A story is not like a road to follow, I said, it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself, of being built of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you. To deliver a story like that, durable and freestanding, is what I'm always hoping for.
Munro, Alice. "Introduction," Selected Stories. Toronto: Penguin, 1998.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
munro compression of ideas
An Inner Bell that Rings: the Craft of Alice Munro
Judith Maclean Miller
The Antigonish Review 115
Munro: What I want to get changes with different stories. It's got to be dictated by the material itself. And sometimes I want to get something that is very grainy and I don't want any artifice at all. I don't want the choice of words to seem anywhere elegant. I want awkwardness. I want to get a kind of plainness. And then I would be doing another story with different material and I want it to be, I feel that it should be, well, lush isn't the word I mean. But there should be a kind of luxuriance. The feeling of the story should be of lots and lots of words and resonance. Things level upon level.
point about the "compression" of this writing, that it has the effects of poem. A person can linger a long time over a paragraph like this in Munro-which becomes like a stanza in a poem. It is part of the effect she says she wants when she invites a reader to enter these stories anywhere and linger in the "rooms" she has created. That cannot happen in a story which is driving itself forward, in one direction, along a plot line. Munro and Metcalf went on to talk further about words:
Metcalf: Would you regard the way that
I respond to that word as being
ridiculous?
Munro: No. No. You just analyse a bit
further than I do. I know that it has
to be that word for some reason that I
don't go into. I'm just satisfied when
I know the word is right.
Metcalf: But when you are writing you
have this extremely conscious care and
choice about finding the exact word for
an exact place within the rhythm?
Munro: Yes. And it isn't so much
exactness in the meaning sense.
It's an emotional exactness ...
an exactness of resonance.
Metcalf. It's deliberate but it's
not conscious. Could we put it
that way?
Munro: Yes, I think so. Sometimes the
word comes right away ... the right word
... you might say it's not deliberate.
But in other cases the word has to be
sought for ... But not sought for in a
dictionary or a thesaurus or anything
like that or not sought for because of
its official meaning. (Metcalf 56)
Metcalf, John. "A Conversation with Alice Munro," Journal of Canadian Fiction. 1.4 (1972): 54-62.
Judith Maclean Miller
The Antigonish Review 115
Munro: What I want to get changes with different stories. It's got to be dictated by the material itself. And sometimes I want to get something that is very grainy and I don't want any artifice at all. I don't want the choice of words to seem anywhere elegant. I want awkwardness. I want to get a kind of plainness. And then I would be doing another story with different material and I want it to be, I feel that it should be, well, lush isn't the word I mean. But there should be a kind of luxuriance. The feeling of the story should be of lots and lots of words and resonance. Things level upon level.
point about the "compression" of this writing, that it has the effects of poem. A person can linger a long time over a paragraph like this in Munro-which becomes like a stanza in a poem. It is part of the effect she says she wants when she invites a reader to enter these stories anywhere and linger in the "rooms" she has created. That cannot happen in a story which is driving itself forward, in one direction, along a plot line. Munro and Metcalf went on to talk further about words:
Metcalf: Would you regard the way that
I respond to that word as being
ridiculous?
Munro: No. No. You just analyse a bit
further than I do. I know that it has
to be that word for some reason that I
don't go into. I'm just satisfied when
I know the word is right.
Metcalf: But when you are writing you
have this extremely conscious care and
choice about finding the exact word for
an exact place within the rhythm?
Munro: Yes. And it isn't so much
exactness in the meaning sense.
It's an emotional exactness ...
an exactness of resonance.
Metcalf. It's deliberate but it's
not conscious. Could we put it
that way?
Munro: Yes, I think so. Sometimes the
word comes right away ... the right word
... you might say it's not deliberate.
But in other cases the word has to be
sought for ... But not sought for in a
dictionary or a thesaurus or anything
like that or not sought for because of
its official meaning. (Metcalf 56)
Metcalf, John. "A Conversation with Alice Munro," Journal of Canadian Fiction. 1.4 (1972): 54-62.
Munro Language
Talking dirty: Alice Munro's 'Open Secrets' and John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men.'
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_n4_v31/ai_17381902?tag=untagged
also worth considering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1028649/Alice-Munro-a-feminist-writer
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2455/is_n4_v31/ai_17381902?tag=untagged
also worth considering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1028649/Alice-Munro-a-feminist-writer
Hamlet language stuff
Blank Verse,
Although Shakespeare is written primarily in blank verse, the meter that is the closest meter to the rhythm of natural English speech. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. (An iambic foot is composed of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is five of these feet in a line of poetry. It is a dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM rhythm.)
