Commercial Poetry: Scansion

Showing posts with label Scansion. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

The Outerview Series: Part IV - Scan Poems Backward

      So far, we've established that poetry is the speech we preserve verbatim and that it is currently found almost exclusively in song lyrics. To fit the music, poetry is in set lengths called "meters", alongside other lines that take about the same amount of time to bring forth. In a sense, all meter is quantitative.

      Today, we're going to see how these meters work to create rhythm, especially in spoken verse.

      "Why the sudden focus on spoken poetry?"

      Because if it works in speech it will do so even more mellifluously in song. Determining how we build cadence is called "scansion". Knowing that meter involves counting something--alliterations, stressed syllables, patterns, tempos--let's begin with a historical perspective: In 1066, the French counted syllables, perhaps because they didn't stress them as strongly as the English, who counted only accented syllables. The result of the invasion was a mashup or compromise, with subsequent English verse being "accentual-syllabic". Each line would have the same number of syllables with stressed ("DUM") ones interspersed with unstressed ("de") ones. These form patterns called "feet" because each stress corresponded to a dance step. These are the most common feet:

de-DUM = iamb <- Iambic pentameter:

Gray wolves | surround | the eg|ret. Fox|es slink | away

DUM-de = trochee -> Trochaic pentameter:

Time was | gravit|y as | shooting | stars des|cended.

de-de-DUM = anapest -> Anapestic hexameter:

Brock would say | no more val|orous war|rior exists. | Sure as ap|ple trees bud

de-DUM-de = amphibrach -> Amphibrachic tetrameter:

the pleas of | a peacemak|er can't be | imparted
while even | your traplines | have got to | be guarded.

de-de-DUM = dactyl -> Dactyllic pentameter:

Yours was the | song of that | egret, your | life like a | burning poem.

      This is one of the myriad reasons why we need to hear poetry. Our ear will learn to detect these cadences--typically after only seven syllables. All of this is, and so much more, lost on the page.

     "Wait, hold on. I heard a lot more accented syllables than you highlighted. Are you cheating here?"

      Good catch! Yes, I "omitted" a number of stresses here to concentrate on the base rhythm. Here I've added them back in for reference:

Gray wolves | surround | the eg|ret. Fox|es slink | away

Brock would say | no more val|orous war|rior exists. | Sure as ap|ple trees bud

the pleas of | a peacemak|er can't be | imparted
while even | your traplines | have got to | be guarded.

Yours was the | song of that | egret, your | life like a | burning poem.

This shows that we can add accents to give the cadence some variety, some flair. Toward the same end, we can delete all of the stresses in a foot. For example, the second last foot in these two lines are "pyrhhics" (i.e. "de-de"), having no beat, when reciting the verse without music:

The rain | in Spain | falls main|ly on | the plain.

But I | have prom|ises | to keep,

     Here is a tribach (de-de-de) followed by a molossus (DUM-DUM-DUM):

out on the | wine dark sea

     These deviations are called "substitutions". Do not confuse these with their evil twin, the dreaded "inversion", where the poet switches the order of the cadence. Note the switch from de-DUMs to DUM-de in the second line here:

Pale fac|es, dough|like breasts <- Spondee (DUM-DUM), iamb, iamb.
help me | forget.                <- trochee, iamb.

      Lines often "find" their rhythm as they go along, such that patterns at the end of the line are more reliable than those at the beginning. Thus, don't sweat the first foot. In fact, we'll often see unaccented syllables--second class citizens, essentially--dropped entirely from the beginning of line. For example, is this line trochaic, missing a syllable from the end ("[x]" marks the spot):

Tyger, | tyger, | burning | bright [x]

    ...or is it iambic, missing a syllable from the beginning :

[x] Tyg|er, tyg|er, burn|ing bright

         Trusting the ends of lines more than their murky beginnings, we already know the answer: iambic tetrameter. We have already discerned that, if scanning a line to detect its cadence or meter, we should start at its end and work backwards.

