![]() For instance, the first seven lines of Kay Ryan’s “Carrying a Ladder” play on an interesting metrical pattern hidden among Ryan’s other free verse lines and poems: However, many acoustic patterns of meter can still be found in free verse cadences. Much of free verse is not actually that “free.” The term free verse has often been used to identify verse that does not observe a strict adherence to metrical lines. ![]() Understanding prosody helps break down how acoustic patterns rhetorically engage, direct, and redirect our readerly attention. Whether it’s nonsense doggerel or children’s verse or a deliberate and studied engagement with acoustic patterns, metrical verse can be found everywhere. A great deal of poetry is still written and read under the influence of meter.Why does a particular section of a poem seem to quicken its pace, adding to its dramatic action or heightening its emotional tenor? Why does the next section suddenly slow to a crawl, forcing a more careful consideration of its words? Why is this or that poem such a pleasure to read and, even more so, to listen to? Prosody can help answer these kind of questions. The phonetical patterns of verse, especially meter, greatly affect how that verse is experienced.Knowing how these poets play with metrical patterns can offer a more nuanced reading of their poems. Most early poets writing in English were part of a tradition that embraced Latinate metrical patterns. ![]() Even a rudimentary understanding of prosody allows for a more dynamic understanding of the phonetic patterns of English poetry written before the twentieth century.However, there are still several reasons why studying prosody can be of value to the student or reader of verse: 2 Metrical taxonomies seem archaic and obsolete considering the general abandonment of Latin models in the post-Neoclassical era. These models systematically define Latin acoustic patterns by constructing metrical taxonomies. Why study prosody, particularly after the meteoric rise of “free verse” in the early twentieth century largely replaced the metrical formalism of earlier poetry written in English?Įnglish prosody has long been based on earlier Latin models. To put it simply, students of prosody study how poetry formulates sounds and what effects those sounds produce. ![]() It is the study of how the sounds of words functioning in a metrical network can affect a reader’s understanding and reaction to a poetical work. The study of prosody investigates how verse creates, maintains, destabilizes, and even avoids the acoustic patterns of language. as this relates to versification (more generally) the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry. The branch of knowledge which deals with the forms of metrical composition, and formerly also with the pronunciation of words, esp. However, when prosody is discussed, particularly in modern academic settings, what is usually meant is something more in line with the OED‘s technical definition of the word: In 1910, George Saintsbury called it “the study of the constitution of verse.” 1 By his definition, prosody is the study of all aspects of the making of verse itself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |