METRICS-- S. Sreekumar

 

METRICS

 

Metrics comes from the Latin term metrica, an abbreviation of ars metrica or metrical art. Mathematics and physical sciences use the term frequently. The standard form of measurement of weight, length, and capacity is the metric system. 

 

The idea of measurement is not far-fetched when we speak of metrics in English poetry. Meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem. It imposes a specific number of syllables, stressed or unstressed. Besides, meter governs individual units called feet (another term in measurement) within poetry. 

 

 

The metric analysis of verse is called scansion. The science or study of poetic meters and versification is called prosody. But these two words—“scansion” and “prosody”—“cause anxiety for many lovers of poetry, and particularly for students….” writes Thomas Carper in Meter and Meaning. Carper adds: Examining the technical features of an attractive line seems to many like breaking a butterfly upon a wheel, to borrow a phrase from Alexander Pope, or, in the words of William Wordsworth, like murdering to dissect. Many others feel that nothing can be achieved by cutting a beautiful line into feet and then giving it a Greek label like iamb, trochee, anapaest, dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic, or amphibrach.

 

What is the role of the meter in providing aesthetic gratification to the reader? Answers differ. Many modernists of the twentieth century valued semantic analysis more than phonological or structural analysis. Subsequently, they employed terms related more to semantics than to phonology or grammar, or syntax. Examples are irony, paradox, ambiguity, and tension. But, critics like I.A. Richards gave much credit to rhythm and meter in poetry: Both rhythm and meter are organic and integral parts of a poem, for they both determine the meaning of the words used by the poets. 

 

METERS IN ENGLISH PROSODY

 

Now, let us look at the elements of English prosody. 

 

 

Syllable

 

The nature of the syllables decides the meter. A syllable is a unit of speech sound uttered with a single impulse of the breath. English is a stress-language. Stress and syllables are linked.  

 

Example—

 

The word Amen has two syllables— [ɑːˈm ɛn]

 

Caught is a monosyllable. It cannot be divided:     /kɔːt/

Tonight has two syllables:                    

      /təˈ + nʌɪt/

Property is divided into three syllables:       /ˈprɒ + pə + ti/

In-ter-est-ing has four syllables: /ɪn + t(ə) + rɪ + stɪŋ/

Un-ex-cep-tonal has five syllables:       /ʌn + ɪk +ˈsɛp + ʃ (ə) + n(ə) l/ 

 

A rough and ready rule to identify a syllable is: one vowel/diphthong = one syllable. According to some estimates, more than 60% of words in the English language are monosyllabic. 

 

1.   Stress

 

English is accentual or stress-language. Hence, in a word of more than one syllable, one syllable gets more force or loudness than others. For example, in Rep-u-ta-tion—the stress is on the third syllable. Beum and Shapiro add: 

 

English word always has stress in the vowel sound. Stress varies from syllable to syllable. .. In other words, the syllables that are not stressed are "weak" or "small or quiet". Native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables.

 

Stress is the most prominent acoustic element in English. In other languages (French, for example), it is not significant. In some other languages like Greek, pitch accomplishes what stress does in English. 

 

      

Sometimes meaning changes may take place when stress is changed, as in the following examples:

DEsert is an arid area (noun). In the next entry, the same word is a verb. 

deSERT means to flee, to give up. [Practical Criticism]

 

Identifying the stressed syllables in a line (or stanza) is the first step in scansion. Generally, we need not worry about the weak syllables as they will take care of themselves. [Stressed syllables are sometimes called heavy/strong. Unstressed syllables are called light/weak.] 

 

1.   Foot

 

A foot is a metric unit in a line of verse. There may be two or more stressed or unstressed syllables in one foot. Syllables (and not words) decide the foot. Sometimes words get cut into two by the foot. 

Once we note down the repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, we can decide what kind of foot it is. 

Four Basic Feet

·      IAMB                Unstressed,       stressed :     be / fore

·      TROCHEE        stressed,    unstressed      :     gen/ tly

·      ANAPAEST     unstressed unstressed stressed  :      o/ ver/ turn

·      DACTYL stressed     unstressed unstressed :      wan/der/er

 

[Stressed syllables are in bold. Iambic, trochaic, anapaestic, dactylic are the adjectives]

 

These four are the standard meters in English verse. Of these, the iambic meter is the most common, while the dactylic is very rare. Even the anapaest has a very considerable iambic alloy.

Three Supplementary Feet

 

·      SPONDEE       stressed     stressed: fly/wheel

·      PYRRHIC       unstressed         unstressed:       in the

·      AMPHIBRACH unstressed unstressed  unstressed :  the father

Beum and Shapiro comment on these rare meters thus:

Constructions such as   /-- /-- (or) xx/ xx are barely possible in English even theoretically. The spondaic line would have to consist almost entirely of monosyllables; we have few or no truly spondaic words in English. Any word of three or more syllables would necessarily introduce a non-stress into the line. And the theoretical pyrrhic meter would necessarily consist of a series of articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc., yet constructions so lacking in verbs and nouns—which would necessarily draw stresses— are inconceivable.