     There is another critical aspect in this particular poem. Were we to have seen Blake's entire piece there wouldn't have been a mystery in the first place:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame | thy fear|ful sym|metry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist | the sin|ews of | thy heart?
And when | thy heart | began | to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And wat|er'd heav|en with | their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he | who made | the Lamb | make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame | thy fear|ful sym|metry?

    We note that, while 18 lines are ambiguous, trochee or iambic, there are six lines of perfect iambic tetrameter and zero lines of complete trochee. Ergo, when someone hands you one line and asks you to scan it, the proper response is not iambic, trochaic, dactylic, amphibrachic, or anapestic; it's: "Let me see the whole poem!"

    This is line 1 from the first canto of Lord Byron's "Bride of Abydos" (1813):

Know ye the land where cypress and myrtle

    Can you tell me what meter this is in?

    "Where's the rest of it?"

     Perfect answer! When Edgar Allen Poe read this he said the poem could not be scanned, but if he had continued reading he'd have seen many verses of perfect anapestic tetrameter and no lines of anything else:

Where the light | wings of Zeph|yr, oppress'd | with perfume,
Where the cit|ron and ol|ive are fair|est of fruit,
Where the tints | of the earth, | and the hues | of the sky,
And the pur|ple of Oc|ean is deep|est in dye;
'Tis the clime | of the East; | 'tis the land | of the Sun —
Where the vir|gins are soft | as the ros|es they twine,
Can he smile | on such deeds | as his child|ren have done?
Are the hearts | which they bear, | and the tales | which they tell.

     He'd have been able to see that this line is simply missing two unstressed syllables in its initial foot:

[x] [x] Know | ye the land | [x] where cyp|ress and myrt|le
Where the rage | of the vul|ture, the love | of the turt|le,

     "Wait, what about the "-le" at the end of the lines, messing everything up?"

     These have a weird "schwa" sound. We see it most often in "-er" and "l" sound endings (e.g. "pencil"). Consider these semi-syllables: counted if needed, ignored if inconvenient. In the same poem we see the "-er" overlooked in "flowers" while the very same "er" is counted in "ever" twice, and "never" in a subsequent line:

Where the flowers | ever blos|som, the beams | ever shine;
And the voice| of the night|ingale nev|er is mute;

     "I see what you mean when you called unstressed syllables 'second class citizens'."

     They are like Rodney Dangerfield. They get no respect. In fact, the might even be replaced by commas. Check out the second of these two lines from Shakespeare:

The best | of men | have sung | your at|tributes,
Breasts, | lips, | eyes, | and gold|en hair!

      That's iambic pentameter with only 7 syllables! Imagine the shame: three perfectly good syllables, the basis of our language and civilization, replaced by lowly commas!

      There are fancy names for most of these irregularities. Syllables missing at the beginning of lines? Acephaly, meaning "headless". Missing syllables at the end of lines? Catalexis. Extra syllables--full ones, not just the semi-syllables we mentioned--at the end are hypercatalexis. Extra syllables at the beginning of lines? Anacrusis, as we see with T.S. Eliot's heterometrical "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

Let | us go | then, you | and I,
        (iambic trimeter with anacrusis)
When | the ev'n|ing is | spread out | against | the sky
        (iambic pentameter with anacrusis)
Like | a pat|ient eth|erised | upon | a tab|le;
        (iambic pentameter with anacrusis)
Let | us go, |through cert|ain half-|desert|ed streets,

     While we often use the terms "line" and "meter" interchangeably, "meter" refers to the syllables that form feet (iambs, in this case). The syllables elsewhere (e.g. the first word in all four of the lines above) and the semi-syllable at the end [of "table"] are part of the line but not the meter.

     We now know the key to scansion: scan poems backwards. Not just one line in isolation but the whole poem. Practice this with your favorite poems and songs [bearing in mind that they could be accentual instead, in which case just count the stresses in each line].

     200 years ago every grade six graduate (which Poe was not) understood this. Today? Not so much.

Next: Scan Poems Backward

The Outerview Series

Sunday, June 30, 2024

The Outerview Series: Part III - What is Rhythm?

       In our first two outerviews we defined poetry as verbatim speech whose audience is all but limited to song lyrics. It makes sense to begin by learning about poetry that can most easily be converted to song.

