For those who love poetry

There are lots of people, especially the youths, who love poetry and want to be able to write poems in English. This lesson is uploaded to TTVN Online in order to help them know about the basic rules of writing poems, mainly of Sound Devices. The lesson is divided into several parts. At the end of each part, there is an extract or the whole poem as a sample related to that part. Learners will be able to write a simple poem, not necessary with meaning , after studying the lesson. It is not written by Nhà quê but is collected from the book named Prentice Hall Literature - The American Experience. There will be some changes to make it shorter and less complicated for readers to read.

Alliteration, consonance, and assonance are three sound devices that poets use to give their writing a musical quality. Alliteration is the repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words or accented syllables. Notice the repetition of n sound in the following line from "The Raven": "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words or accented syllables. For example, Poe, an author, ends several stanzas of "The Raven" with a line containing a repeated v sound: " Qouth the Raven, 'Nevermore.' ". Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. For example, the ur sound is repeated in "The Raven": " And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain."

The repetition of similar sounds in poetry pleases the ear reinforces meaning by emphasizing important words. At the same time, the repetition of words emphasizes the certain words that contribute to the mood and reinforce the meaning of the poem.


The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door-
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "Tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more,"

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow-vainly I had tried to borrow
From my book surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here forever more.
.......
....


Part 2 is coming up.




Được sửa chữa bởi - nhàquê on 08/04/2001 16:01:50

Part 2
This part talks about Stanza forms, which are somewhat similar to Vietnamese style. You should try to read the poem below out loud to find out its rhythm. Read it as many times as you can.


A Stanza is a unit of poetry consisting two or more lines arranged in a pattern according to rhyme and meter, or rhythm. Like paragraphs in prose, stanzas organize ideas into units. Unlike paragraphs in prose, however, stanzas in a poem are generally of a fixed length and share the same pattern of rhyme and meter.
Stanzas forms are described in terms of rhyme scheme and length. Rhyme scheme is indicated by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyming sound in a stanza. For example, in a stanza in which every other line rhymes, the rhyme scheme is abab. Length is determined by the number of lines in a stanza. The following is the most common stanza length: the quatrain (4 lines).
The tide rises, the tide falls
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the night rises, the night falls.
......
...

Dissection:
Stanza length: the cinquain (5 lines)
Rhyme scheme:
A (...falls - the first rhyme)
A (...calls - the same rhyme)
B (...brown - the new rhyme)
B (...town - the same as the one above)
A (...falls - Back to the first rhyme)
... (and so on with the same or new letters (A, B, C, D... for the same or different rhymes)
Part 3 is coming up.

Được sửa chữa bởi - nhàquê on 11/04/2001 03:24:35