Submitted To:Abdur Rahim Lecturer Department of English. Language &Literature Premier University, Chittagong. Submitted By:Taharatul Minar Id: 1903710403188 Section:C Course: Practical Criticism Course Code: 303Thesis On History Of Prosody Submitted For:Final Examination Submitted To:Abdur Rahim Introduction There are different branches of linguistics that deal with sounds and all of their unique aspects. One branch in particular, known as prosody, is the study of bigger speech sound units and syllables.Prosody is the study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning Root: The word derives from the Latin Prosodia meaning "accent of a syllable " The Latin meaning originated from the Greek Prosodia.Which means both "song sung to music " and "ancent modulation ". Prosody firstusage in English was in the late 15th century when it was used to indicate " the study of versification ". Prosody of Literature: Prosody, the defining feature of expressive reading, comprises all of the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, and intonation that speakers use to help convey aspects of meaning and to make their speech lively. One of the challenges of oral reading is adding back the prosodic cues that are largely absent from written language. The ideas of various thinkers about prosody are given bellows with links: According to Yoweri Museveni "Some people think that being in government for a long time is a bad thing. But the more you stay, the more you learn. | am now an expert in governance". https://libquotes.com/yoweri- museveni/quote/Ibe1h9oCarl A. Wickland illustrate, "which is guiding this work, endeavoring to bring humanity to a realization of the simplicity of the transition called death, and the importance of a rational understanding of what becomes of the spirits" https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/ 584819.Carl_A_Wickland Diane Wakoski says, "What line breaks add to prose prosody is a connection between eye and ear which emphasizes the nature of the language by ... creating units of intent and emphasis, and by contouring the meloding pitch changes in the narrative-line". https://www.quotemaster.org/q42e61d3398 A4e60f76fadac4b6abcd61a Theodore Sturgeon nerates,'! teach writing courses and first of all, | teach my students what prosody is". https://www.azquotes.com/quote/860389It is also defined by Anne Waldman, "The formal stuff feels old and windy. Not to say you shouldn't know prosody. But it's a wonderful time for exploratory poetics. Contemporary poets are inventing all kinds of wild, complex shapes for poetry, as we see. It's a wonderful time, less ego-centered". https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1579361 It can be said that by W. H. Auden "Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs". https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/pro sody Hadumod Bussmann told that, " Linguistic characteristics such as stress, intonation, quantity, and pauses in speech that concern units greater than the individual phonemes. Prosody also includes speech tempo and rhythm ". https://www.scribd.com/document/2918117 48/Selection-of-quotes-about-Prosody-and-Action-Research. Gopal Mallik Thakur told that it deals with the process of the constitution of the verses used in a poem. He furthers his idea about prosody saying that its main concerns are rhythm, metre, rhyme, and the formation of the stanza. moreover, prosody determines the lines of a poem. On the other hand, Cuddon opines that prosody is the “study or science of versification and every aspect of it” (751). https://learnwithrahim.com/prosody- classification/ Miller and Schwanenflugel concluded that, “early acquisition of an adult-like intonation contour predicted better comprehension.” Another study, which included more than 1,750 fourth graders participating in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found a strong correlation between prosody and overall reading achievement. https://www.scilearn.com/why-prosody-matters-importance-reading-aloud-expression/ Finally J.C. Wells said that, "The prosodic-or suprasegmental- characteristics of speech are those of pitch, loudness and speed-or tempo, or speech rate; its inverse is the duration of the constituent segments-. These combine together to make up the rhythm of speech, and are combined in turn with stretches of silence -pause- to break up the flow of speech". https://www.scribd.com/document/2918117 48/Selection-of-quotes-about-Prosody-and- Action-Research Conclusion Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus. It may otherwise reflect other elements of language that may notbe encoded by grammar or by choice of vocabulary and prosody has multiple functions in literature. Answer to the question 4Answer to the question no 5 Introduction :The poetess has shown the dull and rough life of a women in American society. She has to take care of his house, children and husband. She has to mend their clothes and to feed them three times a day.She has to clean the clothes of whole family and also she has to clean the floor of the house. She has to harvest crops, buy things from the market, press the clothes of children and look after the garden.After this rough and tough daily routine, she has become exhausted and desire for rest.She finds relief in nature and calls all the mejor component of nature to help her to get out of this dull life and enjoy the nature.She calls the sunshine to shine on her,requests rain to fall the drops of water on her.She contemplates nature as her best friend ;she meditates and calls the nature for relief. She call the natural objects andsays,you are only whom i can call my way Modernization has changed the life of man and makes the life very first.But when a person became exhausted after the hard work of whole day,he finds relief in leap of nature. The poem "Women Work" show such images in it where an exhausted woman demands from the natural for a relief. Besides this, the poem deals with the mechanical life of modern man. Structure : The poem itself consists of five stanzas. The first stanza is the longest one with fourteen lines. All the subsequent stanzas are shorter and made up of four lines. In the poem “Woman Work”, Maya Angelou kept in mind the different works of a woman while composing the poem.The rhyme scheme throughout ‘Woman Work’ is not constant. The first stanza consists of seven pairs of rhymed lines in the pattern AABB and so on. Since these lines are short and quick in nature, they create an impression of breathlessness in the reader's mind, as if the woman has no time to pause between hervarious household chores if she is to complete them within the required space of a single day. The next more stanzas are written in free verse, and create a more calming effect. Stanza 1:Analysis the poetess describes the life of a domestic woman, whose life is very hard because she has to do a lot of household activities. She has to care for her offspring. She has to repair their clothes. She has to buy