Poetry W2 Pam Booth

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PoetryW2 Pam Booth
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Poetry Basics
All poetry follows a pattern of
stressed/unstressed syllables. A syllable is a
single sound in a word. The word cat has one
syllable. The word because has two syllables,
be-cause. Every sound has syllables. A stressed
syllable is emphasized when spoken. An unstressed
syllable is not emphasized when spoken. Stressed
and unstressed syllables are not easily
differentiated in everyday English usage. If you
pay attention to what words you are saying, you
can find the stressed/unstressed syllables. We
have become accustomed to hearing our language
spoken without heavy emphasis on
stressed/unstressed syllables, so it is not
automatic for us to differentiate. Poets have
created a few different patterns of
stressed/unstressed syllables to write
in -Iambic Meter - unstressed,
stressed -Trochaic Meter - stressed,
unstressed -Anapestic Meter unstressed,
unstressed, stressed -Dactylic Meter stressed,
stressed, unstressed -Spondaic Meter- stressed,
stressed
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Poetry Basics (cont.)
A few Definitions - Iamb metric foot of
stressed then unstressed syllable Greek
iambos -Trochee metric foot of unstressed then
stressed syllables Greek trokhaios -Anapest
metric foot of two stressed then one unstressed
syllables Greek anapaistos - Dactyl metric
foot of one unstressed then two unstressed
syllables Greek daktulos -Spondee metric
foot of two stressed syllables Greek
spondeios - Meter number of syllables in a
line Greek metron - Foot measurement of
stressed/unstressed syllables Old English
fot http//ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/glo
ssary/bl_meter.htm
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Greek poetry
Greek poetry did not have certain number of
feet, follow a rhythm, or contain verses like we
know in more modern poetry. Poets put emphasis on
syllables, and the value of each syllable in a
line. They did not want their audience be
distracted by rhyming words, the number of feet
per line, or the length of the poem. The
emphasis was on the value of each sound in
contrast to the previous and next sound. Poets
were focused on the spoken Greek language and the
beautiful images it could create. Poetry was
used in almost everything plays, lectures,
epics, stories, songs, choruses, prayer,
praise, and other Greek culture. Poetry was a
collection of words that when put together
created love, peace, hate, anger, passion, and
other emotions. The public loved to see a play,
prayer, or story written in poetic versification
to experience a broad range of emotions
internally. http//www.historychannel.com/perl/pri
nt_book.pl?ID118988
Love (from Antigone) Love, unconquered in
battle Love, you who fall upon mens wealth
Who keep your night-watch on the soft cheeks of a
girl Who travel across the sea or to mens
country dwellings not one of the immortals can
escape you nor any mortal man. He who
touches you is seized by madness. Even the
mind of the just you drag From its course to
injustice and to dishonur It is you who
stirred these men of common blood to fight sharp
desire, kindled by the eyes of the lovely bride
is the conqueror Desire sits enthroned and
rules together with the great laws and Aphrodite
playfully mocks, the goddess none can defeat.
-Sophocles
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Muses - Muse a guiding spirit,
inspiration Greek mousa, moisa, mosa
The nine goddesses are the daughters of Zeus and
Mnemosyne (Greek memory). The myth goes that
they were born at the foot of Mt. Olympus in
Pieria, Thessaly. Eupheme, the goddesses nurse,
was appointed to take care of them as well as her
own son Crotus. When Crotus died and went to the
heavens as Sagittarius, Eupheme dubbed the nine
goddesses Muses because they would have to carry
on Crotus memory. Muse is interpreted as a
reminder. Originally there were three muses
worshiped at Mt. Helicon (Melete, Mneme, and
Aoede) and three different muses worshiped at
Delphi (Nete, Mese, andHypate). In Greek
mythology there are nine Muses Polyhymnia
sacred poetry Erato poetry of love Thalia -
comedy Urania - astronomy Melpomene - tragedy
Tersichore choral song and dance Calliope
epic poetry and eloquence Euterpe lyric poetry
and music Clio - history http//www.eliki.com/po
rtals/fantasy/circle/define.html
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Muses
Thalia The Flourishing (Comic Mask)
Polyhymnia She of many Hymns (Pensive Look)
Erato The Lovely (Lyre)
http//www.cosmopolis.com/muses/muses.html
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Muses
Urania The Heavenly (Celestial Globe)
Melpomene The Songstree (Tragic Mask)
Tersichore The Whirler (Dancing with Lyre)
http//homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Free/000MUS
ES/MUSESAlbum.html
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Muses
Calliope The Fair Voiced (Writing Tablet)
Euterpe The Giver of Pleasure (Flute)
Clio - The Proclaimer (Scroll)
http//www.romansonline.com/Famy.asp?IntID6856En
ameCalliope http//www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/Arch
ives/MusesOnMoney/euterpe.html
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Plato -429-347 BC
Born 427 BC to wealthy Athenian citizens, Plato
studied philosophy under Socrates. Plato is best
known as a philosopher and the author of the
dialogues, Republic and Symposium. However, Plato
did much more then reincarnate Socratic ideas,
way of thinking, and its creator Socrates. He
was a master of the Greek languages potential of
beauty.
Agathon Kissing Agathon my soul was on my
lips For it came forward poor thing as though it
would cross over him. Aster As the morning star
you shone in the past among the living but now
dead you shine like the Evening Star among those
that have perished.
Dion The fates wove tears for Hecuba and the
Trojan women at the hour of their birth And the
Gods poured away your far-reaching hopes, Dion,
after you had selebrated the triumph for your
noble deeds you lie in your spacious homeland,
honoured by your citizens Dion-you, who maddened
my soul with love.
http//www.philosophypages.com/ph/plat.htm
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Sophocles -495-406 BC
Born 495 BC about a mile northwest of Athens to a
prosperous merchant, Sophocles would grow up to
be remembered as the greatest playwrights of the
golden age. At 28-years-old Sophocles won first
place at the City of Dionysus, an annual theatre
festival where simple playwrights became
superstars of Greek entertainment. He would go on
to win many more awards and none below second
place. http//www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/
clsc1.htm
None is more wonderful than man Many
wonders there are and yet none is more wonderful
than man. He journey over the grey ocean with
stormy Notoes (the south wind) crossing through
waves that surge about him Earth the immortal,
the greatest of the goods, the tireless one, he
wears away turning the soil with his horses as
his ploughs pass up and down year after year.
With woven nets he snares the race of
thoughtless birds the tribes of savage beast the
sea-brood of the deep man of subtle wit. By his
cunning he masters the animal that nest in the
wilderness that roam across the hills he tames
the rich-manned horse putting a yoke upon its
neck and the unwearied mountain bull. and
he has taught himself speech and wind swift
thought and the ways of building an ordered
state, and he has taught himself to escape the
arrows of the frost and of the rain when it is
hard to sleep under the open sky the all
resourceful he is never as a loss whatever comes
his way. Only from death will he not devise an
escape although he has found ways of curing
hopeless sicknesses. How skillful passing
belief are the arts that lead him sometimes to
evil and sometimes to good! When he honours the
laws of the land and justice sanctioned by the
gods his cities stand proud and tall but he who
rashly embraces evil is homeless. May the man who
acts thus never share my hearth or my thoughts.
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Euripides 480-406BC
Born September 23, 480BC in Salamis, Euripides
would become a tortured dramatist who wrote about
myths and Gods in present day experiences.
Euripides saw and wrote the Gods and myths not as
people had known them, but what they would be
like in modern the Mediterranean. He believed in
the individual and their potential. http//www.i
n2greece.com/english/historymyth/history/ancient/e
uripides.htm
It is your duty to obey, my lady. You must
accept the husband who stands before you, and
forget the one whose claim has ended. In your
present position this will be the best for you.
