UNIT 1: FORMAL FEATURES OF POETRY IN ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION: SOME DEFINITIONS

Poetic line: Basic unit of a poem

Syllable: Basic unit of pronunciation

EXERCISE: How many syllables are there in these words?

London, fantastic, bubble, spasm, photographic

SCANSION: the art of scanning a line in order to analyse the rhythmic pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables in it.

Symbols: stressed syllable: /

unstressed syllable: ̆

EXERCISE. Scan the following line:

To be or not to be: that is the question.

̆ / ̆ / ̆ / ̆ / ̆ / ̆
To be or not to be: that is the question.
OR
̆ / ̆ / ̆ / / ̆ ̆ / ̆
To be or not to be: that is the question.

• CAESURA: a pause in the middle of the line (frequent, but not compulsory)

̆ / ̆ / ̆ / || ̆ / ̆ / ̆

To be or not to be: that is the question.

METRE:

Organisation of the rhythm of a poem into a sequence of regular units. Studied by

PROSODY.

TYPES OF METRE:
Accentual: Old English, Scandinavian languages...

Accentual-syllabic: most English poetry after the 14th c.

Syllabic: languages like French, Italian, Spanish...
Quantitative: Latin, Greek...

ACCENTUAL SYLLABIC METRE

It counts the number of stresses in a line and also the number of syllables.

The FOOT as its basic unit: a combination of two or three syllables, which may be
stressed or unstressed.

TYPES OF FEET:

IAMBIC (unstr + stressed) ̆ /

TROCHAIC (stressed + unstr) / ̆

ANAPESTIC (unstr + unstr + str) ̆ ̆ /

DACTYLIC (str + unstr + unstr) / ̆ ̆

Less common types of feet:

SPONDAIC (str + str) / /
PYRRHIC (unstr + unstr) ̆ ̆

To be | or not | to be: || that is the| question

How many feet in the line? 5
Which types of feet? 3 iambic + 1 dactylic + 1 trochaic (or 5 iambic feet and a trailing
syllable)
Rising / falling metre
Leading / trailing syllables (initial / final - unstressed)

TYPES OF LINE DEPENDING ON LENGTH:

 Monometre (1 foot only)

 Dimetre (2 feet)
 Trimetre(3)
 Tetrametre (4)
 PENTAMETRE (5): the most common in English
 Hexametre (6)
 Heptametre (7)
 Octametre (8): rare
IMPORTANCE OF IRREGULARITY:
 A totally regular pattern too mechanical and boring: poets often include
deliberate irregularities in connection with meaning (changes in rhythm to
surprise readers).
 Other devices to achieve irregularity: playing with caesurae, elision,
enjambment (run-on lines)...

EXERCISE. Scan the following lines:

If music be the food of love, play on

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me

Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit

S. T. Coleridge “Metrical Feet”

Trochee trips from long to short
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow spondee stalks; strong foot yet ill able
Ever to come up with the dactyl trisyllable
Iambics march from short to long.
With a leap and a bound the swift anapaests throng.
2. RHYME AND HOMOPHONY

Effects of homophony (repetition of sounds): foregrounding + association.

RHYME: a type of homophony. Repetition of sounds at the end of words or lines.

Other types of HOMOPHONY:

 Alliteration (repetition of initial sounds)
 Assonance (vowels repeated)
 Consonance (consonants repeated)
 Onomatopoeia (sound evokes meaning)

TYPES OF RHYME:
 End rhymes (end of the line) / internal rhymes (middle of a line)
 Masculine or strong / feminine or weak rhymes
 Single rhymes / double / triple / quadruple (number of syllables repeated)
 Perfect rhyme / eye rhyme / imperfect rhyme

TYPES OF IMPERFECT RHYME (also off, half, near, slant, partial):

 vowel rhyme (only vowels rhyme)
 pararhyme (only consonants rhyme)
IDENTIFY THE FOLLOWING RHYMING PATTERNS:
It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned.

I was sad because my dad

Made me eat every beet.

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

3. POETIC FORMS

STANZA: a group of lines with a specific pattern. (Verse= stanza or line)

POETIC FORM: one specific type of stanza or several stanzas combined in a specific
way.

FIXED FORMS:
Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentametre)
Couplet (2 lines rhyming together)
Tercet (3 lines)
Quatrain (4 lines)
Limerick (5 lines)
Rhyme royal (7 lines)
Ottava rima(8lines)
Spencerian stanza(9lines)
Sonnet (14): Petrarchan / Shakespearean

A limerick by Edward Lear

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'

EXPERIMENTAL POETIC FORMS:

• Prose poetry: appearance of prose, but rhythm and other poetic features.
• Found poetry: transforming a prose passage into poetry.
• Shape poetry (also pattern or concrete poetry): a shape on the page.
• Sound poetry: for performance.

