Structure of Poems Flashcards
Solitude
Petrarchan Sonnet
Octave - ABBA, ABBA
Sestet - CDDC,DC
Homer
Petrarchan Sonnet
Octave - ABBA, ABBA
Sestet - CDCDCD
December
3 Stanzas Trimeter but shifts ABAB CCCD AEAE FFFD GHGH IIID
Sea
Petrarchan Sonnet
ABBA, ABBA
CDE,DEC
Lear
Mix of Petrarchan and Shakespearean
Iambic pent. (except last line)
Octave = ABBA, ABBA
Sestet = CDCDEE
Fears
Shakespearean Sonnet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Isabella
Ottava rima
Eight lines, with an ab ab ab cc rhyme-scheme.
When the stanza form is used in English, it uses eight iambic lines, predominately in pentameter form.
Hyperion
Epic Form
Narritive
In Media Res
Apostrophe
Agnes
42 Spenserian Stanza form
9 line form with hexameter, Alexandrian line
ABABBCBCC
Couplet rhyme = close relationship between sound and sense End Stopped stanzas = pattern of gating intensitiy
La Belle Dame
Medieval Ballad form
ABCB
Basic rhythm = iambic tetrameter
Last line =iambic di/trimeter
Nightingale
Ode - intense form of lyrical poetry, expression of individual feeling
4 Stanzas of Uneven Length
Most stanzas work in 4 line units of ulternating rhyme + rhyming couplet in the middle of stanza
Psyche
Based his stanza design on the sonnet.
Keats still uses the foundation of iambic pentameter. Stanza 3 is the most like a sonnet, having 14 lines (rhyming a b a b c d d c in the octave and e e f g f g in the sestet).
Keats’ experimentation with stanza form was about freedom rather than restriction. There is a mixture of predictability and the unexpected.
The ode’s first stanza, for instance, begins with a regular, alternate rhyme-scheme which becomes more random, incorporating unrhymed lines in l.10 and l.14. This has the effect both of giving a sense of freshness and energy to the verse, as well as endowing each stanza with a sense of harmony, since the initial alternating rhyme-scheme is returned to at the end of the stanza.
