28/09/21

Verse form
Free verse
Regular verse form
Rhyme
Rhyming patterns
Types of rhyme : masculine, feminine, imperfect...

VGE1E12
Lecture 3
Verse form-2 Today’s class – form in
Rhyme
poetry

My man is Black Golden Amber A big cat stalks through stubborn

Changing. bush
Warm mouths of Brandy Fine And did I mention Amber?
Cautious sunlight on a patterned The heatless fire consuming itself.
rug Again. Anew. Into ever
Coughing laughter, rocked on a neverlessness.
whirl of French tobacco My man is Amber
Graceful turns on woolen stilts Changing
Always into itself
Secretive? New. Now New
A cat’s eye. Still itself.
Southern, Plump and tender with Still
navy bean sullenness
And did I say Tender?

VERSE FORM 2.1

The gentleness
… but some
repetition
FREE VERSE Free Verse -1
‘To a ‘man’

If this country is a bastard

will the lowdown mother user
who ran off
and left the woman
moaning in her
green delivery
please come back and claim
his love child.
Give a legal name to beg from
for the first
time of its life.
Here, the subject of the poem
(how America has been
mistreated by the ‘mother
users’in power) is given
greater solemnity by the use of
free verse
Rhyme and regular meter
might have given the idea that
everything was alright and in
order

VERSE FORM -2.2

Free verse – 2 REGULAR VERSE FORMS
‘Request’

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• 2-line stanza • Couplet

The Health-Food Diner • 3-line stanza • Tercet
• 4-line stanza • Quatrain –
No sprouted wheat and soya shoots
And Brussels in a cake, • 5-line stanza • Quintet.
Carrot straw and spinach raw, • 6-line stanza • Sestet,
(Today, I need a steak). • 7-line stanza • Septet :
• 8-line stanza • Octave
Not thick brown rice and rice pilaw
Or mushrooms creamed on toast,
Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed, • 14-line poem • Sonnet
(I'm dreaming of a roast). […]

Regular verse form:

‘Health food diner’ Regular verse forms

The day hangs heavy

The gold of her promise loose and grey
has never been mined when you're away.
Her borders of justice A crown of thorns
not clearly defined a shirt of hair
is what I wear.
Her crops of abundance
the fruit and the grain No one knows
my lonely heart
Have not fed the hungry when we're apart.
nor eased that deep pain […]

Verse form –couplet:

‘America’ Tercet – ‘Greyday’

Greyday
In a time of secret wooing • 4-line stanzas
Today prepares tomorrow's ruin
The day hangs heavy • 3 stanzas Left knows not what right is doing =quatrain
loose and grey • Each have 3 lines (tercet) My heart is torn asunder.
when you're away. • 3 lines rhyme in
• Lines 2 & 3 rhyme each stanza
A crown of thorns • Regular meter In a time of furtive sighs
Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes = Blues rhyme
a shirt of hair
is what I wear. Half-truths told and entire lies
• Rhyming couplet in each My conscience echoes thunder.
tercet • Fourth (final)
No one knows lines rhyme
my lonely heart In a time when kingdoms come
when we're apart. Joy is brief as summer's fun
Happiness its race has run
Then pain stalks in to plunder.
A couplet is often part of a
longer stanza Quatrain ‘In a Time’

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Five-line stanzas ‘I wrote a poem for a woman who got on the bus in New
My guilt is "slavery's chains," too long - Quintet
the clang of iron falls down the years. York City and she used to just laugh (laughs).
This brother's sold. This sister's gone
is bitter wax, lining my ears. Each stanza closes
My guilt made music with the tears. with a
rhyming couplet The bus stopped, she’d laugh, if it picked up somebody
My crime is "heroes, dead and gone" she’d laugh, if it missed them…
dead Vesey, Turner, Gabriel,
dead Malcolm, Marcus, Martin King. First and last lines
They fought too hard, they loved too well. begin the same
My crime is I'm alive to tell. - Emphasis, makes it I looked at her and I thought that woman is not laughing,
feel like a chant she’s simply extending her lips and making a sound, that’s a
My sin is "hanging from a tree" - Prayer, asking for
I do not scream, it makes me proud. forgiveness? survival apparatus […]
I take to dying like a man.
I do it to impress the crowd.
My sin lies in not screaming loud.
So I wrote a poem for her,

Quintet – ‘My Guilt’ Septet: ‘When I think about myself’

When I think about myself, When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I almost laugh myself to death, I all alone beweep my outcast state,
My life has been one great big joke, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
A dance that’s walked And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
A song that’s spoke, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
I laugh so hard I nearly choke Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
When I think about myself. Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Sixty years in these folks’ world Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
The child I works for calls me girl Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
I say “Yes ma’am” for working’s sake. For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
Too proud to bend That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Too poor to break,
I laugh until my stomach ache,
When I think about myself. […]

Septet: ‘When I think about myself’ Sonnet 29: Shakespeare

Lorsqu’en disgrâce auprès de Fortune et des hommes,

• 2-line stanza • Couplet
Solitaire, je pleure d’être ainsi rejeté, • 3-line stanza • Tercet
Et de cris sans effet harcèle le ciel sourd ;
Que je vois mon état et maudis mon destin, • 4-line stanza • Quatrain –
Souhaitant être semblable à l’un, riche d’espoir, • 5-line stanza • Quintet.
D’un tel avoir les traits ou les amis nombreux,
Désirant de l’un le talent, de l’autre les chances, • 6-line stanza • Sestet,
Moi, le moins satisfait de mes dons les meilleurs ;
Si pourtant, me méprisant presque en ces pensées, • 7-line stanza • Septet :
Je pense à toi par chance, alors change mon sort, • 8-line stanza • Octave
Et comme l’alouette au point du jour s’élève
Loin du sol triste, je chante à la porte du ciel :
Ton cher amour remémoré me rend si riche • 14-line poem • Sonnet
Qu’à l’état d’un monarque je préfère le mien.