      Over the last thousand years all successful English language poems have incorporated rhythm. This has usually involved meter, which facilitates the addition of music to create song.

     "And what is 'meter'?"

      Meter is the quantification of something in order to segment the poem.

     "And what are those things being quantified?"

      It could be a number of things. In classical Greek verse and song it is tempo--the time it takes to say or sing a line. In the latter case, the same number of bars and beats each line. When that drum is struck the word being spoken is highlighted. Stressed. Even if it wouldn't normally be.

      Let's have you read aloud the text onscreen:

      "You carry the weight of inherited sorrow from your first day till you die toward that hilltop where the road forever becomes one with the sky."

       That was a natural enunciation of these words. It's how you'd say them in a speech or a recital. Now let's listen to Bruce Cockburn sing these lyrics from "The Rose Above the Sky" (at top):

You carry the weight of inherited sorrow
From your first day till you die
Toward that hilltop where the road
Forever becomes one with the sky

        So, what have we learned so far?

       "With song, it's all about the beat."

       Close enough. That need to have every line take the same length of time is called "quantitative" meter.

       Now, going back to quantifying, here are three other things that can be counted: alliterations, accents, and feet. Check out these two lines from DPK's "Leaving Santiago":

We come from | a nation | of cowards | and corpses
both roll down | the river | en route to| the ocean.

       This is alliterative verse--something that goes back to before 1066--because there are three repetitions of an initial sound of a stressed syllable in each line: two on one side of midway, one on the other; three hard "c" sounds in the first line, three "r" iterations in the second.

       The same two lines could be considered accentual, with the same number of stressed syllables--four, in this case--in each line. N.B.: In accentual meter the unstressed syllables don't matter.

       Finally, these two lines illustrate the most recent evolution of meter: accentual-syllabic. This deals in feet: typically, a stressed syllable and one or two unstressed ones in a particular order. In this case, it is a pattern of four "de-DUM-de" soundings called "amphibrachic tetrameter":

We come from a country of cowards and corpses
both roll down the river en route to the ocean.

      "Is 'amphibrachic' anything like 'iambic'?"

      Yes, in a "right church, wrong pew" way. Iambic is a binary because it has two components: an unstressed syllable, then a stressed one (de-DUM). It sounds like marching. Amphibrachs are trinary because they have three: de-DUM-de. It sounds like hopping. Here is a chart of all the cadences and meter lengths, of which iambic is by far the most common:

============================ Meter Types ===========================

Beat   Name
   uu = Pyrrhic    (aka Dibrach)
   uS = Iamb        = Marching
   Su = Trochee     = Imperative (aka Choree)
   SS = Spondee
uuu = Tribrach
Suu = Dactyl      = Waltzing
uSu = Amphibrach = Hopping        Metres:
uuS = Anapest     = Galloping      Monometer = 1 foot
uSS = Bacchic                        Dimeter = 2 feet
SuS = Amphimacer (aka Cretic)       Trimeter = 3 feet
SSu = Antibacchic                 Tetrameter = 4 feet
SSS = Molossus                    Pentameter = 5 feet
uuuu = Proceleusmatic               Hexameter = 6 feet *
Suuu = First paeon                 Heptameter = 7 feet
uSuu = Second paeon                 Octameter = 8 feet
uuSu = Third paeon
uuuS = Fourth paeon    * Hexameter = "alexandrine" if iambic.
uuSS = Ionic a minore
SuuS = Choriamb
SSuu = Ionic a maiore              Stanzas:
SuuS = Antispast                   2 lines = couplet
SuSu = Ditrochee                   3 lines = tercet
uSuS = Diiamb                      4 lines = quatrain
uSSS = First epitrite              5 lines = cinquain
SuSS = Second epitrite             6 lines = sestet or sixain
SSuS = Third epitrite              7 lines = septet
SSSu = Fourth epitrite             8 lines = octet or octave
SSSS = Dispondee
uSSuS = Dochmios

"S" = Stressed (or, more accurately, "long" in the original Greek)
"u" = unstressed (or, more accurately, "short" in the original Greek)

======================================================================

      Some poems or songs can have more than one meter. In fact, 4 iambs followed by 3 iambs in so common that it is literally called "common meter":

Amaz|ing grace | how sweet | the sound
that saved | a wretch | like me.
Was lost, | but now, | I'm found;
was blind, | but now | I see.

