Patterns of sound
Often poems are separated into distinct classes of verses, called stanzas, which have similar rhyme patterns. The importance of these types lies in the satisfying impact of equilibrium and wholeness they offer a poem. And because each stanza may contain a whole expression, the technique also lets the poet establish and expand the context of the poem.
 |
| The musical rhythm of quatrains was used by this medieval minstrel
|
Some of the most common types of stanza are the couplet, which is merely a pair of rhyming lines. This method is written in two separate forms, in general. This is considered a "closed" couplet, which is a single sentence with a complete definition. It was widely used in the satiric or didactic poetry of the 18th century (where ideas were of primary importance), by poets like Alexander Pope (1688-1744), who wrote:
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
The "open" couplet is a freer, more relaxed form, where the thought runs on to the next line, as in "Endymion" by Keats *:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness;
The quatrain is a four-line stanza and may have several different forms of rhyme. It can be formed, for instance, by one couplet joined to another, or by a couplet sandwiched within another. But the most common form of the quatrain is in "alternate" rhyme, like this stanza by A. E. Housman (1859-1936):
Give me a land of boughs in leaf,
A land of trees that stand;
Where trees are fallen, there is grief;
I love no leafless land.
This is one of the most commonly used styles of poetry since the quatrain is both short and very versatile. It was used by the minstrels of medieval Europe for their rollicking ballads; it was used by Thomas Gray* of England in tragic, elegiac poetry*, and by Théophile Gautier of France in bitter satires* (1811-72).
The Italian forms, terza rima, and ottava rima are amongst other less widely used stanzas. Terza rima is a three-line form used in His Divine Comedy by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The first and third lines of each stanza rhyme; the middle lines rhyme after the first and third lines of the stanza; and so forth. Ottava rima is an eight-line stanza in which the first six lines alternatively rhyme, and the last two forms a pair. This form of stanza used by Lord Byron (1788-1824) in his long poem Don Juan:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood,"-you know the rest,
And most oj us have found it now and then;
At least we think so, though but few have
guess'd
The moment, till too late to come again.
But no doubt everything is for the best-
Of which the surest sign is in the end:
When things are at the worst they sometimes
mend.
Often entire poems are formed in the same way as stanzas-with a fixed number of lines and rhyme patterns. For e.g, the sonnet must always be 14 lines long. It is generally divided into two eight-and six-line parts, called the "octave" and the "sestet." In a type created by William Shakespeare*, the 14-line are is divided into three quatrains and a couplet.
In Italy in the 13th century, the sonnet was originally invented; its use became popular through the influence of the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch (1304-74). The form's importance lies in its fixed length: Normally a sonnet may contain only one idea, but it may allow the poet to expand the idea in a complete and balanced way. Most sonnets were love poems, usually written in series, each describing one aspect of the poet's love. An example of this is the Sonnets to Helen series by the French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-85).
 |
| On the frontispiece to a 1554 edition of the work of Petrarch, appears his sonnet " On the sacred ashes of Petrarch and Laura. |
The sonnet was originally conceived in Italy in the 13th century; its use became popular thanks to the influence of the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch (1304-74). The importance of the value of the form lies in its fixed length: usually, a sonnet can contain only one idea, but it may allow the poet to extend the idea in a complete and balanced way. Most sonnets were love poems, usually written in series, each describing one aspect of the poet's love. An example of this is the Sonnets to Helen series by the French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-85).
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon