1. Renaissance Writing: Structure to the EXTREME!
British Literature
Mrs. Leach

2. Take NOTES!
It is crucial that you take notes on this presentation. The end of this lesson will culminate into YOU writing a Shakespearean Sonnet. You cannot do that if you don’t have the instructions!
This presentation is on my website.

3. Elizabethan Poets
Like modern song writers, Elizabethan poets used strongly emotional language to express their love. They often used a SONNET form.

4. Sonnet 14 line-lyric poem with a single theme.
Each line is IAMBIC PENTAMETER or 5 groups of 2 syllables
WE WILL TALK MORE ABOUT THIS LATER. FIRST YOU NEED TO LEARN THE BEAT.

5. SCANSION
What you will be doing is called scansion, or the analysis of a poem’s beat/meter.

6. POETIC METER
A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is a rhythmic “beat” like the steady pulse that brings you into music.
VIDEO listen for the BEAT!!

7. Finding the BEAT Examples: saMANtha *GINger *DAvid *aLEXus *Kevin
Think about how people say your name. Where is the emphasis placed? What syllable sticks out? Take a few moments to discuss a few classmates names and where you place emphasis.
Examples:
saMANtha *GINger
*DAvid *aLEXus *Kevin
Don’t put the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong syLAble!

8. VIDEO Introduction
Video

9. Basic Feet The basic meter feet or “beats” are : 1. IAMB 2. TROCHEE
3. ANAPEST
4. DACTYL
5. SPONDEE
6. CAESURA
7. PYRRHIC
8. AMPHIBRACH
9. AMPHIMACER
**you will need to memorize these!!

10. IAMB
Definition: a metrical foot consisting of one unstressed and one stressed
Symbols: u /
Example: RELIEF

11. TROCHEE
Definition: a foot consisting of one stressed and one unstressed
Symbols: / u
apple
Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

12. ANAPEST
Definition: a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed and one stressed
Symbols: u u /
Example: introduce
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.’

13. DACTYL
Definition: a metrical foot consisting of one stressed and 2 unstressed
symbol: / u u
Example: broccoli
A famous example of dactylic meter is in the first few lines of ‘The Lost Leader’ by Robert Browning:
Just for a handful of silver he left us
Just for a rib and to stick in his coat

14. SPONDEE Definition: foot consisting of two stressed syllables
Symbols: / /
Example: Hog-wild

15. CAESURA
Definition: a pause Symbols: I I *please note that these are different than the Spondee

16. PYRRHIC
 Definition: two unstressed syllables.
Symbols: u u

17. AMPHIMACER
Definition: a metrical foot containing a stressed, unstressed, and a stressed.
Symbols: / u /
Example: happy days, la-di-dah
Annie Hall's often-quoted line from the movie of that name is spoken as a amphimacer: "La-di-dah!”
CLIP VIDEO

18. AMPHIBRACH
Definition: A metrical foot containing an unstressed, stressed, unstressed.
Symbol: u / u
Example: Limericks often contain an element of amphibrachic meter. You can hear it in this first line: “There once was a lady called Joan”

19. VIDEO
Watch this video to help reinforce the information you have just learned.
LINK (watch to 7:09) then pause for the next several slides.

20. Practice the Metrical Pattern
On a sheet of paper, write down the following phrases. Identify the metrical foot of each. Keep in mind to focus on which part of the word gets the most emphasis.
EXAMPLE: I seek to hold the wind
1. Best of all, victory!
2. I bought a car today.
3. Look for hidden pitfalls.
4. In the cool of the night.
U- unstressed
-stressed

21. Practice the Metrical Pattern
Answers
Best of all, victory!
I bought a car today.
Look for hidden pitfalls.
In the cool of the night.

22. In addition, SCANSION means you have to count up the amount of feet used. There are names for this too!!

23. Dimeter: 2ft. /line Trimeter: 3ft. /line Tetrameter: 4ft
Dimeter: 2ft./line Trimeter: 3ft./line Tetrameter: 4ft./line Pentameter: 5ft./line Hexameter: 6ft./line The most common? Pentameter

24. Quatrain
A stanza of four lines.

25. The TURN/VOLTA
A shift in the nature of the SONNET where it begins responding to itself.

26. COUPLET

27. For the rest of the class: 1
For the rest of the class: Pass out the “Rhythm, Meter, and Scansion Made Easy” worksheet. 2. Then work on the “Think, Pair, Share Activity 1”