All forms of art express themselves through a medium The
medium of literature is verbal language used as a creative
tool
Page 4-5-6-7 Performer Heritage
The most important aspect of verse is metre (or rhythm). The classical English metre, first
made popular by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, is the iambic pentameter, which
consists of five feet and each foot consists of two syllables : an unstressed syllable followed
by a stressed one making ten syllables altogether.
Examples
If mu/sic be /the food /of love/ play on (Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night )
However all great English poets have made their verse more interesting for listener
and readers by
a) Varying the number of syllables in a line
b) Varying the number of stresses and their place in a line
To be/ or not/ to be/ that is / the question (Shakespeare’s Hamlet)
( the stress-unstress pattern is called trochee)
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
1. Shall I /compare /thee to /a sum/mer's day? 2
2. Thou art /more lo/vely and/ more tem/perate 3:
3. rough winds/ 4 do shake/ the dar/ling buds/ of May,
4. and sum/mer's lease/ hath all /too short/ a date 5
Recap
In trying to define poetry as a literary genre there are two important facts to
stress
1) It is written in verse not prose
2) The language tends to be removed from everyday speech.
One last thing about verse:
Verse is the word we use to explain the way poetry 1 sounds to the ear, its
musical quality but also the way it looks on the page, its visual quality. ( the
visual lay-out)
Approfondimento ( se vuoi leggi )
Sonnet 18 : Shall I compare thee
5. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 2
6. Thou art more lovely and more temperate 3:
7. rough winds 4 do shake the darling buds of May,
8. and summer's lease hath all too short a date 5:
9. sometime too hot the eye of heaven 6 shines,
10.and often is his gold complexion dimm'd 7,
11.and every fair from fair sometime declines,
12.by chance, or nature's changing course 8 untrimm'd:
13.but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
14.nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st 9,
15.nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
16.when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st 10:
17.So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
18.so long lives this, and this gives life to thee 11.
1. Dovrei paragonare te a un giorno d’estate?
2. Tu sei più piacevole e più dolce:
3. venti impetuosi scuotono gli amabili boccioli di Maggio,
4. e l’estate ha un termine troppo breve:
5. qualche volta il sole splende troppo forte,
6. e spesso il suo colore dorato si affievolisce,
7. e ogni bellezza finisce per declinare,
8. rovinata dal caso, o dal corso volubile della natura:
9. ma la tua estate eterna non tramonterà,
10.né resterai privo di quella bellezza che possiedi,
11.né la morte si vanterà di farti vagare nella sua tenebra,
12.poiché tu, dimorando in versi eterni, maturi nel tempo:
13.Finché gli uomini sono in grado di respirare, o occhi riescono a guardare,
14.finché questi versi vivranno, doneranno vita a te.
Other sound devices (aspects of sound) in poems are :
Rhyme
poems are said to rhyme when the last words of two or more lines make the
same sound apart from the initial consonant. Usually this involves only a
single syllable, but it can involve two or more.
End rhyme = is at the end of the line
Internal rhyme = the words are in the same line
ex Up in the moon singing a tune.
Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream over the mead
William Blake , the Lamb
Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning
(and sometimes also in the middle) of a series of words.
Betty Botter bought some butter
But she said the butter’s bitter
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter
When the sound of a word or words suggests their meaning it is called
onomatopoeia
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle
In the icy air of night
Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
Repetition and refrain
Phrases or lines may be repeated in the course of a poem to create a musical
effect
O where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son?
And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?
Medieval ballad Anonymous, Lord Randal
Sound and meaning
Rhythm, rhyme and alliteration can serve a number of purposes in a poem.
They can a) make a poem more memorable (easy to remember)
b) emphasize key words or concepts
c) bind lines or words together
d) produce a pleasing musical effect
The Elizabethan sonnet
The Shakespearian sonnet consists of fourteen lines, which can be divided into three
groups of four lines (quatrains) and a final group of two ( couplet ). (The division in a
Petrarchan sonnet is an octave and a sestet).
(This 4,4,4,2 division is usually echoed in the rhyme scheme, in the sentence structure
and in the thematic pattern)
The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Sonnet 18 : Shall I compare thee
19.Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 2
20.Thou art more lovely and more temperate 3:
21.rough winds 4 do shake the darling buds of May,
22.and summer's lease hath all too short a date 5:
23.sometime too hot the eye of heaven 6 shines,
24.and often is his gold complexion dimm'd 7,
25.and every fair from fair sometime declines,
26.by chance, or nature's changing course 8 untrimm'd:
27.but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
28.nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st 9,
29.nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
30.when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st 10:
31.So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
32.so long lives this, and this gives life to thee 11.