In order to preserve the meter in a regular line of iambic pentameter, sometimes an extra syllable is needed to complete the line. This is sometimes accomplished by using an accent over the “ed” on a past tense verb, meaning that the “ed” must be pronounced as a separate syllable. On the other hand, a line that might have too many syllables can be shortened by the use of an elision, a contraction of two words or syllables into one syllable, as in “I’ll” instead of “I will” or “o’er” for “over,” “ne’er” for “never,” “’tis” for “it is,” and “’twill” for “it will.”
Regular iambic lines indicate that the character is in control. The metric stress tells the actors which words to emphasize. The word at the end of each line is important and should be stressed, even briefly in an enjambed line (See discussion of the enjambed line that follows). The actor has to emphasize the last word in each line to have it make sense. The line should not be pitched down or swallowed, or the word will not be heard by the audience. The end of the line should be lifted. This indicates metrically where the line ends.
However, the meter is not always regular. Variations in iambic pentameter are used for dramatic effect. There are rhythm breaks or irregular lines where a stressed word is placed in a normally unstressed position or an extra syllable is added. Words that break the meter are important words and must be emphasized. They give clues as to how the line should be read. According to Sean McEvoy in Shakespeare: The Basics, if every line were regular, the result would be monotonous. Shakespeare varies the metric form to produce specific effects (41-42).
Common variants to the iambic foot include the trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, and a spondee, two stressed syllables that comprise one foot. Students need to be aware of patterns that may be caused by variants, especially the use of the feminine ending. A feminine ending is a weak extra syllable (an eleventh syllable) added to an iambic pentameter line, as in Hamlet’s soliloquy, which begins, “To be, or not to be—that is the question.” (The stressed syllables are in bold. Some actors, however, stress “that” instead of “is,” making that one foot a trochaic foot.) The “-tion” is an unstressed syllable or feminine ending. The use of the feminine ending forms a pattern in this speech, denoting the uncertainty of Hamlet. Once he has made up his mind to live, the speech reverts to regular iambic lines. He is now in control.
A shared line is a regular metric line that is shared by two or possibly three actors. The line must be spoken without pauses or breaths between the actors’ lines. These shared lines create a rhythm. This rhythm may show tension in the scene, as with the lines shared between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after the murder of Duncan (II.2).
Another variant of the normal iambic pentameter line is the use of the short line. A short line is an iambic line that has fewer than five metric feet. The actor must “fill” missing feet in the line with an action or a reaction. In Hamlet, the Ghost’s line, “I am thy father’s spirit,” is two stresses or three syllables short. This dramatic pause is for reaction time for Hamlet (I.5.9-20). Additional examples from this same scene include lines 46- 48:
Ghost: The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
Hamlet: O, my prophetic soul! My uncle!
The short line by the Ghost allows Hamlet time to register what the Ghost is saying and react to this realization.
An additional variation of the iambic pentameter line is the long line. A long line is a six-foot line (hexameter). If there is a caesura or pause (discussed in a later paragraph) after the third stress, it is called an Alexandrine. The use of the Alexandrine is to make the line symmetrical, to give it balance. It may be that the character is emotionally overloaded and can’t express his or her emotions adequately in a five-foot line. In Hamlet, Claudius’ guilt and loss of control is seen in his speech to Hamlet in Act I, scene 2, lines 90-121. The speech is made up primarily of eleven and twelve syllable lines. Claudius is talking about the death of his brother, Hamlet’s father, and Hamlet’s obsessive grief. Hamlet’s dislike of his uncle has been made plain, so Claudius tries to bluster his way through this scene that is being played out in front of the entire court. He is trying to gain control over Hamlet as well as his own emotions or guilt, and, in doing so, he goes overboard. This lack of control and frustration is seen through the use of lines with feminine endings and the use of the Alexandrine or long line.