      "So we want our lines the same length or lengths."

       And durations. Correct. And we have names for each kind: "isometric" if all of the lines the same length, "heterometric" if the lines come in different lengths.

      "Will this be on the test?"

Next: What is rhythm?

The Outerview Series

Sunday, June 23, 2024

The Outerview Series: Part II - Where is poetry?

In our first outerview we established that poetry is a mode of speech, coming about because audiences feel the words are worth preserving in memory verbatim.

Our next question is: "What happened to poetry? Where did it go?"

Two centuries ago the average literate person knew hundreds of poems and hundreds of songs. Most of the latter may have come from church attendance. Today, the average literate person can sing along to thousands of songs but not recite a single poem written in the last half century.

Before performing her song, "Motherland", in this video Natalie Merchant interrupts herself to say: "Oh, this is a poem by Natalie Merchant." Here are the lyrics, with some color added to highlight some of the repeated sounds, including rhymes:

[Verse 1]
Where in hell can you go
Far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete
That keeps crawling its way
About one thousand miles a day?

[Verse 2]
Take one last look behind
Commit this to memory and mind
Don't miss this wasteland
This terrible place, when you leave
Keep your heart off your sleeve

[Chorus]
Motherland, cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go
Don't you go

[Verse 3]
Oh, my five-and-dime queen
Tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice
The bottomless, the cavernous greed
Is that what you see?

[Chorus]
Motherland, cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go

[Verse 4]
It's your happiness I want most of all
And for that, I'd do anything at all, o mercy me!
If you want the best of it or the most of all
If there's anything I can do at all
Now come on, shotgun bride
What makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless, and free
What's that like to be?

[Chorus]
Motherland, cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go
Don't you go

The music couldn't be much simpler and the singing adds immeasurably to the experience. Note the repeated sounds: rhymes, assonance (i.e. vowel sounds), consonance (i.e. consonants) and alliterations (i.e. at the beginnings of words). These make the poem easier to remember. As memory aids called "mnemonics". We remember the choruses because they are repeated but which verse do we remember most? Might it be the most colorful one, with the most sound repetitions?

        Would this work as spoken verse?

      "Why would anyone want to hear a song without its music?"

      Great question! With the introduction of radio in 1923 people could listen to music 24/7. This was much more convenient than going to a saloon, church, or music hall.

      Think of how many lyricists you know.

      "Isaac Brock, Max Martin, Sly Stone, Claudio Sanchez, Barry Mann, Justin Vernon, Lana Del Rey--"

       I'd have gone with Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Ferron, and John Prine, but your list is fine. Now, how many 21st Century poets--not counting lyricists--can you name?

       Crickets.

       Really? Okay. How many 21st century poems can you recite?

       More crickets.

       In the shower or while playing air guitar, how many 21st century songs can you butcher?

       "Jillions!"

Alright. So which should we learn first? Metered verse, which can be turned into songs, or free verse, which aren't? Something with billions of listeners worldwide or something with virtually none?

"Is this a trick question?"

         No.

        "Then meter, of course!"

        Good choice. We'll need to learn about rhythm, which we call "scansion", and sounds, which we call "sonics", including rhyme.

        "Can we learn about slams? My friends say they're a lot of fun."

        We can have you competing in slams within a few weeks. As for fun, that is another of Pearl Gray's paradoxes--

        "What's a paradox?"

         Something that seems contradictory but is actually true.

       "Okay. So...why do some people write free verse?"

        Because they think it is easier and they figure, since no one is listening, why not take the path of least resistance?

       "And is it easier?"

        No. In fact, it's five times as difficult, and there is no real chance of serious benefit--to the author or the public--because of the minuscule audience and, for that matter, readership.

       "So why do they bother?"

