A+Guide+to+the+Theory+of+Poetry诗歌理论

A Guide to the Theory of Poetry A Guide to the Theory of Poetry Manfred Jahn Full reference: Jahn, Manfred. 2002. A Guide to the Theory of Poetry. Part I of Poems, Plays, and Prose: A Guide to the Theory of Literary Genres. English Department, University of Cologne. Version: 1.7. Date: August 2, 2003 This page: http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/pppp.htm Project introductory page: http://www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/ppp.htm To facilitate global indexing, all paragraphs in this section are prefixed 'P' for 'poetry'. If you quote from this document, use paragraph references (e.g., P2.1) rather than page numbers. Contents P1.   Rhythm and Meter P2.   Rhyme, verse sequence, stanza P3.   Semantic analysis of poetry P4.   Minima Rhetorica P5.   An interpretation of Robert Graves, "Flying Crooked" (1938) P6.   Poetry websites P7.   References P1. Rhythm and Meter P1.1. Poetry vs prose. Give us a concise definition of poetry. Can't think of one off the cuff? Well, admittedly, it is always difficult to define a phenomenon in isolation. Asked in this manner, the question has little direction or purpose. So let me rephrase the question, seemingly making it a more difficult one. Let us try to define poetry in contradistinction to prose. In other words, let us aim at a 'differential definition' whose purpose is to bring out the specificity of poetry and whose validity (i.e., success or failure to differentiate as intended) is easily tested. Obviously, on a printed page a poem looks different from a prose passage (a page from a novel, say). In a poem, the individual lines seem to be relatively independent units (and it is no accident that lines of poetry are identified by a special term: verse). Prose, in contrast, is not made up of verses. In a prose text, it does not really matter whether the lines are short or long. Apparently, then, what we have isolated is a 'sufficient condition' (if this text is written in verse then it must be poetry), possibly even a 'necessary condition' (if this is poetry then it must have verses). Indeed, some recent approaches (see reference in P6) use these conditions as their basic assumptions. The following account, in contrast, builds on a more traditional approach which recognizes an essential poetical quality even in the absence of versification. Consider the three short passages quoted below. They may all look like prose, yet the truth is that only one of them is prose, while two of them come from poetical texts whose versification has been suppressed (credit goes to Raith 1962: 15 for inventing this experiment). Nevertheless, many people will be able to spot the difference and identify which is prose and which is poetry. ​ In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree; where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man . . . ​ If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it though hell itself should gape and bid me hold my peace. ​ And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning -- fresh as if issued to children on a beach. Most people are reasonably confident to state -- correctly -- that the first two items are poetry and that the last item is prose. (The first one is the beginning of Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan"; the second is a line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, a play which is largely written in verse, and the third is the beginning of the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.) Apparently, then, the visual impression that poetry is written in verse, though useful as an initial differentiation, is not enough. Indeed, many theorists assume that the true differentiating criterion is not a visual but an auditory one. But how can that be? Because, reading a text, one pronounces it mentally. Reading the three passages cited above, many people note that the poetical passages have a certain 'rhythm', and this is what interests us in the following. The prose passage from Woolf's novel, in contrast, has no such rhythm; it is 'rhythmically free'. P1.2. Of course, we cannot just go on introducing new terms -- verse, rhythm -- that are themselves in need of definition. Let us therefore stipulate the following definition of 'rhythm': ​ rhythm The iteration (repetition) of a group of elements. This is quite a general definition, as it must be, since rhythm is a very general phenomenon. For instance, the definition covers cases like the sequence of tides (high tide, low tide, high tide, low tide ...), the seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter), the rhythm of breathing (breathing in, breathing out, ...); the rhythmic contraction and expansion of one's heart (systole, diastole) etc. Note that in all of these examples, rhythm is indeed characterized by (i) elements, (ii) groups, and (iii) iterations. In the following, we are combining Wertheimer's principles of grouping (a Gestalt-theoretical approach, see Jackendoff 