(diapo supplémentaire: traduction

française du sonnet 29) Revision

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• Types of verse (names, definitions)

• How verse form adds to meaning

RHYMING SCHEMES
What to learn & think
about

When I think about myself,

I almost laugh myself to death,
My life has been one great big joke,
• GIVES ORDER
A dance that’s walked
• CONNECTS IDEAS
A song that’s spoke,
=> POEMS ARE NOT JUST LINEAR! I laugh so hard I almost choke
When I think about myself.

‘When I think about

Why have rhyme? myself’

• ABAB : alternate rhymes (rimes croisées)
• ABBA : enclosing rhymes (rimes embrassées)
• AABB : couplet rhymes (rimes plates)
• ABCB: ballad rhyme
• AAAB: blues rhyme
• AAAB, CCCB, DDDB: linking rhyme
Soft you day, be velvet soft,
My true love approaches,
Look you bright, you dusty sun,
Array your golden coaches.
Soft you wind, be soft as silk
My true love is speaking.
Hold you birds, your silver throats,
His golden voice I’m seeking.
Soft you day, be velvet soft,
My true love approaches,
Look you bright, you dusty sun,
Array your golden coaches.
Soft you wind, be soft as silk
My true love is speaking.
Hold you birds, your silver throats,
His golden voice I’m seeking

Common rhyming ‘The Gamut’ : what rhymes?

schemes What’s the rhyming scheme?

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Soft you day, be velvet soft,
My true love approaches,
Look you bright, you dusty sun,
Array your golden coaches.
Soft you wind, be soft as silk
My true love is speaking.
Hold you birds, your silver
throats,
His golden voice I’m seeking
Soft you day, be velvet soft A Senses of insecurity
My true love approaches B
Look you bright, you dusty sun, C
Array your golden coaches.B I couldn’t tell fact from fiction I couldn’t tell fact from fiction A
or if my dream was true or if my dream was true B,
Soft you wind, be soft as silk D
My true love is speaking E The only sure prediction The only sure prediction A
Hold you birds, your silver throats F, in this whole world was you in this whole world was you B.
His golden voice I’m seeking E

‘Senses of insecurity’ stanza 1

ALTERNATE RHYME
ABCB = ballad rhyme

In a time of secret wooing A

Today prepares tomorrow's ruin A
I couldn’t tell fact from fiction A Left knows not what right is doing A
or if my dream was true B, My heart is torn asunder. B
The only sure prediction A
in this whole world was you B. In a time of furtive sighs C
Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes C
I’d touched your features inchly, Half-truths told and entire lies C
heard love and dared the cost C. My conscience echoes thunder. B
The scented spiel reeled me unreal
and found my senses lost C. In a time when kingdoms come D
Joy is brief as summer's fun D
Happiness its race has run D
Then pain stalks in to plunder. B

Senses of insecurity:
What doesn’t rhyme? In a Time’ – rhyming scheme ?
Linking rhyme

In a time of secret wooing A

Today prepares tomorrow's ruin A
Left knows not what right is doing A • End rhyme: rhyme at end of line
My heart is torn asunder. B • ‘loose and grey
when you're away’
In a time of furtive sighs C • Internal rhyme :
Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes C
Half-truths told and entire lies C • ‘Carrot straw and spinach raw’, (‘HFD')
My conscience echoes thunder. B • Masculine / strong rhyme
• ‘choke/joke’ (‘When I Think’) stress on last syllable
In a time when kingdoms come D • Feminine ‘
Joy is brief as summer's fun D • asúnder’/ ‘plúnder’ (In a Time’) stress on penultimate
Happiness its race has run D syllable
Then pain stalks in to plunder. B

In a Time’ – rhyming scheme ? Types of rhyme -1

Linking rhyme

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When I Think About Myself

My folks can make me split my side,
Imperfect rhymes : I laughed so hard I nearly died,
• Half rhyme The tales they tell, sound just like lying,
• come/fun (‘In a Time’) ‘come’ & ‘fun’ almost rhyme They grow the fruit,
But eat the rind,
Eye rhymes: I laugh until I start to crying,
again/ rain (“woman work”) ‘again’ & ‘rain’ look like
they should rhyme side / died
masculine rhyme
lying/crying
feminine rhyme

Types of rhyme -2 You try !

My Guilt • ABCB:
My guilt is "slavery's chains," too long • ABAB : (rimes croisées)
the clang of iron falls down the years. • ballad rhyme
• alternate rhymes
This brother's sold. This sister's gone • AAAB:
is bitter wax, lining my ears. • ABBA : (rimes embrassées)
My guilt made music with the tears. • blues rhyme
• enclosing rhymes
• AAAB, CCCB,
years/ ears/ tears • AABB : (rimes plates)
DDDB:
masculine rhyme • couplet rhymes
• linking rhyme
long / gone
imperfect rhyme

You try! Revision

• Types of rhyme (names, patterns)

• How rhyme adds to meaning

What to learn & think

about