FORMS ACCORDING TO CONTENT (not fixed):

Traditionally: Epic / dramatic / lyric

Nowadays:
– Ballad
– Elegy
– Ode
– Epigrams
– Complaints
– Apology

4. RHETORICAL TROPES (=FIGURES OF SPEECH)

 RHETORIC: the art of fine speaking
 TROPE: a formula for saying something in a particular way

METAPHOR> PARTS: canon / figure / ground

Example: “Tom is a pig”

Canon: Tom / Figure: pig / Ground: qualities shared (being dirty)

METAPHOR-RELATED TROPES (considered ‘imagery’):

• Metaphor
• Simile
• Conceit
• Symbol
• Allegory
• Analogy

EXAMPLE OF A CONCEIT:
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow

PP. B. Shelley, “England in 1819”

OTHER TROPES:
• Synecdoque
• Metonymy
• Litotes
• Meiosis
• Oxymoron
• Pun
• Rhetorical question
• Transferred epithet
• Paradox
• Apostrophe
• Euphemism
• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Pathetic fallacy
• Personification
• Anthropomorphism

TROPES RELATED TO SYNTAX:

• Anaphora
• Inversion
• Chiasmus
• Syllepsis

INTERTEXTUAL TROPES:
• Literary allusion
• Quotation
• Parody
• Self-referentiality
UNIT 2. A GENERAL SURVEY OF BRITISH POETRY UP
TO THE 20TH CENTURY

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

– 16th c + first half 17th c.

– Consolidation of ACCENTUAL SYLLABIC METRE.
– Tudor dynasty: a period of national confidence (Henry VIII, Elizabeth I...).
– Religious reformation: consolidation of Anglicanism.
– Literature: Thomas More’s Utopia (prose), Shakespeare’s plays (drama).

 Poetry as the pastime of educated high society.

 A personal, private genre, only for circles of friends.
 Most popular poetic form: SONNET (lyric, courtly, highly formal, imported
from Italy). Main theme: love, but gradually other topics.
 Pioneers of the sonnet: SIR THOMAS WYATT, HENRY HOWARD EARL OF
SURREY.
 The Italian sonnet (Petrarchan)gradually transformed into the English sonnet
(Shakespearian).
 First anthology of sonnets: published 1557.
 Sonnet sequences: Sir Philip Sidney (first), William Shakespeare, Lady Mary
Wroth.
 OTHER POETS: John Skelton, Sir Philip Sidney, Lady Mary (Sidney) Herbert,
Edmund Spencer...
 16th c. poetry: often Classical allusions, Italian references, contemporary
concerns.

17th c. POETRY
 Reflection of conflicts in society (religious and political conflicts). Civil War and
Puritan Commonwealth (1649-1660).
  A new cultural context: Baroque period, confusion about the world, complexity
and variety.

 POETRY: shocking, surprising images; complex rhetorical tropes (paradox,

conceit, hyperbole) to express the complexity and contradictory nature of
life.

 Loss of popularity of the sonnet. A diversity of poetic forms are preferred.

 METAPHYSICAL POETRY(1630-1660): experimental, great intellectual

complexity, different presentation of love (not idealised or remote but realistic,
close, returned, often sensuous), exploration of rel. man-God- universe,
presence of scientific discoveries.
METAPHYSICAL POETS (intellectual, persuasive , not descriptive): John
Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan...
OTHER 17th c. POETS: Ben Jonson, Andrew Marvell.
CAVALIER POETS (Supporters of the king in the Civil War; frivolous, simple poems):
Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace...

2.2. LATE 17th C. AND 18th C. POETRY: RESTORATION AND SATIRE

 Restoration of the monarchy (1660-1688): king Charles II. The Glorious

Revolution: a new political system (Parliamentary rule and Protestant
monarchy). Hannoverian kings.
 The Augustan age (prosperity, flourishing of arts, extremes of Puritanism
abolished, frivolous entertainment preferred, theatres re-opened). The
Enlightenment.
IMPORTANT RESTORATION POETS:

 JOHN MILTON: A supporter of the Commonwealth. Paradise Lost (1667):

exploration of freedom and individual choice.
  JOHN DRYDEN: Leading poet during the Restoration. Mainly satire and drama.
Not lyrical poetry, but on public issues.
 APHRA BEHN: Female dramatist. First professional woman writer.
First half of the 18th century
 Poetry mainly satirical(social, political, religious issues). Focus on the external
world , not on emotions. Highly formal language and self- referentiality.
 Some poets: Alexander Pope, AnneFinch Countess of Winchilsea, Jonathan
Swift...

Second half of the 18th century

 Evolution towards lyric poetry. ‘Pre-romantic’ poetry: new themes and forms
(nature and rural life, melancholy, simple language).
 Some poets: Thomas Gray, William Collins, Charlotte Smith.

