Reflect in ePortfolio Download Print Open with docReader
First, review the “Notes on Formalism-Part One” in this module.
Let’s start again with basics. Poetry is written in lines and stanzas. A poetic line is roughly the same thing as a sentence. The difference is, a poetic line is
very formal: it’s length and even content may be set by the meter (number of syllables, basically) and the rhyme scheme of the poem. Rhyme scheme is
often set by stanza form, so every form affects every other form. Lines create stanzas, but stanzas determine lines; and the type of poem (sonnet is the type
we’ve studied) can determine the type of stanzas.
This makes poetry much more formal than prose. An essay may have many paragraphs, just like a poem may have many stanzas. But the paragraphs of an
essay may be long or short depending on the content of the sentences in the paragraph. Stanzas in a poem are set by the type of poem (like a sonnet, which
may be English or Italian, or irregular), and in turn set the number of lines and how long they are (meter also determines line length). You can understand
poetic lines as the same thing as sentences in prose (even though many poets punctuate their poems into sentences, which can run to several lines of poetry),
and stanzas as the same thing as paragraphs (even though stanzas can be a specific number of lines, where a paragraph can be a few sentences or run for
over a page and include several sentences).
The point of studying poetry in a composition class is to see how “formal” an essay really is. It is not just a collection of sentences or paragraphs, or just a
set number of paragraphs (5 in the Thesis Plan, for example). An essay is not as rigidly formal as a sonnet, but it is a form used to communicate an idea,
just like a sonnet does. So we need to review lines, stanzas, and poetic forms like sonnets.
POETIC LINE
The poetic line is a single line of verse in a poem. It is not necessarily a sentence, but it’s the same idea as sentence in a prose paragraph. Take this line
from Edna St. Vincent Millay as an example:
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
That’s the opening line of a sonnet, and it’s only part of what is punctuated as a sentence. But it’s a line of poetry because it uses meter (iambic pentameter)
and rhyme to form a complete stanza (in this case an octave, or 8 line stanza). The rhyme is important here because that is how you determine the length of
the stanza. Here’s the complete octave:
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
First, don’t ignore the fact this entire stanza is punctuated as one sentence. Poetry compresses language so much that a single sentence in poetry can be a
long paragraph in prose. Then notice the rhyme scheme: “why” rhymes with “sigh,” “reply”, and “cry.” “Lain” rhymes with “rain,” “pain” and “again.”
The lines lock together because of this simple rhyme scheme (there are only 2 rhymes in 8 lines).
Now go back and pay attention to that first line. Like a paragraph in a prose essay, it introduces the subject and theme of the poem, itself a kind of essay.
The rest of the stanza is about that first line: what, where, and why. The rest of that stanza, like a series of paragraphs in an essay, follow from that opening
line. The full stanza develops the idea: the poet is remembering her young lovers, who have moved on and left her behind. That becomes clear in the
sestet, the concluding stanza of the poem:
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
Again, the opening line sets the theme; although in this case it sets the metaphor: the lonely tree in winter. Birds leave cold climates in winter, so they leave
trees. Her young lovers are the birds; she is the tree that stays and weathers the cold. Winter is also a common metaphor for old age, which, like summer,
comes once in human life. So, as the poet ages, the young lovers she once had leave, never to return. She is too old for youth.
Now go back and notice this entire poem is only two sentences. The first eight lines are punctuated as one sentence, the last six lines are punctuated as the
second sentence. Lines in poetry are not exactly the same thing as sentences; but it helps to understand them as similar to sentences. A sentence is
determined by the thought it contains. A sentence should be a complete thought. A line of poetry is determined by the rhyme scheme of the stanza: is the
stanza four lines long, or six lines, or eight? (Or anything in between, like three or two). Line is also determined by meter: if the meter is iambic, then how
many iambs are there per line? The most common is five, or pentameter; but four, or tetrameter, is not uncommon either. Don’t worry about the difference
between tetrameter and quatrameter; just know that meter (five units per line, where iamb is a type of unit; or four units per line) determines how long the
line will be. A poetic line is determined by meter and rhyme, then. A sentence is determined by how complete the thought in it is. The poetic line is
actually easier to define than the sentence.
I point out the difference, and the details of poetic line, just to help you distinguish a poetic line from a sentence. But it’s useful to treat the poetic line like a
sentence so you can treat a stanza like a paragraph. A paragraph is a group of sentences on one topic. A stanza is a group of lines which completely gives
the information the poet wants in that stanza. A stanza, then, is rather like a paragraph: the lines of the stanza are on one topic, even as all the stanzas are on
the same theme.
Go back to the sonnet I used above: the first stanza is 8 lines, and they are all about the night and the rain and the memories the night and the rain stir in the
Listen
The post Notes on Formalism-Part One appeared first on My Assignment Online.
