Introduction and Poetry Structure for AP English Literature

The Foot

The foot is the basic building block of poetry. It is composed of a pattern of syllables. These patterns create the meter of a poem. Meter is a pattern of beats or accents. We figure this pattern out by counting the stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Unstressed syllables are indicated with a and stressed syllables are indicated with a .

There are five common patterns that are used repeatedly in English poetry. They are:

The Line

Unlike the prose sentence that is determined by subject, verb, and punctuation, the poetic line is measured by the number of feet it contains.

• 1 foot    monometer
• 2 feet     dimeter
• 3 feet     trimeter
• 4 feet     tetrameter
• 5 feet     pentameter
• 6 feet     hexameter
• 7 feet     heptameter
• 8 feet     octameter
• 9 feet     nonometer

Your Turn

Now answer the following. How many stressed syllables are in a line of:

Iambic pentameter      _____
Dactylic trimeter          _____
Anapestic dimeter        _____
Spondaic monometer   _____
Trochaic tetrameter      _____

The Stanza

You should now understand that syllables form feet, feet form lines, and lines form stanzas. Stanzas also have names:

• 1 line       line
• 2 lines     couplet
• 3 lines     tercet
• 4 lines     quatrain
• 5 lines     cinquain
• 6 lines     sestet
• 7 lines     septet
• 8 lines     octave

Your Turn

What is the total number that results from adding up all of the metric references in the following, make-believe poem?

• The poem is composed of 3 quatrains, 2 couplets and 1 sestet.
• ach quatrain is written in iambic tetrameter.
• he couplets are dactylic dimeter.
• The sestet is trochaic trimeter.

The total number is _____

You will never have to be this technical on the AP exam. However, you will probably find a question on meter, and technical terms may be included in the answer choices to the multiple-choice questions. In addition, sometimes in the poetry essay you may find opportunity to use your knowledge of scansion, or your analysis of the rhyme and meter of the poem, to develop your essay. This can be very effective if it is linked to interpretation.

Rhyme

One of the first processes you should become familiar with concerns the identification of a poem's rhyme scheme. This is easily accomplished by assigning consecutive letters of the alphabet to each new sound at the end of a line of poetry. Traditionally, rhyme scheme is indicated with italicized, lowercase letters placed to the right of each line of the poem.

• a for the first
• b for the second
• c for the third
• d, e, and so forth

Try this with the opening stanza from "Peace" by George Herbert.

Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave,
Let me once know.
I sought thee in a secret cave,
And asked if Peace were there.
A hollow wind did seem to answer, "No,
Go seek elsewhere."

You may restart the scheme with each new stanza or continue throughout the poem. Remember, the purpose is to identify and establish a pattern and to consider if the pattern helps to develop sound and/or meaning. Here's what the rhyme scheme looks like for the above selection: a b a c b c.

When you analyze the pattern of the complete poem, you can conclude that there is a very regular structure to this poem which is consistent throughout. Perhaps the content will also reflect a regular development. Certainly the rhyme enhances the sound of the poem and helps it flow. From now on we will refer to rhyme scheme when we encounter a new poem.

The rhymes we have illustrated are called end rhymes and are the most common. Masculine rhyme is the most frequently used end rhyme. It occurs when the last stressed syllable of the rhyming words match exactly. ("The play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.") However, there are internal rhymes as well. These rhymes occur within the line and add to the music of the poem. An example of this is dreary, in Poe's "The Raven" ("Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary"). Feminine rhyme involves two consecutive syllables of the rhyming words, with the first syllable tressed. ("The horses were prancing / as the clowns were dancing.")