1983: ch. 8.1 for a more detailed account) with the traditional study of verse also known as prosody. As an exercise, identify the elements, the groups, and the iterations in the examples given above. P1.3. It is no accident that the following lines (and virtually thousands more in the corpus of English poetry) are all identical in one specific feature. Which? ​ I find no peace, and all my war is done (Wyatt, 1557) ​ One day I wrote her name upon the strand (Spenser, 1594) ​ That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Shakespeare, 1609) ​ Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part (Drayton, 1619) ​ And ten low words oft creep in one dull line (Pope, 1711) Answer: These lines are all identical in length. Not length as measured by number of letters or number of words (as is misleadingly suggested by item five -- note that item three has nine words, not ten); no, it is the number of syllables: the lines are all exactly ten syllables long. And when one reads these lines (either mentally or out loud) one notices that they tend to break down into smaller groups of syllables. Poetical rhythm of this sort is called 'meter' (fr. Greek 'measure'), and a line (or verse) that is rhythmical in this manner is said to be 'metrical'. ​ meter The syllabic rhythm of poetry. A line of verse consists of a sequence of metrical groups (or metrical units). Metrical groups consists of one stressed syllable and one, two, or three unstressed syllables. P1.4. A poem's meter can be brought out by using a technique called scansion, a kind of enforced metrical reading. In order to 'scan' a line of poetry, make one radical assumption: assume that a syllable can be either stressed or unstressed, and nothing else. To scan a line means to assign to each of its syllables either zero stress or maximum stress. Suppose, for a moment, that an unstressed syllable sounds like a weak "da" and a stressed one like a strong "DUM". Now take the sequence "da-DUM" and repeat it a few times (you'll get the hang of it). What you get is clearly rhythmical. Next, take a group of syllables that go like "DUM-da-da", and iterate that. An unmistakable rhythm, a bit like a waltz, but different from the one before. Take one that goes "da-da-DUM". Another kind of rhythm. Take one that goes "da-DUM-da-da". There are many more syllabic patterns -- thirty-two exactly -- that can be created by combining up to four stressed and unstressed syllables, and an expert prosodist can all identify them by name. (I am not an expert prosodist, but da-DUM is an 'iamb', DUM-da-da is a 'dactyl', da-da-DUM is an 'anapest', and da-DUM-da-da is a 'second paeon'.) In the following, however, we will focus on just the four most frequent metrical patterns (see Bonheim 1990: ch 18 for the full list). If you are interested in a bit of critical reflection, consider a limit case. Take the single syllable "DUM" and iterate it. Do you get a rhythm? The obvious answer is "No" (Why?). A less obvious but interesting alternative is to say "It depends". Explain, if you can, but perhaps you will have to wait until P1.12. Para P1.7 and its note on the term 'beat' might also be pertinent. P1.5. Rather than continue with "da" and "DUM", which would be a bit silly, we will now introduce a notation which amounts to exactly the same thing but looks more distinguished and more scholarly. Following a suggestion by Bonheim (1990), we will henceforward use a lower-case "o" for an unstressed (zero stressed) syllable, and a "1" for a stressed one. (Dedicated prosodists use a variety of special characters for this, but "o"s and "l"s have the advantage of being easily displayed in all kinds of formats, including HTML.) P1.6. Apart from assigning stress patterns, scansion evidently also involves counting syllables. Counting syllables is an ability that comes intuitively and automatically (possibly, an all-too easy way out, I admit). Let us just note in passing that the number of syllables in a word is usually equal to the number of vowels (or vowel clusters) in a word. Scanning individual words, we see, for instance, that "compare" has a stress pattern of o1, "practice" one of 1o, and "feminine" one of 1oo. Note, however, that stress patterns may vary both contextually and historically. Hence, sometimes one has the option of either pronouncing a syllable or of swallowing it ("interesting" could be 1oo or 1ooo). Some speakers stress "harassment" on the first syllable, some on the second (= 1oo or o1o). In ordinary pronunciation, a word like "rattlesnake" has a strong stress on its first syllable, no stress on the second syllable, and a kind of 'medium stress' on the third syllable. In scansion, as was stipulated in P1.4, we are forbidden to use medium stresses, so the third syllable of "rattlesnake" must either be upgraded to full stress or downgraded to zero stress. Hence the scansion of "rattlesnake" could be either 1o1 or 1oo (whichever, as we shall see in P1.9, is more suitable in a given context). As a general rule, any word