Anapest

Trochee -the foot consists of two syllables. The 1^st is stressed:

‘U

Ex.: Duty, pretty, honey, money, evening, trochee.

Iambus -two syllables, the 1^st is unstressed.

U’

Ex: Mistake, prepare, enjoy, behind, again.

Dactyl -the stress upon the 1^st syllable. The following two ones are unstressed:

‘UU

Ex.: Wonderful, beautiful certainly dignity.

Amphibrach -the stress is on the 2^nd syllable. The first and last ones are unstressed.

U’U

Ex.: umbrella, returning, pretending, continue.

Anapest -the 3^rd syllable is stressed.

UU’

Ex.: Understand, interfere, disagree.

A verse line doesn’t obligatory consists of trochaic or iambic words. A foot can be made up of more than one word.

Ex.: His life. U’

Ex.: Take it. ‘U

We should consider such a notion as scanning which means to emphasize all the syllables that are expected to be stressed according to the metrical pattern. It is often artificial as compared with usual reading. Let us take a quotation from “The Raven” (by E.A. Poe):

Presently my soul grew stronger

hesitating then no longer,

"Sir", said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping...

The normal treatment of the 1^st line - ‘UUU’U

It is scanning. - ‘U’U’U’U

The metrical characteristics of a verse line depend on the number of feet in it. A line may consist of one to eight feet. There are special terms for marking the length of the line. For example, we shall take a trochaic line.

Monometer ‘U (1 foot)

Dimeter ‘U’U (2 feet)

Trimeter ‘U’U’U (3 feet)

Tetrameter ‘U’U’U’U (4 feet)

Pentameter ‘U’U’U’U’U (5 feet)

Hexameter ‘U’U’U’U’U’U’ (6 feet)

Septameter ‘U’U’U’U’U’U’U (7 feet)

Octameter ‘U’U’U’U’U’U’U’U’ (8 feet)

In some English poetry the meter is irregular, not only the number of feet in a line, but also the quality may differ. This is called free verse.

Ex.: Arise! Arise! Arise! There is blood on the Earth that denies…ye bread.

Be your wounds like eyes

To weep for the dead the dead the dead.

The 1^sr line is iambic trimester, the 2^nd consists of three dactylic feet plus one iambic foot. Free verse as Galperin says is characterized by:

1. A combination of different metrical feet in the line

2. Absence of similarity

3. Stanza of various length

Even strictly classical meters admit certain variations in stress. Certain stresses are neglected in scanning but distinctly felt in normal reading. In other case on the contrary the scanning stresses certain syllables which are unstressed in normal reading.

Rhyme is the 2^nd feature (after rhythm) distinguishing verse from prose. It denotes a complete or almost complete coincidence of acoustic impression produced by stressed syllables often together with surrounding unstressed syllables. As a rule such syllables don’t immediately follow each other. Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Rhyme is a characteristic feature of poetry but in prose euphony final sound (ending). With regard to the similarity of sounds we distinguish: full rhymes, imperfect (or incomplete) rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh - fresh - press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth - forth, tale – tool, treble - trouble; flung - long.

With regard to the structure of rhymes we distinguish: masculine (or single) rhyme, feminine (or double) rhyme, dactylic (or triple) rhyme, full double or broken rhyme.

Rhymes in words ending with a stressed syllable (monosyllabic rhymes) are called male-masculine or single rhymes. Ex.: dreams - streams, obey - away, understand – hand.

Rhymes in words or word combinations with the last syllable unstressed are female feminine, or double rhymes. Ex.: duty - beauty, berry – cherry – merry. The terms “ male ” and “ female ” have nothing in common with grammatical gender or sex in English and Russian. They appeared in French where the ending and the stress in certain adjectives differ in accordance with their gender.

Rhymes in which the stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones are dactylic rhymes or in English they’re called triple or treble rhymes. Ex.: tenderly - slenderly, battery – flattery.

As a rule it is single words that make a rhyme. Ex.: gray - pray, stone – alone.

Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in "upon her honor - won her", "bottom – forgot them - shot him", Ex.: favorite - savor it. Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word - a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance. Compound rhyme may be set against what is called eye - rhyme (or “ rhymes for the eye ”), properly speaking this is not a rhyme - the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love - prove, flood - brood, have – grave, home – come, now - grow, love - rove.

Farewell to the forest and wild-hanging woods

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

It follows that compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye - rhyme can only be perceived in the written verse.

The arrangements of rhymes may assume different schemes: couplet rhyme, cross rhyme, frame rhyme. The functions of rhyme in poetry are very important: it signalizes the end of a line and marks the arrangement of lines into stanzas.

Rhymeless verse is called blank verse. It is often used by play writers (like Shakespeare).

According to the position of rhyming lines, adjacent rhymes, crossing rhymes and ring rhymes are distinguished. In descriptions rhymes are usually replaced by letters of Latin alphabet, every new rhyme is symbolized by a new letter: A, B, C, D, E, etc.