Other terms relate directly to the pauses and breaths taken in a speech. An end-stop line is a line in which both the metric and grammatical endings occur at the end of the line. There is usually a period or semicolon. There should be a full pause and possibly a breath. If the sense of a line carries over to the next line, it is an enjambed line. With an enjambed line, there should be only a slight pause after the last word in the line is emphasized. McEvoy adds that a colon is used as an emphatic pause and capital letters were used for both proper names and for words that were particularly important in the context of the speech and should be stressed (41). Another place for a pause occurs at a caesura, a break or sense pause in the middle of a line of poetry, often at the end of the sense meaning of an enjambed line. Although an actor should pause at a caesura, short breaths should be taken only when planned and necessary. A caesura allows words preceding it to “sink in,” places focus on the word or phrase following it, slows the language down, or separates phrases and allows the listener to hear and digest them one at a time (Van Tassel, 28).
Although blank verse is supposed to be unrhymed, Shakespeare does use rhyme in his plays, more often in his early plays like The Taming of the Shrew than in the later plays like Hamlet. Rhyme can sometimes be used for comic effect or to create a light-hearted or teasing tone. It can be also be used to show a bantering or challenging tone. In addition, rhyme can be used seriously. Regardless of the purpose of the rhyme, the actor must play to the rhyme and emphasize it. It is there for a purpose. Rhymed couplets are also used to indicate the end of scenes or to mark a passage as distinctive from the rest of the verse that surrounded it (McEvoy, 49-50).
Prose is also used in Shakespeare’s plays. Prose was often used for letters and proclamations, low status characters, an expression of madness, or comedy (Gibson, Acting Shakespeare, 71). However, Shakespearean prose was very lyrical and rhythmic. Shakespeare made use of imagery, repetition, antithesis, and parallelism in his prose. It was not merely everyday speech.
As Shakespeare matured as a playwright, he used more prose for serious speeches. Switching from verse to prose may indicate that a character is losing control or becoming confused, but not necessarily. An example of prose that is used seriously is in Hamlet’s exchange with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the “What a piece of work is man” speech (II.2.317-334). Hamlet is speaking the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but his meaning in this serious speech is over their heads.
The change from verse to prose in a scene is abrupt and sets the speech apart from what came before (Epstein, 218). This is seen especially in Hamlet. Hamlet speaks in prose to Polonius, to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to the Players, to Osric, to Claudius, and to Ophelia. In Act III, scene 1, Hamlet changes from the verse of his “To be, or not to be” speech to prose when he talks to Ophelia. They both speak in prose in this dialogue. For Hamlet, this is typical of his “play acting.” When Hamlet exits, Ophelia goes back to speaking in verse with her father and Claudius, as she laments Hamlet’s “insanity.” Her lyrical speech is a side of her that is never seen again in the play. This is really her only opportunity to reveal her true self, a self not allowed in her society where women were considered property.
Antithesis is an additional characteristic of Shakespeare’s verse. Shakespeare used antithesis, or the opposition of words or phrases, to heighten meaning and indicate important words and concepts (Van Tassel, 64-68). Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” speech is one example. Another example of antithesis and parallelism in Hamlet is Claudius’ line to the court, “With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” (I.2.12). The use of the Alexandrine here may also show the guilt that the new king feels about his brother’s murder and his (Claudius’) hasty marriage with his brother’s widow.
The use of repetition is also an important aspect of Shakespeare’s plays. Some examples from Hamlet include the first lines of two of Hamlet’s soliloquies, “To be, or not to be” and “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt.” The Ghost speaks in sets of three, as in the line, “Oh horrible, oh horrible, most horrible.” There is also the repetition by the Ghost and Hamlet of the word “remember,” as in “Remember me” or “Remember thee” (I.5.98, 102, 104, 118).
A final term to discuss before embarking on the study of Hamlet is his use of puns. The actual discussion of the meaning of various puns should take place when reading and discussing the play. For example, the following scene from Hamlet shows puns on the words “sun” and “son” and on “kin” and “kind”:
King: Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will.—
But now my cousin Hamlet and my son—
Hamlet: [Aside] A little more than kin and less than kind.
King: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Hamlet: No so, my lord; I am too much in the sun.
Gertrude: Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. (I.2.64-71)
The point of the exchange is that it lets the audience see immediately that Hamlet is not fond of his uncle. He is now literally Claudius’ stepson and nephew, more kin than he wished! In doing this scene with the students, it is important to discuss whether line 67 is said as an aside to the audience. It is not listed as an aside in the first and second Quartos or in the first Folio. The Riverside Shakespeare lists it as an aside. What difference would this make? Is Hamlet speaking to the audience in a conspiratorial tone or to the whole court in a bold tone? Is there bitterness in his words or sarcasm? Does Gertrude intervene to keep Claudius from getting too upset? (McEvoy, 80)
Other examples of the use of puns in Hamlet include the pun on “nunnery” in Hamlet’s speech with Ophelia (III.1) and the exchange between Hamlet and Polonius before the play-within-the-play:
Polonius: I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed I’ th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.
Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there (III.2.109-111).
Hamlet’s use of puns continues in this scene in his sexual references to Ophelia and in the exchange with Claudius in which Hamlet comments that the actors “do but jest, poison in jest” in a reference to the poisoning of Hamlet’s father by Claudius (III.2.257).
Although Shakespeare is written primarily in blank verse, the meter that is the closest meter to the rhythm of natural English speech. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. (An iambic foot is composed of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is five of these feet in a line of poetry. It is a dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM rhythm.)
In order to preserve the meter in a regular line of iambic pentameter, sometimes an extra syllable is needed to complete the line. This is sometimes accomplished by using an accent over the “ed” on a past tense verb, meaning that the “ed” must be pronounced as a separate syllable. On the other hand, a line that might have too many syllables can be shortened by the use of an elision, a contraction of two words or syllables into one syllable, as in “I’ll” instead of “I will” or “o’er” for “over,” “ne’er” for “never,” “’tis” for “it is,” and “’twill” for “it will.”
Regular iambic lines indicate that the character is in control. The metric stress tells the actors which words to emphasize. The word at the end of each line is important and should be stressed, even briefly in an enjambed line (See discussion of the enjambed line that follows). The actor has to emphasize the last word in each line to have it make sense. The line should not be pitched down or swallowed, or the word will not be heard by the audience. The end of the line should be lifted. This indicates metrically where the line ends.
However, the meter is not always regular. Variations in iambic pentameter are used for dramatic effect. There are rhythm breaks or irregular lines where a stressed word is placed in a normally unstressed position or an extra syllable is added. Words that break the meter are important words and must be emphasized. They give clues as to how the line should be read. According to Sean McEvoy in Shakespeare: The Basics, if every line were regular, the result would be monotonous. Shakespeare varies the metric form to produce specific effects (41-42).
Common variants to the iambic foot include the trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, and a spondee, two stressed syllables that comprise one foot. Students need to be aware of patterns that may be caused by variants, especially the use of the feminine ending. A feminine ending is a weak extra syllable (an eleventh syllable) added to an iambic pentameter line, as in Hamlet’s soliloquy, which begins, “To be, or not to be—that is the question.” (The stressed syllables are in bold. Some actors, however, stress “that” instead of “is,” making that one foot a trochaic foot.) The “-tion” is an unstressed syllable or feminine ending. The use of the feminine ending forms a pattern in this speech, denoting the uncertainty of Hamlet. Once he has made up his mind to live, the speech reverts to regular iambic lines. He is now in control.
A shared line is a regular metric line that is shared by two or possibly three actors. The line must be spoken without pauses or breaths between the actors’ lines. These shared lines create a rhythm. This rhythm may show tension in the scene, as with the lines shared between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after the murder of Duncan (II.2).
Another variant of the normal iambic pentameter line is the use of the short line. A short line is an iambic line that has fewer than five metric feet. The actor must “fill” missing feet in the line with an action or a reaction. In Hamlet, the Ghost’s line, “I am thy father’s spirit,” is two stresses or three syllables short. This dramatic pause is for reaction time for Hamlet (I.5.9-20). Additional examples from this same scene include lines 46- 48:
Ghost: The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown.
Hamlet: O, my prophetic soul! My uncle!
The short line by the Ghost allows Hamlet time to register what the Ghost is saying and react to this realization.
An additional variation of the iambic pentameter line is the long line. A long line is a six-foot line (hexameter). If there is a caesura or pause (discussed in a later paragraph) after the third stress, it is called an Alexandrine. The use of the Alexandrine is to make the line symmetrical, to give it balance. It may be that the character is emotionally overloaded and can’t express his or her emotions adequately in a five-foot line. In Hamlet, Claudius’ guilt and loss of control is seen in his speech to Hamlet in Act I, scene 2, lines 90-121. The speech is made up primarily of eleven and twelve syllable lines. Claudius is talking about the death of his brother, Hamlet’s father, and Hamlet’s obsessive grief. Hamlet’s dislike of his uncle has been made plain, so Claudius tries to bluster his way through this scene that is being played out in front of the entire court. He is trying to gain control over Hamlet as well as his own emotions or guilt, and, in doing so, he goes overboard. This lack of control and frustration is seen through the use of lines with feminine endings and the use of the Alexandrine or long line.
