or Flattery sooth the dull cold
ear of Death? - Thomas Grey
d.
Oxymoron: It is a figure of speech that brings together opposite or
contradictory terms
Ex. Sweet sorrow
Why,
then, O brawling love! O loving hate
O heavy
lightness, serious vanity,
e.
Metonymy: It is also a figure of speech. One thing is applied to another
because of a recurrent
relation in common experience Ex. The crown or the scepter is used for the
term ‘King’.
Hollywood for film industry. Kolliwood for
film industry in Tamilnadu. ‘ But now my oat proceeds,
And listens to the Herald of the Sea’ –
Lycidas ( John Milton)
f. Synecdoche is also a figure of speech. It is
similar to Metonymy. A part of something
need to
signify the whole. Ex. We use the term ‘ten
hands’ for ten workers. A hundred sails
for ships and
two wheelers for motor bike and four wheelers for cars.
“ This is flesh I’m talking about here.
Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest and to
Dance; backs that need support; shoulders
that need arms, strong arms I’m telling you.”
Here
Flesh, feet, backs, shoulders and arms
indicate human beings.
g. Transferred Epithet is a figure of speech. Here the adjective is transferred from the
noun to
another noun in the sentence. Ex. I had a hot cup of tea. John had a sleepless night.
“The ploughman homeward plods his weary
way” (Thomas Gray – Elegy)
kjt/-25-03-2020