 

Beum and Shapiro add:

Even the anapaest and the dactyl are difficult to manage in English verse….there is no better proof of this than the fact that, after centuries of experimentation, the good serious poems in these meters are so few. Probably nine-tenths of Modern English verse—that written since, say, 1500—is iambic. 

Much have I /travelled / in the realms / of gold. This line from Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer” contains all the meters.

Much have I     — Dactyl,

Travelled          — trochee,

In the realms — Anapaest       

of gold        —    Iamb

 

S. T. Coleridge gives the salient features of all the meters thus: 

 

TROCHEE trips from long to short;

From long to long in solemn sort

Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot! yet ill able

Ever to come up with dactyl trisyllable.

Iambics march from short to long;—

With a leap and a bound the swift Anapæsts throng;

 

An example of Spondee is available in Tennyson:

 “Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.”

Here is an example of a spondaic meter. Look at the first two lines of this stanza. Underlined are three consecutive spondaic meters. The lines are from ‘Break, Break, Break’

An example for Pyrrhic is available in Marvel:

 

 “To a green thought in a green shade”. The underlined are examples of pyrrhic. The line is from The Garden

 

 

2.   Line

Beum and Shapiro write:

The line is a common feature of all kinds of English poetry: verse and free verse, Anglo-Saxon as well as Modern English Poetry. It is, in fact, a nearly universal characteristic of poetry; Greek, Latin, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Gaelic poetry all move in lines. The only major exceptions to this universality are “prose poetry” and perhaps the Hebrew poetry of Old Testament times.

 

In English prosody, a line may consist of any number of feet, from one to eight.

 The terms are:

Name	No.of foot/feet
Monometer	1
Dimeter	2
Trimeter	3
Tetrameter	4
pentameter	5
hexameter	6
heptameter	7
octameter	8

 

3.   Meter

 

We have already seen that there are four feet in English verse—iamb, trochee, anapaest, and dactyl. Of these, the first two have two syllables in each foot, whereas the third and fourth have three syllables in each. To identify the meter of a particular poem, we have to—

• Count the number of feet in each line. 
• Identify the type of foot and the number of times it gets repeated in a line. [Most poems have the same foot pattern. If there are more iambs, we can conclude that the meter is iambic pentameter. For example, Gray’s Elegy uses iambic pentameter. Shakespeare’s sonnets also are in iambic pentameter.] 
• Decide whether the line is a trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, or hexameter.  
• Remember that nine-tenths of Modern English verse, written since 1500 A.D is iambic pentameter. 

 

Here are some examples:

 

Iambic pentameter [This is the most popular metric arrangement in English poetry]

    u /    u   /       u   /    u   /   u    /

 

  The cur/few tolls/ the knell/ of par/ting day,/

 

Iambic Trimeter

The on/ly news/ I know

Is bulletins all day

From Immortality.

The only shows I see,

Tomorrow and Today,

Perchance Eternity.

- Emily Dickinson, "The Only News I Know"

Iambic Tetrameter

I wan/dered, lone /ly as/ a cloud

That floats on high o'er dales and hills

When, all at once, I saw a crowd

A host of golden daffodils.

[Wordsworth] [Listen to youtube.com for a complete rendering of the poem]

 

Trochaic pentameter

It is rare to find whole stanzas consisting of the Trochee. It is one of the lesser-used meters in poetry because it is less-natural sounding than iambic meters. Poets sometimes use trochee to disrupt the rhythm of a poem and emphasize a point. Shakespeare uses a Trochaic pentameter in the final line of the passage from King Lear.  Lear mourns the death of his daughter. The five most famous/simple words in English drama shows the utter despair of the protagonist:

And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
and thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!

 

Trochaic tetrameter

 

Shakespeare employs Trochaic tetrameter when the witches appear in Macbeth. The meter is suitable for the unnatural background:

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

 Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

 

These lines are in trochaic tetrameter—four trochees per line—and they give the witches’ speech a haunting quality.

 

Anapaest

 

The Anapaest is comparatively rare in English. Lord Byron has used the meter in The Destruction of Sennacherib. The stanza is an example of anapaestic tetrameter. (Each line has four metrical feet, which is an anapaest). Each line, therefore, contains twelve syllables. Byron intentionally used an anapaestic meter to mimic the sound of horses riding into battle.

I have given no man of my fruit to eat;
I trod the grapes, I have drunken the wine.
Had you eaten and drunken and found it sweet,
This wild new growth of the corn and vine,
This wine and bread without lees or leaven,
We had grown as gods, as the gods in heaven,
Souls fair to look upon, goodly to greet,
One splendid spirit, your soul and mine.

 

Dactyl

 

Like the anapaest, the Dactyl is also rare in English. Tennyson uses dactyls in the poem: The Charge of the Light Brigade. 

 

Half a league, half a league

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred

Forward the light brigade

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

 

Dactylic Hexameter

Homer and Virgil used this meter. Epic poets combine dactyls and spondees or trochees because pure dactylic hexameter will be tiresome.