And if I come home safely to Hellas, I will put
an end to evil tales about you only be the wife
you should be to your husband."-Euripides, Helen
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Revenge of Medea Oh Zeus and justice daughter
of Zeus and light of the Sun we shall now my
friends have a splendid triumph over my enemies,
and we are well on the way to it. Now here is
hope my enemies will pay the plenty. This man who
was our greatest weakness has proved a harbour
for my plans on him we shall tie the hawsers of
our ships prow when we reach the city and the
citadel of Palla. And now I will tell you all my
schemes listen to my unlovely words. I shall
send one of my servants to Jason and ask him to
come here to meet my fac to face. And when he
comes I shall speak soft words to him as though I
agree with him that it is well he entered in that
royal marriage by which he betrayed me that it
is for my advantage and a good decision. I shall
ask him if my sons can stay not that I would
leave my sons to be insulted by my enemies in a
hostile land but that I may kill that daughter
of the king by treachery! For I shall send then
with presents in their hands for the bride, so
that she never leaves that land a delicate robe
and gold wrought wreath. If she accepts this
finery and puts it about her, she, and all who
touch her, will die a horrible death. With such
poison shall I anoint the presents. Now I shall
end this story and lament the dreadful thing that
remains for me do thereafter
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Aristophanes -450-385BC
Aristophanes was a comedic writer in Athens
around the time when the publics faith in
democracy was disintegrating. Athens was losing
the Peloponnesian War and people needed something
to lift their spirits. He wrote on of the first
anti-war plays during the sixth-year of the
Peloponnesian War, The Acharnians. His most
famous play would by Lysistrata, a comedic
anti-war play about wives cutting off sex from
their husbands if they continued to
fight. http//www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/
clsc13.htm
The Clouds Eternal clouds les us rise up
and who our dewy radiant natures let us rise up
from out lard-roaring father the ocean to the
peaks of high mountains shaggy with trees so that
we may gaze upon hilltops that are clear from
afar and upon the holy earth watering her fruits
and upon the rushing of sacred rivers and the
loud sound of the thundering sea for now the
unwearying eye of the sky shines out with
flashing ray. Let us shake off the rain cloud
from our immortal shapes and look upon the earth
with far-seeing eye Rain bringing maidens
let us go to the fruitful land of Palla to see
the much-loved country of Cecreps nurse of good
men where the religious ceremonies of which no
one may speak are honored where the house for the
Mysteries is opened in the holy rites and where
there are gifts to the gods of the sky and
high-roofed temples and statues and most holy
processions of the blessed ones, and sacrifices
to the gods with lovely wreaths ad feasts in all
seasons and when spring is coming the grateful
celebrations to honour Bromius the rousing of
sweet-singing choruses and the loud-sounding
music of flutes.
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Aristotle -384-322BC
Born 580 BC to the royal physician of the
Macedonian family in Stagira, Aristotle would
come to write over 150 philosophical treatises.
He got his love of medicine and science from his
father, and his curiosity of philosophy from
studying under Plato. http//www.ucmp.berkeley
.edu/history/aristotle.html
Mine is the first step and therefore a small
one, though worked out with much thought and hard
labor. You, my readers or hearers of my lectures,
if you think I have done as much as can fairly be
expected of an initial start. . . will
acknowledge what I have achieved and will pardon
what I have left for others to accomplish.
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Timotheus 447-357BC
Born 450BC, Timotheus wrote poetry and music in
Miletus. He is best known for adding another
string to the kithara, a stringed instrument. He
also wrote the prologue to Perseae.
A defeat at sea When the upsurging brine
foamed over his mouth with harshly yelling voices
and insane flights of thought he angrily
threatened it gnashing his teeth in imitation of
the sea, the destroyer of his body You are
arrogant now for my you had your violent neck
yoked in shackles of hemp. But now my master-yes
my master-will rouse you to frenzy with pines
from the hills and he will imprison your meadows
fit for sailing in wandering lights you ancient
frenzied abomination faithless in the embraces of
the rushing foaming wind. So he spoke worn with
panting and threw up a fearful foam as he vomited
forth from his mouth brine, from the depths.
Again the barbarian Persian army was rushing back
in flight. Here are there the shallows smashed
them and knocked out of the mens hands the
long-necked mountain-born legs of the shipthe
sea was bestarred and swarmed with breathless
lightless bodies and the shores were laden with
corpses.