Other terms relate directly to the pauses and breaths taken in a speech. An end-stop line is a line in which both the metric and grammatical endings occur at the end of the line. There is usually a period or semicolon. There should be a full pause and possibly a breath. If the sense of a line carries over to the next line, it is an enjambed line. With an enjambed line, there should be only a slight pause after the last word in the line is emphasized. McEvoy adds that a colon is used as an emphatic pause and capital letters were used for both proper names and for words that were particularly important in the context of the speech and should be stressed (41). Another place for a pause occurs at a caesura, a break or sense pause in the middle of a line of poetry, often at the end of the sense meaning of an enjambed line. Although an actor should pause at a caesura, short breaths should be taken only when planned and necessary. A caesura allows words preceding it to “sink in,” places focus on the word or phrase following it, slows the language down, or separates phrases and allows the listener to hear and digest them one at a time (Van Tassel, 28).
Although blank verse is supposed to be unrhymed, Shakespeare does use rhyme in his plays, more often in his early plays like The Taming of the Shrew than in the later plays like Hamlet. Rhyme can sometimes be used for comic effect or to create a light-hearted or teasing tone. It can be also be used to show a bantering or challenging tone. In addition, rhyme can be used seriously. Regardless of the purpose of the rhyme, the actor must play to the rhyme and emphasize it. It is there for a purpose. Rhymed couplets are also used to indicate the end of scenes or to mark a passage as distinctive from the rest of the verse that surrounded it (McEvoy, 49-50).
Prose is also used in Shakespeare’s plays. Prose was often used for letters and proclamations, low status characters, an expression of madness, or comedy (Gibson, Acting Shakespeare, 71). However, Shakespearean prose was very lyrical and rhythmic. Shakespeare made use of imagery, repetition, antithesis, and parallelism in his prose. It was not merely everyday speech.
As Shakespeare matured as a playwright, he used more prose for serious speeches. Switching from verse to prose may indicate that a character is losing control or becoming confused, but not necessarily. An example of prose that is used seriously is in Hamlet’s exchange with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the “What a piece of work is man” speech (II.2.317-334). Hamlet is speaking the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but his meaning in this serious speech is over their heads.
The change from verse to prose in a scene is abrupt and sets the speech apart from what came before (Epstein, 218). This is seen especially in Hamlet. Hamlet speaks in prose to Polonius, to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to the Players, to Osric, to Claudius, and to Ophelia. In Act III, scene 1, Hamlet changes from the verse of his “To be, or not to be” speech to prose when he talks to Ophelia. They both speak in prose in this dialogue. For Hamlet, this is typical of his “play acting.” When Hamlet exits, Ophelia goes back to speaking in verse with her father and Claudius, as she laments Hamlet’s “insanity.” Her lyrical speech is a side of her that is never seen again in the play. This is really her only opportunity to reveal her true self, a self not allowed in her society where women were considered property.
Antithesis is an additional characteristic of Shakespeare’s verse. Shakespeare used antithesis, or the opposition of words or phrases, to heighten meaning and indicate important words and concepts (Van Tassel, 64-68). Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” speech is one example. Another example of antithesis and parallelism in Hamlet is Claudius’ line to the court, “With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” (I.2.12). The use of the Alexandrine here may also show the guilt that the new king feels about his brother’s murder and his (Claudius’) hasty marriage with his brother’s widow.
The use of repetition is also an important aspect of Shakespeare’s plays. Some examples from Hamlet include the first lines of two of Hamlet’s soliloquies, “To be, or not to be” and “O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt.” The Ghost speaks in sets of three, as in the line, “Oh horrible, oh horrible, most horrible.” There is also the repetition by the Ghost and Hamlet of the word “remember,” as in “Remember me” or “Remember thee” (I.5.98, 102, 104, 118).
A final term to discuss before embarking on the study of Hamlet is his use of puns. The actual discussion of the meaning of various puns should take place when reading and discussing the play. For example, the following scene from Hamlet shows puns on the words “sun” and “son” and on “kin” and “kind”:
King: Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will.—
But now my cousin Hamlet and my son—
Hamlet: [Aside] A little more than kin and less than kind.