Teacher of /  wisdom to/ heroes, be/stower of/ might in the/ battle;                                                                          

Share not the/ cunning of/ Hermes, nor/ list to the /songs of A/pollo,

Fearing the stars of the sky, and the roll of the blue salt water

 

Dactyls mingle with trochees and spondees in the above lines. The monotony of the lines and the difficulty of composition are noticeable. [‘Andromeda’ by Charles Kingsley]

 

 

Uses of THE meter in poetry 

 

Now, let us look at the uses of the meter in poetry. Beum and Shapiro write in this connection:

 

Meter is ancient and persistent. It had vigour for Homer and Hesiod three thousand years ago, and it has had vigour for modern poets like Dylan Thomas and Robert Frost. Prose and free verse have come alongside it but have not replaced it or made it obsolete in any sense. 

 

Beum and Shapiro explore the several functions of the meter—

 

1. Poetry expresses feelings of one kind or another. When we express intense feelings of any kind, our language tends to become more regular. Cleopatra says (before her suicide) in the strictest meter:

Give me my robe, put on my crown. I have

Immortal longings in me, 

 

Meter creates a sense of planning and symmetry in the poem. It is a means of obtaining aesthetic distance.  “In real life, sorrow makes us feel sorrowful; on the stage, or in a great lyric poem, the expression of joy or serenity or sublimity can bring tears”. On the stage, we imaginatively project ourselves into the situation but never forget that what we see is an illusion, a re-creation, and not a real thing. Wordsworth wrote in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads that we may endure pathetic situations and sentiments with a greater proportion of pain in metrical composition, especially in rhyme, than in prose. 

2. The meter helps to formalize the language. Poetry is man’s best thoughts in the best language.

3. Verse holds our attention more than prose. Thus meter has the immediate power to engage us. It is the use of meter that differentiates poetry from prose. 

 

4. Meter creates in us a heightened awareness of the meanings of words themselves. 

 

5. Meter establishes a convention, a pattern. When there is any variation, it surprises us. Among regularities, irregularities capture our attention. Metrical variations are necessary, or else the verse may become monotonous. 

6. Meter provides order to a poem. A good poem is unified, harmonious and the regularity of meter fits into this pattern.

 

7. Verse sticks in memory better than prose. The stress pattern helps us to remember the word pattern. In the Middle Ages, people used to commit a lot to their memory, and verse served them better than prose. 

 

1.   Accentual verse

The accentual verse has a fixed number of accents in each line. But the accents have no fixed position. There is also no restriction on the number of unaccented syllables. 

 

Old English poetry is of this type. Beowulf is in accentual verse. Coleridge, Hopkins, Eliot, and many others have successfully experimented with this form. 

 

Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” offers an example. Each line contains two strong syllables and an indeterminate number of weak syllables. 

 

Lady of silences

Calm and distressed

Torn and most whole

Rose of memory

Rose of forgetfulness

Exhausted and life-giving

Worried reposeful.

 

2.   PAUSES

 

“Metrics is not only a matter of stresses but also pauses” (Practical Criticism). Just as in prose, poetry also uses punctuation marks to show pauses. Let us see how pauses operate in poems:-

• The line ends with a full stop (period)—end-stopped
• The poet defies our expectations and continues into the next line—enjambment
• A full stop is at the middle of the line—caesura 

 

Caesura

The word originates from Latin; it means to cut.  

Caesura helps the reader to focus on the meaning/significance of the word that comes immediately before it. The lines from Shelley’s Ozymandias serves as an example. 

 

Who said— "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert … || Near them, || on the sand …

My name is Ozymandias, || King of Kings; ||

Look on my Works, || ye Mighty, || and despair!

Nothing beside remains. || Round the decay …

 

The double pipes mark the Caesura. The Caesurae (plural) help us to concentrate more on the underlined words. 

Poets employ the Caesura to break the monotonous rhythms of some lines. A caesural break creates various effects, depending on the use. In Hamlet, it helps to intensify the dramatic situation. It also adds an emotional and theatrical touch to the line and helps convey the deep sentiments.

 

To be, || or not to be — || that is the question.

 

Scansion

 

In conclusion, let us look at some guidelines for scansion:  

• Read the poem aloud naturally and smoothly.
• Every foot must have one primary syllable and one or more stressed or unstressed syllables. If it lacks any, a caret (inverted V) indicates the missing syllable. The caret also shows that the line is defective. 
• Keep close to the basic metric pattern of iambs, trochees, etc. Do not look at the individual words. These have to be split, if necessary. 
• Sounds and not spelling counts in scansion. Spellings does not indicate pronunciation. Diphthongs count as one vowel. 
• In determining the meter, one should take the poem as a whole and not merely a line at a time. [From Practical Criticism] 

 

Problems in Scansion

 

The rules of scansion are loose as nearly every line of verse can be marked in several ways. Scansion is only a system of simplifying and usefully presenting the complex rhythm. It is not an exact science. [From Practical Criticism]

 

This material prepared by Dr S. Sreekumar is for undergraduate students of Indian Universities.

These lectures on poetry contain seven topics:

i.               Metrics,

ii.              Persona and tone,

iii.             Rhythm,

iv.             Sonnet,

v.              Stanza,

vi.             How to read poetry, and

vii.           Appreciation of poetry.