Poetry Term Basics Stanza: a grouped set of lines within a poem, usually set off from other stanzas by a blank line or different indentation. Quatrain: a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Couplet: a pair of lines of meter in poetry. Couplets usually comprise two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.

Poetry Term Basics Meter: is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse (a line of poetry). Poetic Foot: a group of syllables in verse usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables associated with it.  The most common type of feet are as follows:                  iambic   u /                  trochaic   / u                  anapestic  u u /                  dactylic   / u u                  pyrrhic   u u                  spondaic  / / Iambic Pentameter: An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. Penta: so you have 5 iambs Giving you 10 syllables in a line (2 u /  (iambs) times 5 (Penta)= 10 baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

Poetry and the Plays Shakespeare's plays are also written primarily in iambic pentameter, but the lines are unrhymed and not grouped into stanzas. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. It should be noted that there are also many prose (written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.) passages in Shakespeare’s plays, and some lines of trochaic tetrameter ( / u x tetra (4)=___), such as the Witches' Speech in Macbeth.

The Shakespearean Sonnet In between octave and sestet there is often a shift, a changing of gear, called the “volta,” or sometimes just “the turn”—the “seismic shift”. Sometimes the volta is indicated by a line break, sometimes not.

The Shakespearean Sonnet The Shakespearean Sonnet Structure: Consists of 14 lines. The first twelve lines are divided into 3 quatrains. The sonnet ends in a couplet. In the octave the narrator often presents a problem or question, or situation; and the sestet answers it with a solution to the problem, an answer to the question, or a comment on the situation. The sestet, especially in the Shakespearean sonnet, is divided into a four-line stanza and a couplet which sums up the poet’s conclusion.

Two households, both alike in dignity, Two households, both alike in dignity, ___ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, ___ From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, ___ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. ___ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes ___ A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; ___ Whose misadventured piteous overthrows ___ Do with their death bury their parents' strife. ___ The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, ___ And the continuance of their parents' rage, ___ Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, ___ Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; ___ The which if you with patient ears attend, ___ What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. ___

ROMEO [To JULIET]: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. ROMEO: Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

Sonnet Activity: What is the problem, question, or situation in this sonnet? Where is it presented? What is answer, solution, conclusion? Where is it presented? Where is the volta? What is the sonnet saying? What is the rhyme scheme of this sonnet? What type of meter is this sonnet written in? FYI: 'tis = it is ope = open o'er = over gi' = give ne'er = never i' = in e'er = ever oft = often a' = he e'en = even

Homework! Following the structure of the Shakespearean sonnet, write your own! It must be 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter, pose a problem, question, idea, and have a solution or conclusion to it in the sestet. You must follow the sonnet’s rhyme scheme, and end it in a couplet.