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{{Short description|Poetic form based on syllable count}}
'''Syllabic verse''' is a [[poetic form]] having a fixed or constrained number of [[syllable]]s per [[Line (poetry)|line]], while stress, quantity, or tone play a distinctly secondary
==Overview==
Many European languages have significant syllabic verse traditions, notably Italian, Spanish, French, and the [[Baltic languages|Baltic]] and [[Slavic languages]]. These traditions often permeate both folk and literary verse, and have evolved gradually over hundreds or thousands of years
It is often implied,<ref>e.g. Saintsbury, George: ''Historical Manual of English Prosody'', 1910, rpt New York: Schocken Books, 1966, p 14; Fussell, Paul: ''Poetic Meter and Poetic Form'', New York: Random House, 1965, p 7; Turco, Lewis: ''The New Book of Forms'', Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1986, p 12.</ref>
# '''Line length''': The line is defined by the number of syllables it contains.
# '''Hemistich length''': All but the shortest lines are divided into part-lines (''
# '''Hemistich markers''': The ends of the hemistichs are marked and contrasted by an obligatory stress: a specific syllable position near the end of each hemistich must be filled by a stressed syllable, and this position typically differs between the first and second hemistich, so that they are audibly distinct.
# '''Marker reinforcement''': Often the syllables immediately before or after the obligatory stresses are obligatorily '''un'''stressed to further emphasize the stress.
# '''Other structure''': Further rules may be imposed, such as additional word-boundary constraints on certain syllabic positions, or allowances for extrametrical syllables; and further interlinear structure may be present (such as [[rhyme]] and [[stanza]]).
Linguistically, the most significant exceptions to this pattern are in [[Latvian language|Latvian]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], and [[Serbian language|Serbian]] verse.
===Perception of syllable count===
Humans can perceive the number of members in a small set without actually counting them or mentally breaking them into subsets
==
Syllabic verse in English is quite distinct from that in most other languages, historically, structurally, and perceptually.
'''Historically''', English syllabics have not evolved over time from native practice, but rather are the inventions of literate poets, primarily in the 20th century. '''Structurally''', syllable counts are not bound by tradition
In English, unstressed syllables are much weaker and shorter than stressed syllables, and their vowels are often phonetically [[Vowel reduction|reduced]] (pronounced as the rather indistinct [[schwa
Thus, in English, syllabic technique does not
A number of English-language poets in the [[Modernist poetry|Modernist]] tradition experimented with syllabic verse. These include [[Marianne Moore]], [[Dylan Thomas]], [[Louis Zukofsky]], [[Kenneth Rexroth]] and [[Thom Gunn]]. Some more traditional poets have also used syllabics, including [[Elizabeth Daryush]] and [[Robert Bridges]].
===Examples===
Dylan Thomas's "[[In
Because of its consistent short lines marked with end-rhyme, these lines could conceivably be heard as 7-syllable groups by a listener; however, they would be more likely to be perceived as (usually) 3-stress lines.
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Syllabic poetry can also take a stanzaic form, as in Marianne Moore's poem "No Swan So Fine", in which the corresponding lines of each stanza have the same number of syllables. This poem comprises 2 stanzas, each with lines of 7, 8, 6, 8, 8, 5, and 9 syllables respectively. The indented lines rhyme. As in accentual-syllabic verse, there is some flexibility in how one counts syllables. For example, syllables with y- or w-glides may count as one or two syllables depending on the poet's preference. Moore counts "Dahlias" (a y-glide) as 2 syllables, and "flowers" (a w-glide) as 1.
{{quote|<poem>
"No water so still as the
dead fountains of Versailles." No swan,
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it perches on the branching foam
of polished sculptured
</poem>}}
Because these lines are longer, irregular, and frequently [[enjambment|enjambed]] ("as the / dead fountains"), it is quite clear that the symmetry of syllables is not meant to be audible. Moore's use of end-rhyme is telling. Only 2 lines in each stanza are rhymed: these are ''emphasized'' for the reader by indentation, but ''hidden'' from the listener by radical enjambment ("fawn- / brown" and "coxcomb- / tinted").
