诗歌知识简介Poetry as a genre

诗歌知识简介Poetry as a genre

教学目的：

使学生掌握英语诗歌的基本知识。

教学重点：

1．英语诗歌的基本要素及诗歌的分类。

2．英国诗歌的发展状况。

教学难点：

区分几对术语：poetry & prose, rhyme & rhythm, image & symbol, theme & subject matter。

教学方法：

教师讲授为主，结合具体的例子进行讲解。

Lecture Notes:

I.Poetry as a Genre

1. Definition of Poetry

Poetry, form of literature, spoken or written, that emphasizes rhythm, other intricate patterns of sound and imagery, and the many possible ways that words can suggest meaning. The word itself derives from a Greek word, poesis, meaning “making” or “creating.”Whereas ordinary speech and writing, called prose, are organized in sentences and paragraphs, poetry in its simplest definition is organized in units called lines as well as in sentences, and often in stanzas, which are the paragraphs of poetry. It is important to keep in mind the distinction between verse and a poem . The word verse has two meanings: one, to refer to a line as a unit of poetry; the other, to refer to any work that uses rhythm and rhyme. Working from the second meaning, one can distinguish between verse and a poem. Those works that fall into a category containing limericks, jingles, and the like, we call verse; works of high and lasting quality we can call poems.

Poetry uses language and it uses language in a different manner. The practical use of language is to communicate information and to keep the communication channels open, while poetry uses language to communicate experience that is much wider than mere information and knowledge. The very difference between poetry and other literature is that poetry is the most condensed and compacted form of literature , saying most in the fewest number of words. Besides, the language of poetry is multi-dimensional. Practical language which aims to communicate information is only directed at the liste ner’s understanding, but poetry, which is used to communicate experience, has at least four dimensions. It involves the reader’s whole faculties: his intelligence, his senses, his emotions and his imagination, not merely his understanding. Therefore, poetry is a literary genre that communicates experience in the most condensed form.

2. The Components of Poetry

Usually, a poem has a title, yet it doesn’t mean that each poem must have a title. The title often suggests the central meaning (theme) of the poem. Poetry is written in sentences just as prose is, and the punctuation indicates all grammatical pauses. The lines in a poem end in two ways: END – STOPPED and RUN – ON. An end-stopped

line is one in which the grammatical unit, a clause or sentence, is finished in the line.

A run-on line ( sometimes called an enjambed line ), on the other hand, is a line in which the grammar, and thus the sense, is left unfinished at the end of the line. The clause or sentence may run on one or two more lines. Run-on lines generally create pleasurable feelings of expectation as the reader has to look further for the full sense of what is being said; and in the end-stopped lines, he acquires satisfaction in finding the line and the sense end together.

A STANZA is a group of lines of verse forming one of the units or divisions of a poem. It is usually recurrent, characterized by a regular pattern, with respect to the number of lines, and the arrangement of meter of rhyme (rhyme scheme). Rhyme is the repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem, which are usually labeled with letters alphabetically, like A, B, C or D.

Common stanza forms include the couplet, the triplet, and the quatrain.

A.Couplet: two successive rhyming lines. The couplet is one of the main verse units

in Western literature. The couplet composed of two iambic pentameter lines is commonly known as the heroic couplet.

B.Triplet:a stanza of three lines or an individual poem of three lines. There are

specific triplet forms, with specific names: tercet, terza rima. Terza rima is a series of interlocking triplets in which the second line of each one rhymes with the first and the third lines of the one succeeding, thus: ABA, BCB, CDC,… Terza rima was adopted first by Dante, then used by Petrarch and Boccaccio.

C.Quatrain: a stanza or an individual poem of four lines rhymed or unrhymed. It

occurs as the commonest of all stanzaic forms in Eastern and Western poetries, and lends itself to wide variation in meter and rhyme.

3. Basic Elements of Poetry

A.Rhyme

Rhyme scheme is the most obvious characteristic of a poem. Rhyme is the repetition of the stressed vowel sound and all succeeding sounds: gay, day, play, may; or wall, fall.

1) Numeral Types of Rhyme

a. Single rhyme, or Masculine Rhyme is the repetition of one vowel, either a single vowel or a diphthong.

b. Double Rhyme, or Feminine Rhyme is the repetition of two vowels.

c. Triple Rhyme, or Multiple Rhyme is the repetition of three or more than three vowels in words, or in phrases.

2) Positional Types of Rhyme

On the basis of the position, the rhyme falls into several types.

a. End Rhyme

If the rhyming words occur at the ends of lines, it is called end rhyme. End rhyme is the commonest and most consciously sought-after sound repetition in English poetry.