Metre Flashcards
Accentual syllabic (main post-medieval system of prosody in English)
Qualitative prosody which disregards syllable length and is concerned with the formal patterns of un/stressed beats
Analytical language (Modern English)
Distributes meaning among words and has a grammar dependent on prepositions and word order rather than inflected endings
apostrophe
the mark ’, used with or without ‘s’ to indicate possession (the
genitive case), or the elision of a letter.
beat
a word or syllable/s bearing stress (x) or unstress (u).
cadence
a fall, in tone, pitch etc.
canon
originally the ‘authorised’ books of the bible, as distinct from the apocrypha ; more generally, the body of work that is at any given time (and in a specified culture) taught and valorised.
Catalectic lines
missing one or more beats
dimeter
a line of two feet.
distinguishing
of a foot, type-face, or fount, different from that normally
used.
drop-cap(ital)
an initial letter in a larger fount that ‘drops’ below its own line
duple metre
Feet with two beats (iambs, trochees)
duple of a foot
having two feet, the rhythm they produce
free verse
poetry in which metre varies
Elision/to elide
Conflating or multiplying syllables
Omission, as of one or more letters from a word (usually indicated with an apostrophe)
Falling rhythm
Lines of trochee and dactyls (xu) - voice pitched lower on unstressed beat
feminine of an ending
with one or more unstresed hypermetrical beats
foot
a prosodic unit of stressed and/or unstressed beats, the component of a line
heptameter
7 ft line
hexameter
6 ft line
hyperbeats
those beats in a line which are surplus to the metre; stressed and unstressed hyperbeats are politically corrected masculine and feminine endings
hypermetric
of a line in a given metre, with one or more hyperbeats
iamb, iambic
foot of 2 beats ux
ictus, ictūs (pl)
stressed beat of a foot
inverted (of a foot)
reverse of that normally used in a given line
Line
A single sequence of characters read from left to right
masculine (of an ending)
one or more stressed hypermetrical beats
metre
the rhythmic pattern of beats
octameter
a line of 8 feet
paeon
a foot of four beats, only one stressed ; called first (xuuu), second (uxuu), third (uuxu), and fourth (uuux) paeons according to the position of the stressed beat.
like a pantheon of gods - more
pentameter
a line of five feet
proceleusmatic
uuuu
Prosody
The study and notation of metre
quadruple
four beats
Qualitative prosody
Based on patterns of stress or accent
Quantative prosody
Based on vowel length or quantity
Rising rhythm
Iambic and anapæstic feet (ux) - unstressed to stressed beats means voice is pitched slightly higher
scanning
the process of working out the scansion
scansion
Individual metrical pattern of a particular line or poem
sesqui-
(from Latin, ‘semi’, half, and ‘que’, and) may be prefixed to any linelength to indicate ‘and-a-half’ ; thus ‘trimeter’, a line of 3 feet, and ‘sequitrimeter’, of 3½ feet.
Skeltonics
an accentual form devised for satirical and railing verse by John Skelton (?1460–1529).
stressed
of beats, spoken emphatically, often with the voice pitched slightly higher than for an unstressed beat (1) ; of endings, with one or more stressed hypermetrical beats (7) ; of rhymes, with the stressed vowel in the last beat.
Substitute feet 2x varieties
Distinguishing foot - spondees and pyrrhics used within iambic and trochaic lines
Inverted foot - iamb in trochaic line or trochee in iambic line
Substitute foot
any foot used as a replacement for one of the regular feet in a given line
triple (of a foot)
having 3 beats; the rhythm produced by such feet
uu
Pyrrhic, pyrrhic
uux
Anapœst, anapœstic
ana-a-PEEST
ux
Iamb, iambic
i - AMB
uxu
amphibrach- stressed syllable between two unstressed syllables
uxux
diamb
uxx
bacchius
uxxu
antispast
Why do rising triple metres tend to be comic?
tripping rhythm produced by consecutive unstressed beats
wrenched accent
occurs when the requirements of metrical stress (and/or rhyme) prevail over the natural stress of a word or words
xu
Trochee, trochaic
TRO - chee
xuu
dactyl, dactylic
DAC-tyl-ic
xuux
choriamb
xux
amphimacer
xuxu
a foot of four beats, the first and third stressed, the second and fourth unstressed
xx
Spondee, spondaic
SPON-DEE
xxu
antibacchius
xxx
molossus
xxxx
dispondee
tetrameter
line of four feet
trimeter
line of three feet
unstressed
of beats, spoken unemphatically, often more rapidly and with the
voice pitched slightly lower than for a stressed beat (2) ; of endings, with one or
more unstressed hypermetrical beats (7)
wrenched accent
occurs when the requirements of metrical stress prevail over the natural stress of a word/words
