Special
Considerations for Reading Poetry Closely
Reading poetry and fiction closely requires the same careful attention to language, but when you read poetry closely, you will look at some additional elements of style and structure.
Rhyme
As you know, some poems rhyme and some — those written in free verse — do not. Rhyme at the end of a line is called end rhyme, while rhyme within a line of poetry is called internal rhyme. Eye (or sight) rhymes should be considered in addition to the rhymes you can hear. When an author uses poetic license to rhyme words that do not sound quite the same, it is called near rhyme. Rhyme is usually notated using letters of the alphabet. For instance, a simple quatrain or four-line stanza might rhyme abab, or be arranged as couplets that rhyme aabb. The pattern of rhyme for an entire poem is called its rhyme scheme. It can be useful to consider the effects of rhyme in a poem by charting its rhyme scheme; reading a rhyming poem out loud is also helpful.
Meter
The lines in structured poems often follow a regular pattern of rhythm called a meter. Literally, meter counts the measure of a line, referring to the pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables, combinations of which we call feet. Iambic meter is by far the most common in English. An iamb is a poetic foot of two syllables with the stress, or accent, on the second, as in the word “again,” or the phrase “by far.” The two most common metric patterns are iambic pentameter, in which a line consists of five iambic feet, and iambic tetrameter, which measures four iambic feet. Notice how “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the Housman poem that you read, is in iambic tetrameter. Each of its lines follows a rhythm of four beats, each one an iambic foot with the emphasis on the second syllable:
The time | you won | your town |
the race
We chaired | you through | the
mar | ket-place.
Notice how odd it would sound if
you were to emphasize the first syllable.
The time | you won | your town |
the race.
Shakespeare often uses blank verse — that is,
unrhymed iambic pentameter. For
example, in Hamlet (p. 720) the ghost
speaks chiefly in blank verse. The same blank
verse may be spoken in ten words
of one syllable each, as in “To prick and sting her.
Fare thee well at once,” or in as
few as three words: “Unhouseled, disappointed, unanealed.”
Form
Poetry is sometimes written in
conventional forms that can give you hints about how
the structure relates to the
meaning of the poem. When you recognize a traditional
form, consider whether it
maintains the conventions or defies them. When you look
at the structure of a poem that
is not in a traditional form, try to figure out how it is
organized. Is it a narrative, in
which the action dictates the structure? Are the stanzas
chronological, cause and effect,
or question and answer? Look for word or sentence
patterns or patterns of imagery
that might reveal the relationships among the stanzas.
Ultimately, what you should be on
the lookout for is how the structure reinforces
the meaning of the poem.
Although poems have many
specialized forms, the most common is the sonnet.
Traditionally written as love
poems, the sonnet form has been used for a wide variety
of purposes, including war poems,
protest poems, and parodies. Sonnets generally
consist of fourteen lines,
usually in iambic pentameter, as you may observe in the opening lines of the
Shakespearean sonnet you will read in this chapter (p. 36):
When, in | dis- grace | with For-
| tune and | men’s eyes
I all | a- lone | be- weep | my
out- | cast state.
There are two classic types of
sonnet. The Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet is divided
into an octave (eight lines)
rhyming abba, abba and a sestet (six lines) with a variety
of different rhyme schemes: cdcdcd, cdecde, or cddcdd. Traditionally,
the octave
raises an issue or expresses a
doubt, and the sestet resolves the issue or doubt.
The shift from the first to the
second section is called the “turn.” The English, or
Shakespearean, sonnet consists of three
four-line stanzas and a couplet at the end.
This type of sonnet rhymes abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The third stanza
usually provides the
turn, and the last two lines
often close the sonnet with a witty remark.
Other common traditional forms
include:
• Elegy. A contemplative
poem, usually for someone who has died.
• Lyric. A short poem
expressing the personal thoughts or feelings of a firstperson
speaker.
• Ode. A form of poetry
used to meditate on or address a single object or
condition. It originally followed
strict rules of rhythm and rhyme, but by the
Romantic period it was more
flexible.
• Villanelle. A form of poetry
in which five tercets, or three-line stanzas (rhyme
scheme aba), are followed by
a quatrain (rhyme scheme abaa). At the end of
tercets two and four, the first
line of tercet one is repeated. At the end of tercets
three and five, the last line of
tercet one is repeated. These two repeated lines, called
refrain lines, are repeated
again to conclude the quatrain. Much of the power of this
form lies in its repeated lines
and their subtly shifting sense or meaning over the
course of the poem.
