Poetic Designs: An Introduction to Meters, Verse Forms, and Figures of Speech

252 Pages·1997·11.04 MB·English

by  Stephen Adams

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poetic designs
for review purposes only.
an introduction to
meters
verse forms
and figures of speech
Review Copy
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poetic designs
an introduction to
meters
verse forms
and figures of speech
Stephen j. adams
broadview press
Review Copy
© 1997 Stephen J. Adams
Reprinted 2003
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Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5—is an infringement of the copyright law.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Adams, Stephen, 1945-
Poetic designs: an introduction to meters, verse
forms, and figures of speech
Includes index.
ISBN 1-55111-129-2
1. English language Versification. 2. Poetics. I. Title.
PE1505.A32 1997 821.009 C97-930475-X
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For Ruth
Review Copy
Verse, as a form, is artificial. Poetry is not a form, but rather a result.
—Amiri Baraka
There is no escape from meter; there is only mastery.
-T.S. Eliot
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Contents
Acknowledgements
1 Meter and Rhythm 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROSODY 1 The Sound of Meter 2 Different
Metrical Systems and Their Histories 3 The Meaning of Meter 9
THE ACCENTUAL-SYLLABIC SYSTEM 10 The Regular Iambic Pentameter Line 14
Variation 1: Reversal of Accent (Trochaic Substitution) 15 Variation 2;
The Principle of Relative Accent (Spondaic and Pyrrhic Substitution) 18
Variation 3: Added Syllables (Anapestic and Dactylic Substitution) 22
Variation 4: Omitted Syllables 25 SYNTACTIC RHYTHM AND THE
LINE UNIT 26 Rhyme, Alliteration, Assonance and Onomatopoeia 30
Facility 35
2 Beyond Iambic Pentameter 37
ACCENTUAL METERS AND THE BALLAD STANZA 37 The Accentual Meters 43
THE LONGER AND SHORTER IAMBIC METERS 50 The Trochaic Meters 55
The Triple Meters: Anapestic and Dactylic 61 SYLLABIC AND
QUANTITATIVE SYSTEMS 64
3 Stanza and Form 71
THE DYNAMICS OF STANZA AND FORM: RHYME, LINE AND CLOSURE 71
Some Standard English Stanzas 76 Beyond the Single Stanza 82
Some Virtuoso Pieces 84 SOME STANDARD VERSE FORMS: FIXED AND NOT
SO FIXED: The Sonnet 88 The French Forms 92 The Ode 101
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viii Contents
4 Figures of Speech 105
RHETORIC AND FIGURE 105 THE SCHEMES: Figures of Balance and
Parallelism 108 Figures of Repetition 113 Figures of Amplification
and Omission 777 Figures of Address 723 Figures of Syntactic Deviation 72/
Figures of Verbal Play 737 THE TROPES 732 Metaphor and Simile 733
Metonymy and Synecdoche 737 Personification 140 Irony and Paradox 747
5 Form in Free Verse 149
Lines: The Master Convention of Free Verse 752 Numbers: Metrical
Presences in Free Verse 767 Figures: Syntactic Patterning in
Free Verse 779 THE MARGINS OF GENRE: Shaped Poetry, Concrete Poetry,
Sound Poetry 188 The Prose Poem 795
- Appendix 1: The Terminology of Rhyming 799
Appendix 2: Sample Scansions, with Commentary 203
Index of Sources 219
Index of Names and Terms 231
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Acknowledgements
Many individuals have contributed expert advice and encouragement to this pro-
ject. Without implicating any of them in the shortcomings of my book, I thank my
colleagues at the University of Western Ontario, especially Peter Auksi, James
Crimmins, Patrick Deane, Stan Dragland, Minnette Gaudet, Allan Gedalof, Alison
Lee, Michael O'Driscoll, Richard Stingle, Jane Toswell, and Nicholas Watson.
Beyond Western, I have benefitted from the acute critiques of Annie Finch,
Don McKay, Theodore J. Sherman, and Demetres Tryphonopoulos, and a mem-
orable day of conversation with Marjorie Perloff.
In another sort of community, I have gleaned much material from several who
might be surprised to find their names here—especially Michel Delville, David
Rothman, Thomas Kirby-Smith, and Steven Willett—whose e-mail postings and
exchanges over the past year have been a source of insight and exhilaration.
For technical assistance within the university, I am grateful to James Good,
for time and support in the office of the Dean of Arts, as well as Connie Mabb,
Lynn Larmour, and above all, Elly Pakalnis.
At Broadview, I am supremely grateful to Terry Teskey, for her patient edit-
ing, and for coping with the vagaries of scansion by word processor; to Anne
Hodgetts for cover design; to Michael Harrison for his faith in this project; and
to Don LePan, president of Broadview Press, for his generosity. This last repeats
a debt of gratitude I owe Don LePan's father, Douglas LePan, for support and
many kindnesses when I was a graduate student.
Sincere efforts have been made to contact the copyright holders of all quoted
material; the publisher and author would be grateful for any information regard-
ing errors or omissions so that any such oversights may be corrected.
AUDEN, W.H.: Excerpts from "O Where Are You Going," "Heavy Date," and "In Memory of W.B.
Yeats" from Collected Poems by W.H. Auden, copyright © 1934, 1940, 1940 and renewed 1962,
1968,1973 by W.H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Random House Inc., and by Faber and Faber.
BERRYMAN, JOHN: Excerpt from "Henry's Pelt" from The Dream Songs by John Berry man. Copyright
© by John Berryman. By permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.