food for her family. Stanza 1:Primary Response she is an active member of her family because she is involved in domestic chores from morning to evening. These lines show her responsible and active nature. She uses assonance( repetition of vowels) in the starting stanza like tend, mend, and mop, shop.The poem presents the modern mechanical age that has given everything to man but not mental satisfaction and calm. The language of thepoem is very simple but has a pragmatic approach. Stanza 2 Analysis : In these lines, the poetess is counting some of her household duties which she has to perform daily. She has to fry chicken and cook food for the family. She has to bathe, dry, and clothe the babies. She also has to look after a number of guests whom she has to entertain. Stanza 2 Primary Response : She has to look after and take care of the back lawn or the backyard ground, otherwise, the plants there would die away. This is a reaction to the thankless tasks of the household. The poetess has expressed her thoughts about the place of women in our society. Stanza 3 Analysis : These lines tell us about a domestic andcommon woman. Being a responsible member of the family, a domestic woman has to iron the clothes of her family. She has to change the dress of her little children many times a day. Stanza 3 Primary Response : She has to trim the little plants in her house to make them beautiful and attractive because it is her duty to keep the house clean. These lines reflect that woman who gets busy all the time ignoring her aesthetic side of life. Stanza 4 Analysis These lines express the domestic woman's inner side and inner feelings. She calls the elements of nature for her help because she has got tired after doing a lot of work at home. She beseeched the sun to pour its sunlight on her because its rays are a source of energy. Stanza 4 Primary ResponseShe calls the rain to fall on her forehead to make her cool because the water of the rain gives freshness to her body and mind. She addresses the dewdrops to fall on her softly and to cool her hot mind. The poetess describes the boring condition of a domestic lady. She laments that her domestic busy life has deprived her of the company of sunshine, rain, and dewdrops. She intends to make her warm with sunlight and cool with rain Stanza 5 Analysis : Here the poetess says that a domestic woman is so much fed up with the monotony of her household life that she wants to escape from such a life. She expresses her yearning to be in the company of the objects of nature. Stanza 5 Primary Response She beseeched the storm to come to her and take her with its intense winds from there so that she may be free for a while from hermonotonous routine. She requests the storm to take her from there and leave her across the skies so that she may keep floating there and be satisfied. Stanza 6 Analysis : The poetess has already enumerated the list of her daily assignments being a housewife. Her detail shows that she has been living like a prisoner in her house under the commands of her husband and the demands of her children Stanza 6 Primary Response : She wants to get herself relaxed with the touch of cold icy wind. The more she is covered gently with the snowflakes, the more she will feel comforted. Her escape into snowfall will give her both shelter and rest. Stanza 7 Analysis These lines express the wishes of a domesticwoman. She wishes to be in the company of natural elements. She is passionate to be among mountains, oceans, leaves, stones, star-shine, moon glow for refreshment. She longs to sit in the company of all these natural objects Stanza 7 Primary Response She wants to give herself relief from painful and hectic responsibilities. She does not feel happy doing domestic chores. Her life is without any charm and pleasure. Her duties in the house, are very tedious and painful. The use of the word mend, mop, and shop shows her engagement during the day. She works without rest and relaxation. Time has bowed her down to compromise with the dull and dreary life of daily work. Summary In this poem, the poetess tells the story of a woman who works day and night. She remains engaged in her domestic chores all day. She hasto perform her duties on various planks in her house. She works like a machine that has no stop from dawn till night. Her several responsibilities comprise the cleaning of the house, looking up her kids, preparing meals for the family, tending clothes, purchasing groceries from the market. While performing all the tasks, she now gets fed up with her tiring works as she finds no time to relax. But all her domestic duties and responsibilities do not make her dull and pessimistic. She intends to return to nature and to be in the company of nature. For this, she invites nature to help her and to soothe her fatigued body. Only nature and its beautiful objects can save her from the drudgery of routine life. Language: The language of this poem is simple Tone The tone of the first stanza is tense and depressing. The woman is given a list of choresto do which tire her out and create more stress in her life. The tone of the second, third, fourth, and fifth stanzas is grateful and content. The woman does not have much, but she is grateful for nature and is content with it. The difference in tone is emphasized through the difference in consonance that Maya Angelou uses as a sound device Figure Many examples of imagery can be found in this poem. The first example of imagery is in the woman's work. The poem describes her chores for the day from baking, weeding, mending clothes, and tiding her home. The next imagery that the speaker uses paints a calm picture of nature using different seasonal examples. She uses sunshine, rain, storms, wind, and snowflakes. Mountains, the sky, oceans, stars, and moons are also examples of environmental imagery in this poem. This imagery in the poem slows down the tempo, creating a more relaxing ending for a busy start.Sense DevicesAn example of a sense device in this poem is personification. The speaker personifies nature into a being that calms her and relieves her stress and tiresome work. For instance, the woman wants the snowflakes to "Cover me with white Cold icy kisses." She asks nature to cool her tired body and to let her strained soul find rest. Other Poetic Element of the Poem: lambic Foot: An example of a poetic element in this poem is iambic foot. lambic foot is when the emphasis is placed on the second syllable instead of the first. Most of the first stanza is written in iambic foot, including lines "The floor to mop" and "The tots to dress." Theme The theme of this poem is work and loneliness. Work is shown through the chores and daily jobs the speaker does in the first stanza. Work causes the woman stress. Loneliness is theother theme in this poem. The speaker mentions her children three times, but never brings up any husband, which is the reason for her loneliness. The woman's loneliness digs a hole inside her soul, but she fills it with her work and nature.