Sound
Sound is the musical
quality of poetry. It can be created through some of the techniques
we’ve already mentioned, such as
rhyme, enjambment, and caesura. It can
also be created by word choice,
especially through alliteration (the repetition of
initial consonant sounds in a
sequence of words), assonance (the repetition of vowel
sounds in a sequence of words),
and onomatopoeia (use of a word that refers to a
noise and whose pronunciation
mimics that noise). Sound can also be created by
rhythm and cadence (similar to
rhythm, but related to the rise and fall of the voice).
Like all of the elements of
style, the key to analysis is to connect the sound of the
poem to its meaning.
Let’s consider form in “The Red
Wheelbarrow,” a famous short poem by William
Carlos Williams.
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain 5
water
beside the white
chickens.
[1923]
In only sixteen words, this poem
demonstrates how form and sound can not only
reinforce an image but can
actually create meaning. In this piece, Williams creates a
visual image, analogous to a
still-life painting. Instead of treating the text as a sentence,
he breaks it up into four
couplets that guide the way we experience the language, and
thus the ideas.
The poem is written in free verse
with no capitalization or internal punctuation,
so we approach it word by word.
The use of enjambment stops us at each interval as if
Williams is asking us to consider
carefully as we go along. He begins, “so much depends,”
stressing the verb and
reinforcing how much is at stake by pausing there before continuing
to the next line. By giving the
preposition “upon” its own line, he seems to be withholding
the central image of the poem,
thus making it even starker when, in the second
stanza, we encounter “a red wheel
/ barrow.” The monosyllables in the third line give
us a closer perspective and break
the image down into its parts. Even the word “wheelbarrow”
is divided, perhaps to remind us
that it is a compound — and crafted — word,
just as the wheelbarrow itself is
a well-crafted tool (a wheel + a barrow).
In the next stanza, Williams
vividly develops the image: the red wheelbarrow is “glazed
with rain / water,” giving us a
clearer sense of its texture and appearance. The fourth couplet
adds a contrast of color and
movement when the position of the wheelbarrow is
described as “beside the white /
chickens” — static red juxtaposed with moving white.
The sounds reinforce the sensuous
image being created. Williams unifies the first
and second stanzas with the long o sounds present in
the words “so” and “barrow.”
The alliteration of r in “red” and
“rain” links the second and third stanzas, as does the
assonance of “glazed” with “rain”
and “beside” with “white.” The ch of “much” in the
opening line echoes in the final
line’s “chickens,” bringing the poem full circle.
Thus, even a modern poem — one
that does not have the formality or strict rules
of a villanelle or sonnet —
illustrates the importance of form and sound. By arranging
a series of very simple words,
carefully chosen and placed, Williams turns a straightforward
declarative sentence into a vivid
image full of subtle shades of meaning.
Now that you have some
familiarity with the elements of style specific to poetry,
you can use them when reading
poetry closely. Here are some questions you can ask
of any text:
Rhyme
• Does the poem have a regular
rhyme scheme? If so, what is it?
• What other types of rhymes does
the poem include, such as internal rhymes,
sight rhymes, or near rhymes?
• How does the rhyme scheme
affect the poem’s sound, tone, or meaning?
Meter
• Does the poem have a regular
meter? If so, what is it?
• Read the poem aloud. How does the
meter affect the tone of the poem? For
instance, does the meter make the
poem seem formal, informal, singsongy,
celebratory, somber?
Form
• Does the poem follow a
traditional form? If so, which?
• If the poem follows a
traditional form, but has untraditional content, what
might be the poet’s purpose in
subverting the traditional form?
• If the poem does not follow a
traditional form, what sort of logic structures
the poem? For instance, why are
the stanzas broken as they are? What is the
relationship among the stanzas?
Poetic Syntax
• What examples of enjambment can
you find? How does the enjambment
affect the sound and meaning of
the line?
• What examples of caesura can
you find? What is the impact of the caesura?
• If the poem has sentences, are
they long or short or a combination of the two?
How does the length of the
sentences relate to the meaning of the poem?
Sound
• How does the poem use rhyme,
meter, form, and poetic syntax to create sound?
• How does the poem use
repetition, such as alliteration and assonance, to create
sound?
• How do the sounds created in
the poem connect to the meaning of the poem?