Summary Practical Criticism + Critical Practice comprehensive notes
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Course
English Literature
Institution
Cambridge University (CAM)
-Written by a 1st class graduate from Trinity College, the University of Cambridge
-Notes used to prepare for the Practical Criticism and Critical Practice closed book exam, for which the author obtained a 1st class mark
-Contains:
1.Detailed notes summarising the chapters from John Lennard's...
Metre:
-prosody= the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry
-cadencing = melodic flow of sounds
-classical languages= quantitative- vowel length/ quality – rhythm depending on number of
stresses
-Anglo-Saxon= qualitative- patterns of stress/ accent
-Slavic langaues= synthetic- combine lots of meaning in singular word by addition of
prefixes and suffixes
-French= syllabic prosodic- number of syllables in line
-Medieval middle English poetry- analysed accentually- rules concerning alliteration and
rhyme
-post- medieval= accentual- syllabic= formal patterns of stressed/ unstressed syllables-
neoclassical origins
-elision= conflation/ multiplication of syllables- e.g can’t, ne’er- reduces two syllables into
one
Accentual Syllabic Poetry:
-basic unit of poetry= line
-Lines analysed by breaking metre into feet- stressed and unstressed
Need to know types of foot:
-ictus= stressed foot- ‘blow or stroke’ in Latin
-iamb= unstressed followed by stressed syllable- e.g ‘doe COUNT’
-trochee= stressed- unstressed
-spondee= stressed- stressed (ictus- ictus)
-pyrrhic= unstressed- unstressed
-anapœst= unstressed- unstressed- stressed
-dactyl= stressed- unstressed- unstressed
-way to remember= pronouncing the name of each to embody its rhythm
-catalectic= iambic/ trochaic lines which miss their first unstressed beat
-hypermetric= with an extra beat- e.g to be or not to be, that is the question
-feminine endings= hypermetric endings with unstressed syllable
-masculine endings= hypermetric lines with stressed syllable
-alexandrine= 12 syllable line with major stresses on 6th and 12th syllables- dominant form in
French epic
Need to know metrical lines:
,-monometer= one foot per line
-dimeter= two feet per line
-trimeter= 3
-tetrameter= 4
-Pentameter= 5
-hexameter= 6
-heptameter= 7
-octameter= 8
-sequi= and a half- can be added to above words to describe patterns which add extra feet
e.g sesquimonometers= lines of 1 and ½ feet
-sesquidimeters= lines of 2 ½ feet etc.
-Metres= templates- rather than rigid structure
-spondees and pyrrhics- never make up full rhythm- instead, used as ‘distinguishing’ foot in
iambic/ trochaic line
-inverted foot= iamb in trochaic line- distinguishes itself to the ear
-substitute feet= replace regular feet in the line
-trochees- generate a cadence ( Latin- to fall) = falling rhythm in the line
-variation of both in a line- invigoration of a line
-Lines of iambic and anapestic feet= rising rhythm- stressed beats follow unstressed beats
-rising rhythym- makes up most of modern English speech
-Lines of trochees and dactyls- falling rhythms- ictus at beginning produces a high pitch
followed by the lower pitching of the unstressed beat
-unnatural to English speech- therefore, useful for poetry of strangeness
Duple and triple metres:
-duple meters= feet with 2 beats- iambs and trochees- that relies on a basic pattern of
alternation between stressed and unstressed beats
-triple meters- feet with 3 types of beat- mainly dactyls and anapæsts- creates a tripping,
rising rhythm that causes it to be closely associated with comedy- limericks
Tip: never attempt to divine metre from single line
Dissecting metre:
Confronted with 3 aspects:
1. Established metrical pattern
2. Way which words would be spoken in everyday conversation
3. Interaction of the two
-scansion= determination of a line’s rhythm- produced by scanning the line
-common for poets’ to slightly distort pronunciation for purposes of rhyme- particularly in
song- lyrics, hymns, strongly oral poems- e.g ballad:
-when word is adapted for this purpose it is wrenched
,-scanning, therefore= discerning metre of line, and which words deviate from pattern
Modernism and Metre:
-reaction against iambic pentameter, and neoclassical prosody attacked and subverted
-however- traditional metrical arrangements do still survive alongside free verse- e.g T.S.
Eliot
Poets who developed the systems:
-Gerald Manley Hopkins- neoclassical model that reverted to Old/ Middle English types of
verse
-T.S. Eliot- developed accentual system based on both neoclassical and Old and Middle
English prosodic models
-most modern poets can be expected to experiment with many metrical frames
Gerald Manley Hopkins= ‘sprung rhythm’:
-designed to imitate speech
-form of accentual syllabic metre- first syllable= stressed and may be followed by an
indeterminate number of syllables
-however, number of stressed feet per line= consistent throughout the poem
Form:
-choice of form- 2 sets of complications:
1.structure, metre, rhyme, punctuation, tone
2. historical associations
-free verse= open form- can be adapted/ mutated
Poem types:
-Stichic= simple sequence of lines- stichic forms= rare, but Clough and Blake utilised them-
rejection of blank verse- ‘Book of Thel’ and Amours de Voyage – no stanza breaks
-stanzaic= lines grouped by spaces above and below
-stanza- Italian- means ‘room, or stopping place’- poetry= house, stanza= room- p. 33
Blank Verse:
-largely attributed to Marlowe, Shakespeare, Johnson, other Jacobean dramatists- chosen by
Milton for Paradise Lost- increased its influential potential
-decasyllabic line- useful for drama- space for punctuation, deliberation, etc.
-not stanzaic but often divided into verse- paragraphs driven by units of argument/ emotion
Two line forms:
, -couplet- usually rhyming
-can be open- e.g Chaucer Prologue to Caterbury Tales- syntax running on from couplet to
couplet
-more frequently closed- Pope and Dryden- influenced this- no external enjambment between
couplets, however internal enjambment typical
-assertive- Shakespeare to end blank verse speeches
-dominant, but phased out in Romanticism
-heroic couplets- iambic pent= popular with Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dryden, Pope
-couplets in iambic tetrameter= pop with Marvell and Swift
-early 18th century- tetrametric couplets typically used satirically/ comically, whereas heroic
couplets= tragically
-fourteen- liners using iambic heptameter common
-heterometric couplets- combined hexameter and heptameter
Three Line Forms:
-triplet= three rhyming lines- aaa
-tercet= 3 lines where one or more lines don’t rhyme
-heroic triplets- common among heroic couplets- consider Pope’s Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot-
typically marked by }= brace
-heterometric triplets- frequent in Donne
-tercets- terza rima- Dante’s Divine Comedy (Italian, metre= syllabic)- creates chain rhyme-
typically used in narrative poems
-Haikus- syllabic 5-7-5
4 Line forms;
-quatrain
-monorhymed quatrains- aaaa
-abac/ abcb- single- rhymed quatrains= common
-alternating tetrameter and trimeter lines of abcb= ballad stanza/ common metre
-cross- rhymed= abab- harder to write- propensity to bore
-Tennysonian stanza- abba variation of chiasmic rhyme
-chiasmic rhyme= abba
-rubai= aaba- usually heroic
5 line forms:
-rare
-limericks- 5 anapestic lines- aabba
-Coleridge- iambic pentain in ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
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