Introduction to Poetry

Adeshewa-Victoria Ajayi

ID:AJA13481003

Briefly explain four of the following terms and apply them to one or more of 3 set

poems which will be released a week before the deadline. You must use the first

term (Metre, rhythm and stress) and three others.

Stress, Metre and Rhythm

Stress in the English language can also be referred to as an ‘accent’, when someone stresses

on a word it means they apply emphasis onto certain syllables. There are weak syllables and

strong syllables and usually when spoken a sentence starts off with a strong syllable and is

then followed by one or two weak syllables. However, there are factors which may influence

the way words are stressed, such as semantics, the structure of the sentence and the metre of

the poem. The metre of a poem is the rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables,

if there is a regular rhythm in a poem, then there is a metre.

In the poem ‘I am’ there is a clear rhythm across the whole poem with each verse being in

regular iambic pentameter, rhyming abab but with the last two lines of the last two stanzas
ending in couplets, causing the rhyming scheme to change to ababcc. An example is in the

line:

Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes

or

I am the self-consumer of my woes

This shows the stress of the words as well as the rhyming scheme. In comparison,

Shakespeare’s Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun has the pattern of ababcc in iambic

pentameter throughout, this is known as a Venus and Adonis stanza. As well as this, the

metre is regular and consistent throughout.

Metaphors and Connotations

A metaphor is a figure of speech with a word or a phrase that usually means one kind of thing

is used to describe one thing is used in place of another to create an analogy between them.

The comparison is usually implicit rather than explicit. Metaphors are commonly used

throughout poetry as they allow the writer to communicate complex ideas and feelings to the

readers.

In relation to the poem, In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound, the whole poem is

essentially one long metaphor. Pound links the ‘faces in the crowd’ to the ‘petals on a wet,

black bough’, highlighting the beauty of human beings, as no petals ever look the same and

allowing the readers to imagine the scene.

The poem is only two lines long, meaning it is a variation of a haiku, a haiku is usually a

three-line observation of nature or the seasons, which is evident through the use of the word

‘petal’ which awakens the image of spring. Japanese versions of haiku’s usually show a

contrast between two events or two different images, in Pound’s poem the contrast is between

the faces in the crowd and the petals on the bough. There is also evidence of juxtaposition in

this poem. A juxtaposition is usually two things being brought together that are not

commonly brought together, causing the reader to reconsider the meaning. This is shown

through the use of the ‘apparition’ which is a supernatural appearance of a person, it gives the

impression of something sad and gloomy. In contrast there is the image of the petals, which

implies happiness, something beautiful and the start of something new. This also links to the

term of connotation, which is an idea or a feeling that a word invokes onto a person, so the

use of ‘petals’ has happy connotations whereas ‘apparition’ as well as ‘metro’, give off sad

and gloomy connotations, especially since train stations can often be dark and damp with

everyone rushing around.

Metaphors are also used in I am by John Clare, the speaker refers to sleep as the equivalent to

death twice in the poem, ‘and sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept’ and ‘into the living sea of

waking dreams’. In the first quote he is referring to a time when things were simpler, perhaps

because the speaker wishes that he could have the same naivety which he had in his youth

and since he does not have that death is the only option. In the second quote the sea can be

compared to the life of the speaker, perhaps it seems endless and difficult to comprehend.

In Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun there is a metaphor in the line ‘and ta’en thy wages’,

Shakespeare is comparing the wages on earth to the rewards one might get in heaven such as
eternal life. This relates to the overall message of the poem which seems to be comforting

someone and helping them cope with death.

Phonemic Patterns

A phonemic pattern is when the phonemes in different syllables match with a phoneme which

is the smallest unit of sound in a language. There are examples of phonemic patterns

throughout all of the poems as they can be an alliteration, assonance, consonance or rhyme,

as well as many others.

In the poem I Am, the first line shows an example of consonance with ‘yet what’, this creates

a slight emphasis causing the reader to believe that the speaker is truly struggling when

understanding exactly who he or she is. In the next line there is alliteration with ‘friends

forsake, this helps evokes emotion with the reader and again provides emphasis whilst

drawing attention to the speakers feelings. As well as consonance and alliteration there is also

a near rhyme, which is a type of rhyme formed by words which have similar sounds, so the

vowel segments can be similar while the consonants are different for example with ‘woes’

and ‘host’.

In a Station of the Metro the last line contains alliteration ‘black bough’ as well as using

three monosyllabic words in a row ‘wet black bough’, this helps accelerate the flow as well

as causing tension and allowing the reader to think more about the words used.