Prosody in English Poetry

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Prosody in English Poetry
Prosody The arrangement of sounds and pattern of repetition of sounds that gives poetry its emphatic, distinctive effect.

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Iambic Pentameter
Most common form of poetic meter in modern English

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Iambic Pentameter
Most common form of poetic meter in modern English Alternating unstressed and stressed syllables

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Iambic Pentameter
Most common form of poetic meter in modern English Alternating unstressed and stressed syllables Five beats to the line

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Iambic Pentameter
The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain. (From My Fair Lady)

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Iambic Pentameter
The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain. (From My Fair Lady)

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Iambic Pentameter
The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain. (From My Fair Lady)

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Iambic Pentameter
At last he rose, and twitchd his mantle
blue Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
John Milton, Lycidas, lines 192-3
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Iambic Pentameter
At last he rose, and twitchd his mantle
blue Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
John Milton, Lycidas, lines 192-3
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Iambic Pentameter
Or Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
John Milton, Lycidas, lines 192-3
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Iambic Pentameter
At last he rose, and left without a clue To
pass the test, he knew he must review.
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Four-Stress Alliterative Verse
Alliterative verse depends upon alliteration (repeated sounds of vowels and consonants on stressed syllables) rather than a fixed meter

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Four-Stress Alliterative Verse
Alliterative verse depends upon alliteration (repeated sounds of vowels and consonants on stressed syllables) rather than a fixed meter Four-stress meter is in Beowulf and other Old English poems

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Four-Stress Alliterative Verse
Alliterative verse depends upon alliteration (repeated sounds of vowels and consonants on stressed syllables) rather than a fixed meter Four-stress meter is in Beowulf and other Old English poems Beowulf also uses medial caesura

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Four-Stress Accentual Verse
So! The Spear Danes in days of old Were led by a lord famed for his forays.

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Oft Scyld Scefing          sceaþena
þreatum, monegum mægþum,         meodosetla
ofteah, egsode eorlas.         Syððan
ærest wearð feasceaft funden,         he
þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum,    
 weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc         þara
ymbsittendra ofer hronrade        
hyran scolde, gomban gyldan.         þæt
wæs god cyning!