15.Dovrei paragonare te a un giorno d’estate?
16.Tu sei più piacevole e più dolce:
17.venti impetuosi scuotono gli amabili boccioli di Maggio,
18.e l’estate ha un termine troppo breve:
19.qualche volta il sole splende troppo forte,
20.e spesso il suo colore dorato si affievolisce,
21.e ogni bellezza finisce per declinare,
22.rovinata dal caso, o dal corso volubile della natura:
23.ma la tua estate eterna non tramonterà,
24.né resterai privo di quella bellezza che possiedi,
25.né la morte si vanterà di farti vagare nella sua tenebra,
26.poiché tu, dimorando in versi eterni, maturi nel tempo:
27.Finché gli uomini sono in grado di respirare, o occhi riescono a guardare,
28.finché questi versi vivranno, doneranno vita a te.
Sonnet 18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_ZzLrer39U&feature=youtu.be
1. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun 2,
2. coral is far more red, than her lips red;
3. if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun 3,
4. if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
5. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white 4,
6. but no such roses see I in her cheeks;
7. and in some perfumes is there more delight
8. than in the breath that from my mistress reeks 5.
9. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
10.that music hath a far more pleasing sound;
11.I grant I never saw a goddess go:
12.my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
13.And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare 6
14.as any she 7 belied with false compare.
1. Gli occhi della mia amata non sono per nulla simili al sole,
2. il corallo è molto più rosso, di quanto non siano le sue labbra;
3. se la neve è bianca, perché allora il suo petto è scuro,
4. se i capelli sono fili dorati, fili neri germogliano sul suo capo.
5. Ho visto rose damascate, rosse e bianche,
6. ma non vedo rose simili sulle sue guance;
7. e in alcuni profumi c’è più dolcezza
8. che nel respiro della mia amante.
9. Amo sentirla parlare, eppure so bene
10.che la musica ha un suono molto più piacevole;
11.garantisco di non aver mai visto camminare una dea:
12.la mia amante, quando cammina, tocca il terreno.
13.E tuttavia, in nome del Cielo, credo che il mio amore sia unico
14.quanto ogni donna imbrogliata da paragoni bugiardi.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as And yet I think my love as rare
rare
As any she belied with false compare. As any woman who has been
misrepresented by ridiculous
comparisons.
Sonnet 130
https://youtu.be/47W7Mo4EAQw
In poetry the use of language tends to be removed from everyday speech.
The Language of poetry.
Poetry is often said to be language used at its most vivid and intense.
It is capable of extracting all possible power even from a single word.
A )The language of sense impressions
Poets build up a vivid picture through a succession of visual images, that means
they create visual images, appealing to the traditional five senses.
Sight
Touch
Smell
Hearing
Taste
B) Poetic language uses figurative language
There are several figures of speech an author can use to communicate abstract
concepts in terms of concrete images.
1) Simile: a comparison between two things. (you find connective words
such as like or as
Ex.
This City doth (does), like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning,
William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Like a garment compares London’s early morning to someone wearing a beautiful
piece of clothing ( bellissimo abito).
(there are two terms of comparison)
2)Metaphor
It is a means of (strumento di ) comparison between two things without
connective words.
Line 1: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
There are three elements in a metaphor:
The tenor ( thee= you)
The vehicle ( a Summer’s day)
The ground ( points of similarity)
3) Personification: it is a form of imagery which attributes the characteristics
of a human being to abstract things, animals or objects.
The eye of heaven = sun
Personification
4) Symbol: it is any thing, person, place or action which stand for something else
Throughout the whole poem Summer is being used as a symbol of youth.
Sonnet 18:
Line 1: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
-This metaphor goes throughout the whole poem, Shakespeare goes to show how
much lovelier his beloved is then the comparison really allows.
Line 9: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade"
-This metaphor suggests that his beloved will always be young to him, that she has a
glow and vitality that is everlasting.
Sonnet 130:
My Mistress’ eyes
This sonnet is a parody of the traditional Elizabethan love sonnet. It seems like the
author is criticizing his love more than praising her. He lists the many things that do
NOT describe his love. Many of these things are used in traditional sonnets to
describe one's love - voice like music, cheeks like roses, golden hair, etc. This man's
love, however, is none of these things, and yet he loves her anyway. He does not
need to compare her to false things.
Here are some poetic devices. Lots of similes and metaphors:
1. Simile - eyes are nothing like the sun (this is a negative simile, he says her eyes are
not like the sun).
2. Metaphor - comparing her lips to coral (another negative - he says her lips are not
red like coral)
3. Metaphor - comparing her voice to music (it is NOT like music)
