VERSE FORMS
In putting words together the poet gives them a particular form or design. A poem,
therefore, must be built - before it can be felt by the reader or listener. The simplest unit
in its design is the foot, a group of two or three syllables. Ancient poetry had more than
twenty different types of feet, but most English verse consists of four kinds. In the order
of popularity, they are as follows: u=unstress '=stress
1. The iambic foot:u' This consists of a weak (or unstressed) syllable followed by a
strongly accented one. It is sometimes called the "skipping" foot: ta-dum, ta-dum. An
iambic foot is illustrated by such words as afraid, begin, hello, receive, because. The
following, by Robert Frost, is an iambic line of verse:
u
'
u
'
u
'
u
'
Whose woods / these are / I think /I know
2. The trochaic foot.'u This is the exact opposite of the iambic foot; it consists of a
strongly accented syllable followed by a weak (or unstressed) one. (' u) It is known as
the "marching" foot: dum-ta, dum-ta. A trochaic foot is illustrated by such words as
weary, willow, twi kle, flowing, silent. The following, by Longfellow, is an example of
trochaic verse:
'
u
' u
' u
' u
Then the / little / Hia / watha
3. The dactylic foot.'uu This consists of three syllables: a strongly stressed syllable
followed by two weak ones. It is a "waltzing" foot, and the rhythm is illustrated by such
words as fortunate, Saturday, daffodil, murmuring, rhapsody. The following, by
Thomas Hood, illustrates a dactylic line:
'
u
u
' u u
Take her up / tenderly
4. The anapestic foot.uu' This is another foot of three syllables. A "galloping" foot, it
begins with two rapid unaccented syllables and ends on a strong down-beat. The
anapest is illustrated by such words as interrupt, contradict, engineer, masquerade,
Galilee. The following, from Browning's "How They Brought the Good News from
Ghent to Aix," is an example of a speedy anapestic line:
u
u
'
u u '
u u
'
u
u
'
Till at length / into Aix / Roland gal / loped and stood.
THE METER
Feet are combined to make a line of poetry. The length, or measure, of a line is called
the meter. The shortest line of poetry contains only one foot (monometer); one of the
longest (octameter) consists of eight feet. Perhaps the best known is the five-foot line
(pentameter), usually with an iambic beat and therefore called iambic pentameter. It is
easily recognized in the plays of Shakespeare, the blank verse of John Milton, and the
unrhymed narratives of Robert Frost.
THE STANZA
Every poem has a pattern, and it is the line which determines the pattern. The foot is the
unit of the line; the measured line is the unit of the verse, or stanza; the stanza is the unit
that shapes the poem as a whole.
The shortest stanza is the couplet. As the name implies, it consists of two lines.
Sometimes a couplet may form a complete poem, as, for example, this German proverb:
Away with recipes in books!
Hunger is the best of cooks!
The three-line stanza is sometimes called a triplet, sometimes a tercet. Many poems are
written in this form, such as the Latin epigram:
Now I know everything! "so cries
The foolish youth. But when he sighs
Ali, I know nothing," he is wise.
Sometimes the three-line stanza is so arranged that the first and third line of each tercet
is rhymed, and the end-word of the second (unrhymed) line is carried over as the first
and third rhymes of the stanza following. This stanza form is known as terza rima
(literally "third rhyme").
The four-line stanza, or quatrain, is the most common of all verse forms. In its simplest
meter (the so-called ballad stanza) only the second and fourth lines are rhymed.
I asked the heaven of stars
What I should give my love It answered me with silence,
Silence above.
Usually, however, all the lines of the quatrain are rhymed; the first line is rhymed with
the third, the second with the fourth.
I do not know beneath what sky
Nor on what seas shall be thy fate;
I only know it shall be high,
I only know it shall be great.
Another form of the quatrain in which all the lines rhyme is composed of two couplets.
It rhymes in pairs (a-a-b-b)
He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
Another interesting quatrain form, also with all lines rhyming, is known as "enclosed
rhyme" (a-b-b-a); the first and last lines seem to bracket, or enclose, the inner pair of
rhymes.
When primroses are out in Spring,
And small blue violets come between;
When merry birds sing on boughs green,
And rills, as soon as born, must sing.
Less familiar are stanzas of five lines (cinquain or quintet), six lines (sestet), seven
lines, eight lines (octave), and nine lines. The last, used frequently by John Keats and
Byron, is at its best in the Spenserian stanza, so called because Spenser employed it so
smoothly in "The Faerie Queen." Longer stanzas are rare; but one of them, the sonnet,
has been immensely popular ever since it originated in Italy more than seven centuries
ago.
Other frequent quatrain rhyme schemes are abab, abba, and aaba.
Five- and six-line stanzas-the quintet and sestet-too, exist in a variety of both
line lengths and rhyme schemes. Among the more common rhyme schemes are
abccb, ababb, aabbb, aabcdd, ababab, and ababcc. Of seven-line stanzas-the
septet-the most favored is "rime royal," supposedly first used by King James I of
Scotland; in the hands of Geoffrey Chaucer, it became a superb vehicle for
narrative poetry. The lines are iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme is
ababbcc. The opening stanza of William Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece
supplies an example:
From the besieged Ardea all in post,
Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,
Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host
And to Collatium bears the lightless fire
Which, in pale embers hid, lurks to aspire
And girdle with embracing flames the waist
Of Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chaste.
As might be expected, eight-line stanzas-called octaves-also exist in a variety of
forms; among the more common rhyme schemes are abababab, ababccdd,
ababcdcd, aaabcccd, ababbcbc (the so-called Monk's Tale stanza because of its
use by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Monk's Tale in The Canterbury Tales). Ottava
rima introduced into England from Italy by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the sixteenth
century rhymes abababcc; it is effectively and amusingly used by Byron in Don
Juan:
But man is a carnivorous production,
And must have meals, at least one meal a day;
He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction,
But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey;
Although his anatomical construction
Bears vegetables, in a grumbling way,
Your labouring people think beyond all question
Beef, veal, and mutton, better for digestion.
The Rhyme Scheme
ANAPESTIC METER
Meter using a foot of three syllables, in which the accent falls on the third syllable.
BLANK VERSE
Any unrhyming verse (hence the name "blank"). Blank verse usually consists of lines of iambic
pentameter.
COUPLET
A pair of rhymed lines (of any specificable length or rhythm).
DACTYLIC METER
Meter using a foot of three syllables, in which the accent falls on the first syllable.
END RHYME
The near duplication of sounds that takes place at the ends of lines. End
rhyme is the most common type of rhyme.
EYE RHYME
Rhyme in which the ending of words are spelled alike; in most instances were
pronounced alike.
FOOT
Is the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables, which make up the
metric unit of a line. The most commonly used feet are as follows:
ANAPESTIC, DACTYLIC, IAMBIC, and TROCHAIC.
FREE VERSE
Refers to poetry that does not follow a prescribed form but is characterized
by the irregularity in the length of lines and the lack of a regular metrical
pattern and rhyme. Free verse may use other repetitive patterns instead (like
words, phrases, structures).
IAMBIC FOOT: Consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Meter using a
foot of two syllables, in which the accent falls on the second syllable.
INTERNAL RHYME
Involves rhyming sounds within the same line.
LINE
The sequence of words printed as a separate entity on the page.
METER
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables or the units of stress pattern.
METRIC LINE
A line named according to the number of feet composing it:
MONOMETER: one foot
DIMETER: two feet
TRIMETER: three feet
TETRAMETER: four feet
PENTAMETER: five feet
HEXAMETER: six feet
HEPTAMETER: seven feet
OCTAMETER: eight feet
OTTAVA RIMA
An Italian stanza form adapted to English as an eight-line stanza with the
rhyme scheme: a b a b a b c c
PARAPHRASE
The restatement of a poem using words that are different but as equivalent as
possible.
PERFECT RHYME
Rhyme in which the final accented vowels of the rhyming words and all
succeeding sounds are identical while preceding sounds are different. In
perfect rhyme, the correspondence of rhymed sounds is exact.
QUATRAIN
A four line stanza. Quatrains are most commonly seen in English verse.
QUINTET or QUINTAIN
A five line stanza.
RHYME
Refers to the repetition of similar sounds occurring at determined, or regular,
intervals .
RHYME ROYAL
A seven line, iambic pentameter stanza with the rhyme scheme a b a b b c c.
RHYME SCHEME
The pattern of rhymed words. Stanzas are often linked by their rhyme
scheme. Rhyme scheme is lacking in some modern poetry.
RHYTHM
A variable pattern in the beat of stresses in the stream of sound. Rhythm can
also be defined as the sense of movement attributable to the pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables. Although rhythm is sometimes used to
signify meter, it includes temp and the natural fluctuations of movement.
SCANSION
The systematic analysis of metrical patterns of stress, syllable by syllable,
sound unit by sound unit.
SESTET or SEXTAIN
A six line stanza.
STANZA
A group of lines which form a division of a poem. Stanzas are usually set off
from one another by a space. The distinguishing characteristics of stanzas
are the number of lines, the number of feet in each line and the rhyme
scheme. However, some unrhymed poems are divided into stanzas.
STRESS
A term applied to the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word. A synonym
for stress is "accent."
TRIPLET
A stanza of three lines usually with a single rhyme.
TROCHAIC METER
Meter using a foot of two syllables, in which the accent falls on the first syllable.
VERSE
Refers to either a single line of poetry or to metrical poetry in general.