in a sentence (including 'function' words like articles and prepositions such as the, in, to, etc.) can receive maximum stress (This is the man -- This is the man -- This is the man -- This is the man). P1.7. Here is how one determines whether a line is 'metrical': ​ A metrical line is a line which, when scanned, has a regular rhythmical pattern. A sequence like o1o1o1 is metrical because it consists of three groups of "o1"s; so is 1oo1oo (two groups of 1oo). In contrast, the sequence o1oo1ooo1o1 is not rhythmical because there are no iterated syllabic groups. Neither is 111111..., for the same reason (this is just an iterated single element, not a group -- in modern dance music this is usually called a beat; perhaps one should consider this a limit case of rhythm?). ​ A foot is a minimal syllabic metrical unit (or rhythmical group). P1.8. The four most common feet consist of two or three syllables of which one is stressed. ​ iamb (o1) An iambic foot is a two-syllable foot that begins with an unstressed syllable, and ends with a stressed one. This is the most common type of foot in English poetry and a useful mnemonic is to associate it with what is probably the best-known line in English literature, "to be or not to be" (Shakespeare). ​ trochee (1o) A trochaic foot is a two-syllable foot that begins with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable; an inverted iamb, if you want. Example: "Go and catch a falling star" (Donne). ​ dactyl (1oo) A dactylic foot is a three-syllable foot that begins with a stressed syllable and ends in two unstressed ones. Example: "Virginal Lilian, rigidly, humblily, dutiful" (Poe 1969 [1846]: 127). ​ anapest (oo1) An anapestic foot is a three-syllable foot that begins with two unstressed syllables and ends in a stressed syllable; an inverted dactyl, if you want. Example: "It was many and many a year ago" (Poe, "Annabel Lee"). Many prosodists also allow for (at least) two limit-case feet which serve strictly local functions only: the spondee (11) and the pyrrhic (oo) (see also 'mixed meter', P1.13, below). It is obvious, however, that neither of these 'feet' allows repetition as a rhythmical group. Moreover, we will soon introduce a distinction between scansion and recitation (P1.14, below) which removes the need for exceptional feet such as these -- usually, they are just ad-hoc fillers touching up local irregularities. P1.9. For a simple exercise (more difficult ones will soon follow), determine, by scansion (P1.4), the type of foot used in Lewis Carroll's "Mad Gardener's Song": He thought he saw an Elephant,      That practised on a fife; He looked again, and found it was      A letter from his wife. "At length I realize," he said,      "The bitterness of Life." He thought he saw a Rattlesnake      That questioned him in Greek: He looked again, and found it was      The middle of next week. "The one thing I regret," he said,      Is that it cannot speak!" If you do it right everybody will hear that Carroll uses an iambic meter throughout. It seems sensible, too, that "Rattlesnake" (cf. discussion in P1.6), in the given context, should be stressed 1o1, not 1oo. Note that, in the approach used here, scansion always attempts to establish a regular rhythmical sequence. Theoretically, in line 1, one could easily stress the two occurrences of "he" and leave "thought" unstressed. As a consequence, however, one would then be forced to stress "an", and "Elephant" would come out as o1o -- a horrible idea! P1.10. In order to describe a metrical line one indicates (i) type of foot and (ii) number of iterations. ​ The metrical length of a line equals the number of feet contained in it. On this basis, a verse can be a monometer (one foot), a dimeter (two feet), a trimeter (three feet), a tetrameter (four feet), a pentameter (five feet), a hexamater (six feet) or a heptameter (seven feet). In combination, type of foot plus metrical length yields categories like 'trochaic dimeter' (1o 1o), 'iambic pentameter' (o1 o1 o1 o1 o1) etc. The iambic pentameter, in particular, stands out as the most popular line in English verse literature, and you do not have to look far in this script (hint, hint) to find a suitable example of it. Of course, it is always sensible to query definitions -- do you see the problem that comes with the notion of a 'monometer'? P1.11. Poetic licence. Sometimes a poet intentionally deviates from ordinary language usage or pronunciation to create or maintain a regular meter. Specifically, poetic licence provides two standard tricks for gaining and losing a syllable. ​ An expansion yields an unstressed syllable, and a contraction/elision removes an unstressed syllable. Example of an expansion: But came the waves and washèd it away (Spenser) Example containing two contractions: And moan th'expense of many vanished sight Then can I grieve at grievances forgone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er (Shakespeare). Editors often signal expansions by using a gravis accent mark (`), and elisions