King: How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
Hamlet: No so, my lord; I am too much in the sun.
Gertrude: Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. (I.2.64-71)
The point of the exchange is that it lets the audience see immediately that Hamlet is not fond of his uncle. He is now literally Claudius’ stepson and nephew, more kin than he wished! In doing this scene with the students, it is important to discuss whether line 67 is said as an aside to the audience. It is not listed as an aside in the first and second Quartos or in the first Folio. The Riverside Shakespeare lists it as an aside. What difference would this make? Is Hamlet speaking to the audience in a conspiratorial tone or to the whole court in a bold tone? Is there bitterness in his words or sarcasm? Does Gertrude intervene to keep Claudius from getting too upset? (McEvoy, 80)
Other examples of the use of puns in Hamlet include the pun on “nunnery” in Hamlet’s speech with Ophelia (III.1) and the exchange between Hamlet and Polonius before the play-within-the-play:
Polonius: I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed I’ th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.
Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there (III.2.109-111).
Hamlet’s use of puns continues in this scene in his sexual references to Ophelia and in the exchange with Claudius in which Hamlet comments that the actors “do but jest, poison in jest” in a reference to the poisoning of Hamlet’s father by Claudius (III.2.257).
Shakespeare language glossary
Glossary
alexandrine—iambic hexameter, a line of six metrical feet, often rhythmically broken in the middle. (Examples: 1.2.146, 176, 180; 1.5.93; 3.3.73)
anapest—a metrical foot of three syllables, the first two unaccented.
broken line—a line with fewer than expected syllables, affecting the rhythm of the passage. Not the same as a “short line.” The implication of great stress. (Examples: 3.3. 38, 49)
caesura—a break in the line of poetry for rhythmical effect.
dactyl—a metrical foot of three syllables, only the first accented.
feminine ending—an extra, unaccented syllable at the end of a line, which gives the rhythm of the line a “falling” feeling and may suggest uncertainty or ambiguity in the character.
hexameter—a line of six metrical feet.
iamb--a metrical foot of two syllables, the first unaccented. This is said to be the basic rhythm of the English language.
long line—see alexandrine. Usually marked for its symmetry; indicates character is emotionally overloaded.
meter—the measurement of the rhythm of a line of traditional poetry by metrical feet, units marked by the relationship of accented and unaccented syllables. The basic metrical feet of English poetry are the iamb, the trochee, the anapest, the dactyl, and the spondee. Free verse attends to rhythm of phrases more than of metrical feet.
pentameter—a line of verse of five metrical feet.
prose—writing without metrical structure. Shakespeare’s prose is not, however, the prose of everyday speech, often approaching or reaching the level of a prose-poem. (Examples: 1.2.190-2; 2.2.171-379; 3.1.104-152)
rhyme—the repetition of identical or very close sounds of accented syllables. (Examples of rhyming couplets: 1.2.262-3; 1.3.43-4; 1.5.197-8; 2.2.605-6; 3.2.397-8; 3.4.97-8; 4.3.71-2; 4.4.66-7; 5.1.301-2)
shared line—characters divide a five-foot line between them. (Examples: 1.1.74; 1.2.185; 1.2.213, 215; 1.5.2, 4)
short line—a line of fewer metrical feet than normal in the passage in which occurs. It is not really a pause, since the actor is expected to fill the space of the line by acting. Used for special emphasis. (Examples: 1.5.9; 25, 27, 41, 53, 58, 159; 3.1.103; 3.4.83)
spondee—a metrical foot in which both syllables are accented.
trochee—a foot of two syllables with only the first accented.
Lesson
alexandrine—iambic hexameter, a line of six metrical feet, often rhythmically broken in the middle. (Examples: 1.2.146, 176, 180; 1.5.93; 3.3.73)
anapest—a metrical foot of three syllables, the first two unaccented.
broken line—a line with fewer than expected syllables, affecting the rhythm of the passage. Not the same as a “short line.” The implication of great stress. (Examples: 3.3. 38, 49)
caesura—a break in the line of poetry for rhythmical effect.
dactyl—a metrical foot of three syllables, only the first accented.
feminine ending—an extra, unaccented syllable at the end of a line, which gives the rhythm of the line a “falling” feeling and may suggest uncertainty or ambiguity in the character.
hexameter—a line of six metrical feet.
iamb--a metrical foot of two syllables, the first unaccented. This is said to be the basic rhythm of the English language.