[[Elizabeth Daryush]], known for her use of syllabic verse, used the [[Quaternion (poetry)|quaternion]] form for her celebrated syllabic verse poem "Accentedal".<ref>'Biography of Elizabeth Daryush' MyPoeticSide.com </ref>
{{see|French poetry}}
The modern French language does not have a significant stress accent (as English does) or [[long syllable|long]] and [[short syllable|short]] syllables (as Latin does). This means that the French metric line is generally determined by the number of syllables. The most common metric lengths are the ten-syllable line ("décasyllabe"), the eight-syllable line ("octosyllabe") and the twelve-syllable line (the so-called "[[alexandrine]]").▼
▲The modern French language does not have a significant stress accent (as English
Special syllable counting rules apply to French poetry. A silent or mute 'e' counts as a syllable before a consonant, but not before a vowel (where "[[h aspiré]]" counts as a consonant). When it falls at the end of a line, the mute "e" is hypermetrical (outside the count of syllables).▼
▲Special syllable counting rules apply to French poetry. A silent or mute
==Polish==
Polish syllabic verse is similar to French. The most common lengths are the thirteen-syllable line ({{lang|pl|trzynastozgłoskowiec}} or [[Polish alexandrine]]), the eleven-syllable line ({{lang|pl|jedenastozgłoskowiec}}) and eight-syllable line ({{lang|pl|ośmiozgłoskowiec}}). The rules of Polish verse were established in the 16th century. Polish metrics were strongly influenced by Latin, Italian, and French poetry. To this day originally Italian forms (like {{lang|it|[[ottava rima]]}}) are written in Poland in 11-syllable lines. Accentual verse was introduced into Polish literature at the end of 18th century but it never replaced traditional syllabic metres. Today 9-syllable lines are extremely popular. They are iambic or choriambic.<ref>For further descriptions of Polish verse see works by Maria Dłuska, Lucylla Pszczołowska, Adam Kulawik (Wersologia), and Wiktor Jarosław Darasz (Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim).</ref>
==See also==
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==References==
*{{cite journal |last=Beum
*{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Syllabic Verse |author-last=Brogan |author-first=T.V.F. |page=1249 |editor1-last=Preminger |editor1-first=Alex |editor2-last=Brogan |editor2-first=T.V.F. |editor3-last=Warnke |editor3-first=Frank J. |editor4-last=Hardison, Jr. |editor4-first=O. B. |editor5-last=Miner |editor5-first=Earl |display-editors=2 |date=1993 |encyclopedia=The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |location=New York |publisher=MJF Books |url=https://archive.org/details/newprincetonency0000unse/page/1249 |url-access=registration |isbn=1-56731-152-0 |oclc=961668903}}
*{{Cite book |last=Chatman |first=Seymour |authorlink=Seymour Chatman |title=A Theory of Meter |year=1965 |publisher=Mouton |location=The Hauge}}
*{{Cite book |last=Gasparov |first=M.L. |author-link=Mikhail Gasparov |title=A History of European Versification |year=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-815879-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofeuropea00gasp |url-access=registration}}
*{{Cite encyclopedia |title=French Prosody |author-last=Scott|author-first=Clive |author-link=Clive Scott (linguist) |pages=440–443 |editor1-last=Preminger |editor1-first=Alex |editor2-last=Brogan |editor2-first=T.V.F. |editor3-last=Warnke |editor3-first=Frank J. |editor4-last=Hardison, Jr. |editor4-first=O. B. |editor5-last=Miner |editor5-first=Earl |display-editors=2 |date=1993 |encyclopedia=The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |location=New York |publisher=MJF Books |url=https://archive.org/details/newprincetonency0000unse/page/440 |url-access=registration |isbn=1-56731-152-0 |oclc=961668903}}
[[Category:Poetic rhythm]]▼
▲[[Category:Poetic rhythm]]
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