by using an apostrophe mark ('). Some expansions (as in a learned man, a crooked leg) (be careful not to mispronounce these words), and many contractions (like don't etc.) are in ordinary use and do not constitute a case of poetic licence. There are, however, a number of typically poetic contractions: o'er (over), e'er (ever), e'en (even) -- pronounced like or, air, Ian. ​ inversion A deviation from ordinary word order for the purpose of maintaining a regular meter. In the examples cited above, "grievances forgone" und "came the waves" are metrically motivated inversions. P1.12. Both a pause and the absence of a pause can be used for metrical purposes. ​ A caesura is a pause in the body of a line, often marked by punctuation. Occasionally a caesura substitutes for an otherwise 'missing' syllable. Example: I have a litt-le step--son of on-ly three years old o 1 o 1 o 1 o 1(!) o 1 o 1 o 1 As Poe (1969 [1846]: 141-2) argues, the caesura after "stepson" takes the place of a missing stressed syllable. ​ cadence The final rhythm group of a verse (or sentence), usually closing with a pause. Sometimes the final pause is accepted as a substitute for a missing syllable. Example: "Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright" (Blake) [missing syllable at the end substituted by verse-final pause]. Conversely, supernumerary unstressed syllables are freely tolerated in the context of a cadence, yielding a 'hypermetrical line'. Example: "A thing of beauty is a joy forever". A masculine cadence is one that ends on a stressed syllable; a feminine cadence is one that ends on an unstressed syllable. For reasons best known to prosodists, a hypermetrical line does not count as an irregular line. ​ run-on line/enjambement A line whose flow of speech continues, without a pause, into the next. Occasionally, the meter 'wraps' to the next line, too. Examples: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . (Shelley, "Ozymandias") Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime -- Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle Now melt into softness, now madden to crime? (Byron, "The Bride of Abydos") Again it was Poe who pointed out that the lines of the Byron poem have a 'wraparound meter' (Poe did not, of course, use the term 'wraparound'). At any rate, they are not as irregular as they may seem at first glance (Poe 1969 [1846]: 144-47). P1.13. Using the metrical potentialities of elision, expansion, caesura, cadence, hypermetrical lines, and enjambement, many seeming irregularities can simply be explained away. There comes a point, however, when a line cannot be regarded as truly regular any longer. Hence a certain amount of rhythmic variation has to be tolerated even within the reduced framework of scansion. ​ mixed meter A meter whose basic type of foot is occasionally substituted by a different type of foot. Mixed meter is governed by what R. Wells has termed the 'principle of maximization' (qtd Ludwig 1990: 55). ​ principle of maximization Take a line's 'predominant meter' to be the one that maximizes the line's regularity. To maximize a line's regularity, keep the number of substitute feet to a minimum. Useful but nonstandard terms would be 'endogenic feet' vs 'exogenic feet' (insider/outsider feet). Hence, the principle of maximization could be rephrased as, When scanning a line use as many endogenic feet as possible. Examples: ​ There lived a wife at Usher's well And a wealthie wife was she (P2.7) ​ When that I was, and a tiny little boy (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night V.1.375) Hint: The problem areas are "And a wealthie" in item 1 (why not simply scan this line as a trochaic tetrameter?), and "and a" in item 2. P1.14. Scansion vs recitation. Scanning is not the same as reciting. Scansion attempts to establish the metrical basis (or 'metrical grid', Ludwig 1990: 47) of a poetical line. Reciting a poem aims at reading it for sense and effect; scansion is an enforced metrical reading which sounds (intentionally) monotonous and boring. Although sense clearly overrides predominant meter (Smith 1961: 24), a reciter must have a conception of the metrical grid on which a poem has been fashioned; and, sense permitting, s/he will take good care to let this rhythm be perceived. P1.15. As an example, consider the following lines: My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky (Wordsworth) Smith (1961: 23) argues that the first line should be stressed o111o1o1, pointing out that "The three stressed syllables, heart leaps up, are like three strong bounds, and we feel the delight of the poet". Well, possibly. But are we talking of scanning or of reciting? Scansion of the two lines, as any reader can verify, is regularly iambic. How a reciter actually reads those lines is a different matter altogether. The first thing a reciter will throw overboard is the scansion restriction concerning zero stress and maximum stress (o's and 1's, P1.4). When scanning you do not recite, and when reciting you do not sca