long line—see alexandrine. Usually marked for its symmetry; indicates character is emotionally overloaded.
meter—the measurement of the rhythm of a line of traditional poetry by metrical feet, units marked by the relationship of accented and unaccented syllables. The basic metrical feet of English poetry are the iamb, the trochee, the anapest, the dactyl, and the spondee. Free verse attends to rhythm of phrases more than of metrical feet.
pentameter—a line of verse of five metrical feet.
prose—writing without metrical structure. Shakespeare’s prose is not, however, the prose of everyday speech, often approaching or reaching the level of a prose-poem. (Examples: 1.2.190-2; 2.2.171-379; 3.1.104-152)
rhyme—the repetition of identical or very close sounds of accented syllables. (Examples of rhyming couplets: 1.2.262-3; 1.3.43-4; 1.5.197-8; 2.2.605-6; 3.2.397-8; 3.4.97-8; 4.3.71-2; 4.4.66-7; 5.1.301-2)
shared line—characters divide a five-foot line between them. (Examples: 1.1.74; 1.2.185; 1.2.213, 215; 1.5.2, 4)
short line—a line of fewer metrical feet than normal in the passage in which occurs. It is not really a pause, since the actor is expected to fill the space of the line by acting. Used for special emphasis. (Examples: 1.5.9; 25, 27, 41, 53, 58, 159; 3.1.103; 3.4.83)
spondee—a metrical foot in which both syllables are accented.
trochee—a foot of two syllables with only the first accented.
Lesson
Male/female endings & rhyme
(I)
From A Dictionary of Literary Terms ed. Cuddon:
(i)
Feminine caesura: A caesura which comes after an unstressed syllable, as after ‘open’ in this line from John Berryman’s Homage to Mistress Bradstreet:
The winters close, Springs open, no child stirs
Masculine caesura: A caesura which comes after a stressed syllable, as after ‘moles’ in the second of these lines from Matthew Arnold’s ‘To A Republican Friend’:
The barren optimistic sophistriesOf comfortable moles, whom what they doTeaches the limit of the just and true.
(ii) Feminine ending. An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse. Common in blank verse, with the slack eleventh syllable, as in the third line of these three from George Chapman’s De Guina (the first two have masculine endings):
O incredulity! The wit of fools,That slovenly will spit on all things fair,The coward’s castle, and the sluggard’s cradle.
In prosody, it refers to a line of verse that ends with an unstressed syllable. Usually it is contrasted with other lines that end in a stress – a masculine ending.
(iii) Feminine rhyme. When words of two or more syllables rhyme it is known as feminine or double rhyme. It is particularly common in humorous verse, as in the first two lines of this flippant epitaph
Here lie I and my four daughters,Killed by drinking Cheltenham waters.Had we but stuck to Epsom salts,We wouldn’t have been in these here vaults.
What is masculine rhyme? ‘A single monosyllabic rhyme, like ‘thorn/scorn at the end of a line. It is the commonest type of rhyme in English verse’
From A Dictionary of Literary Terms ed. Cuddon:
(i)
Feminine caesura: A caesura which comes after an unstressed syllable, as after ‘open’ in this line from John Berryman’s Homage to Mistress Bradstreet:
The winters close, Springs open, no child stirs
Masculine caesura: A caesura which comes after a stressed syllable, as after ‘moles’ in the second of these lines from Matthew Arnold’s ‘To A Republican Friend’:
The barren optimistic sophistriesOf comfortable moles, whom what they doTeaches the limit of the just and true.
(ii) Feminine ending. An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse. Common in blank verse, with the slack eleventh syllable, as in the third line of these three from George Chapman’s De Guina (the first two have masculine endings):
O incredulity! The wit of fools,That slovenly will spit on all things fair,The coward’s castle, and the sluggard’s cradle.
In prosody, it refers to a line of verse that ends with an unstressed syllable. Usually it is contrasted with other lines that end in a stress – a masculine ending.
(iii) Feminine rhyme. When words of two or more syllables rhyme it is known as feminine or double rhyme. It is particularly common in humorous verse, as in the first two lines of this flippant epitaph
Here lie I and my four daughters,Killed by drinking Cheltenham waters.Had we but stuck to Epsom salts,We wouldn’t have been in these here vaults.
What is masculine rhyme? ‘A single monosyllabic rhyme, like ‘thorn/scorn at the end of a line. It is the commonest type of rhyme in English verse’
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