2.3. 19th C. POETRY: ROMANTICS AND VICTORIANS

 THE 19TH CENTURY (1789-1900). Radical social changes: French Rev.,

Industrial Rev., social differences. Political instability, later growing prosperity
with the British Empire and international success.
 ROMANTIC POETRY (1789-1832): Lyric poetry, focus on emotions, the soul,
the imagination (not the external world). Rejection of civilisation and the city.
Innocence, nature and individual freedom preferred.
 SOME ROMANTIC POETS: W. Blake, W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, P. B.
Shelley, Lord Byron, J. Keats, D. Hemans.

 VICTORIAN POETRY (1832-1900): Loss of popularity because of the success

of the Victorian novel. Emotions under control, melancholy tone. Sadness and
despair. Social comment.
  SOME VICTORIAN POETS: Alfred Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett, Robert
Browning, Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Gerard Manley Hopkins...

UNIT 3. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

GENERAL CONTEXT
 MONARCHY: After Queen Victoria, Edward VII (1901-1910) and George V
(1910-1936).
 SOCIETY: Mass migration to cities, the fight for women’s vote, conflicts in
Ireland and the colonies, new disciplines (psychology, psychoanalysis),
technological progress (radio, cinema, motor cars...).
 IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE: National pride, nostalgia, uncertainty. Extension of
literacy. Changes after World War I: end of innocence.

PERIODS IN POETRY:
 The pre-war years:
o Edwardian poetry (1901-1910)
o Georgian poetry (1910-1922)
 War poetry(1914-1918)
 Modernist poetry (1918-1930)
 Poetry in the 1930s

3.1. POETRY BEFORE AND DURING WORLD WAR I

EDWARDIAN POETRY(1901-1910)
  MAIN CHARACTERISTICS: Nostalgia, national pride, patriotism, celebration of
rural England, exaltation of masculinity. Poetry was sentimental, patriotic,
imperialistic, conservative, uncomplicated.

 POETS: Henry Newbolt, W. E. Henley, Alfred Austin... Also late Victorian

poets: Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy.

GEORGIAN POETRY. (1912-1922).

Included in five anthologies
 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS: Celebration of rural life, no interest in patriotism or
contemporary events, no sentimentality.
 POETS: Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, D. H. Lawrence, A. E. Housman,
Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon...

WAR POETRY(1914-1918)

 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS: From patriotic to polemical poetry. Shift from a

myth- dominated to a demythologised world. Protest, compassion, poetic
renovation.
 POETS: Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg,
Edmund Blunden, Charles Sorley...

3.2. MODERNIST POETRY (1918-1930)

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS:
 Anti-realism: reality is internal, inside the mind.
 Individualism: the individual creates reality.
 Intellectualism: sophisticated art, elitism.
 Experimentation: innovative techniques (stream of consciousness, etc.).
 Pessimism: perception of Western civilization in decay, alienation from society.

POETS: William Butler Yeats, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein
(Am.), William Carlos Williams (Am.).

THE WASTE LAND (1922)

T. S. Eliot
A long poem with five sections.
CONTENT: depicts a cultural and spiritual waste land in Western civilisation
after WWI. Mood of disillusionment. Journey through a dry land in search of water
(quest for hope and spiritual nourishment). Images of sterility and disorder. Several
characters and voices.

FORM:
 disjointed verse paragraphs= a fragmentary poem.
 Intertextuality (Biblical, Classical, literary, contemporary life...)= a highly
allusive poem. Even endnotes.
 Mythical method (not narrative)= the present interpreted in terms of myth,
present chaos expressed through mythology.

3.3. POETRY IN THE 1930s

 CONTEXT: political tension as aconsequence of economic recession. Fascism

and Communism in expansion. Spanish Civil War (right/left).

 LITERATURE: interest not in literary innovation (Modernism) or the nature of

writing, but on social and political issues.

 POETRY: the Pylon Poets (or Auden Group). Middle class, but working class
concerns (social themes). Left-wing. Ordinary language and industrial imagery.
W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis, Louis MacNeice....

UNIT 4. POETRY AFTER WORLD WAR II

POETRY IN THE 1940s

 MAIN POETIC TENDENCY: Neo-Romanticism (no political or social interest, no

formal experimentation; focus on the expression of emotions; mainly lyrical
poetry; inspiration in 19th c. romanticism).

 DYLAN THOMAS AS THE MAIN POET: Celebration of natural cycles, of the

fecundity of life, sexual and biological imagery, nostalgia. Intense feelings and
verbal effusion. Accused of using repetitive and incoherent images.

POETRY IN THE 1950s

 REACTION AGAINST NEO-ROMANTIC POETRY: “The Movement” (not

homogeneous , short- lived, two influential anthologies 1955 & 1956).

 CHARACTERISTICS: new perception of the world. Careful, rational structures;

judgement over subjectivity; precision, realism, lack of passion, restraint;
regularity in form; colloquial, direct language.

 SOME POETS: Philip Larkin, Elizabeth Jennings, Thom Gunn, John Wain,
Kingsley Amis..
OTHER POETS IN THE 1950s AND 1960s (more individualised):

 STEVIE SMITH (not a specific movement, but writing since the 1930s)
 TED HUGHES: associated with “The Group” (a later movement, mid 50s- mid
60s)
 SEAMUS HEANEY (Irish)

THE BRITISH POETRY REVIVAL (1960-75)

CHARACTERISTICS: A new generation, reaction against the conservatism of “The
Movement”. Inspiration in Modernism. Poetic experimentation . Plurality of tendencies
and influences (jazz, concrete poetry, found poetry, sound poetry... American poetry
influential).
SOME POETS: Edwin Morgan, Iain Sinclair, Ian Finley, Elaine Randell.

UNIT 5. RECENT POETRY IN ENGLISH. NEW VOICES

5.1. FEMINISM AND WOMEN’S POETRY

 BEFORE 1970: Poetic scene male-centred. Female poets writing, but absent in
poetry anthologies. Paid little attention. Invisibility.

 1970s: Beginning of feminist poetry (new attitudes, concerns and techniques).

More women writers published than ever before. Recovery of forgotten or
neglected female poets of the past.

 1980s: First women-only poetry anthologies.

MAIN INFLUENCES:
 INFLUENTIAL BOOKS: The Second Sex (1949) by Simone de Beauvoir (gender
and sexuality as socially constructed, not related to biology). Other critical
approaches by female theorists and critics.

 THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION (1960s): youth culture, sexual freedom,

contraception.

 THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT or second wave of feminism

(Britain and the USA, 1970s). Vindication of social and political rights (equal
pay, legal abortion, maternity leave), rejection of confining roles of wife and
mother, right to choose and/or combine it with a professional career. Public
protests, demonstrations and performances.

A NEW GENERATION OF WOMEN POETS AFFECTED BY THIS:

  New topics and concerns: exploration of gender differences, female identity,
patriarchal oppression, sexuality, everyday female experience (motherhood,
mother-daughter relationships, etc.).
 New techniques: rejection of male conventions, multiple points of view and
voices, fragmentation, frustration and anger 1970s, gradually more use of
humour.
 More accessibility to the audience: empathy in female readers, ordinary
language, humour.

MICHÈLE ROBERTS: Involved in feminist social activism (1970s). Questioning of

Christian mythology as offering valid models for women (feminist subversion and
rewriting of it).

CAROL ANN DUFFY: Conversational language, popular among the audience. Interest
in history and in giving voice to historical or mythical women (The World’s Wife).

EAVAN BOLAND: Main Irish female poet today. Interest in Irish history and women’s
position in it, the difficulties faced by women poets.

5.2. POETRY FROM THE FORMER COLONIES

SETTLER COLONIES (Canada, Australia, New Zealand...) / INVADED

COLONIES (the Indian subcontinent, areas in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia).

LITERATURE first ignored or included in mainstream British writing. After the

1970s growing attention to their specificity. 1990s: more and more diversity.
COMMON TOPICS IN POETRY:
 Alienation from Britain (different location and experience, therefore
different identity, non-British).
 Tensions with Britain: hierarchical relationship. Vindication of their
own cultural roots.
 Denunciation of racism where non-white ethnicity.

SOME POETS:
 OLIVE SENIOR: Caribbean (Jamaica). Focus on gender and ethnicity.
 DEREK WALCOTT: Caribbean (St. Lucia). Nobel Prize 1992. Also a dramatist.
 WOLE SOYINKA: African (Nigeria). Nobel Prize 1986. Vindication of African
roots. Also a dramatist.
 MARGARET ATWOOD: Canadian. Feminist writing, mainly novels and
criticism.

5.3. BLACK BRITISH POETRY

 Poetry produced by Black communities in Britain (mainly of Afro-Caribbean
and African descent). 1980s onwards.
  Social background: immigration to Britain after decolonisation in the
1950s (workforce). Racist conflicts.
 Now 8 % of the population: Britain a multicultural society. Second and third
generations: “Hyphenated” identities.
 Frequent topics: exploration of hybridity, identity conflicts produced by
racism, exploration and/or vindication of their non-British cultural roots.

SOME POETS:
 JACKIE KAY: Scottish, adopted, African father. Exploration of identity and
hybridity.
 BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH: Born in Birmingham of Jamaican descent.
Performance poet (dub poetry). Wish for accessibility of poetry. Focus on racial
discrimination and social conflicts.
 LINTON KWESI JOHNSON: Born in Jamaica. A performance poet (dub poetry).
Social and political poetry.