        Because being a poet has a certain cachet. Status. People who don't get enough attention love the thought that their words will be preserved in memory.

       "Even though they won't be."

        Exactly. A person can dream. It's a free country.

        "Is there any way to get people to read your poetry? Without setting it to music, I mean."

        A person could get their work published in their university's press and hope students will be forced to study--sorry, interpret--it. Or be selected to read a poem at an inauguration. Or state funeral, perhaps. We call these "occasional" poems. Unfortunately, the last few of these have not been memorized, even by their authors.

        "That's it?"

        People just don't listen to poetry without music.

"Is there a workaround? Some kind of cheat code?"

         Well, it's possible to embed poetry in prose. For example, imagine a movie about someone who performs poetry at, say, open mikes. Beyond that, we're really only talking about song lyrics. For now, at least.

        "That's depressing."

         It can be, but consider this: There is more verse being published and heard today than ever before.

        "Yeah, but there's more people than ever before."

         True, but I mean as a percentage of the population. Granted, 99.999+% of the verse is in song, but the hours individuals spend listening to verse are at an all time high. And rising.

        "So if I'm a tone deaf poet--"

         You have one more reason to date a musician.

Next: Part III - What is rhythm?

The Outerview Series

Monday, July 27, 2020

Poetry in Three Minutes

This is a quick and dirty introduction to poetry basics. A slightly more comprehensive approach is "What You Need To Know About Poetry".

You may want to pause the video in places and review each one a few times.

By clicking on the titles ("Definition", "Basic Scansion", "Sonics", "Performing") you can read the underlying articles for each topic.

If you have questions please feel free to post them below.

Learning Poetry - 1. Definition

The first three minute video establishes the one word definition for poetry, regardless of epoch, culture, language, theme, genre, or form.

Learning Poetry - 2. Basic Scansion

Here, one is introduced to the elements of meter.

Learning Poetry - 3. Sonics

At the root of poetry is sound.

Learning Poetry - 4. Performing

The whole point of this mode of speech is performance.

Learning Poetry - 5: Free Verse

Free verse (not to be confused with prose poetry or prose qua poetry) and its niche.

Learning Poetry - 6. Rhyme

The repetition of sounds in related positions.

We hope you enjoy this series and find it helpful.

Earl Gray, Esquirrel

Monday, May 11, 2020

What You Need To Know About Poetry

1. Definition of Poetry

2a. Scansion for Beginners

2b. Scansion for Intermediates

2c. Scansion for Experts

3. Sonics

4. Performance

5. Terminology

6. Examples

An even quicker approach would be "Poetry in Three Minutes".

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Ten Steps to Writing Poetry

Earl Gray's 104th Law of Poetry

Q1. Why don't people read my poetry?

This one is easy:

Reason #1:

People don't read your poetry because poetry is a form of speech, not writing. It is meant to be performed. Aloud. Not read. Not read aloud.

Earl Gray's 154th Law of Poetry

Reason #2:

People don't read your poetry for the same reason you don't read theirs. Or anyone else's. No, it's not tit-for-tat or quid pro quo. 99% of golfers are duffers. 99% of chessplayers are patzers. 99% of bridgeplayers are palookas. As in most avocations, 99% of poets are untrained and unskilled.

Earl Gray's 35th Law of Poetry

Q2. How can I get critics to read my poetry?

Serious critics are few--there may be 200 worldwide--and extremely busy. You'd have to master the basics and show determination before attracting such help. Unless you are self-motivating, it is a Catch-22, like trying to get a job without experience...or experience without a job. Lurk for a year on critical forums such as Poetry Free-For-All or Eratosphere before posting there.

Earl Gray's 56th Law of Poetry

Q3. So what do I need to learn?

#1: Humility. Observe Scavella's Mantra: "I'm not as good as I think I am."

Earl Gray's 109th Law of Poetry

#2: Be teachable. Tutor's motto: "We can work with the clueless but not the clueproof."

Earl Gray's 44th Law of Poetry

#3: Respect the art form. Avoid the Convenient Poetics trap. Learn why you will remember phrases from the great poems of the 21st century long after you forget everything else you read this month.