Poetry - Classifications of Poetry

CLASSIFICATIONS OF POETRY

KINDS OF POETRY Poems are grouped into the following categories: Elegy: it is a type of Iyrical poem that expresses sadness for someone who has died. Thomas Gray’s Elegy ‘written in a country Churchyard” mourns all who lived and died quietly and never had the chance to be great. It is different from elegy because it is shorter, and usually written to be sung while elegy cannot be sung. Dirge: It is a song of lamentation sung on the occasion of someone’s death. It is different from elegy because it is shorter and usually written to be sung while elegy cannot be sung. Milton’s “ Lycidas” is a good example. Dramatic Poetry: It involves the use of characters, dialogue and action. The poet’s speech and actions in the poem are represented. It has dramatic devices such as monologue, dialogue or conversation. Wole Soyinka “Telephone Conversation” and O.M. Mtshali’s “Night fall in Soweto are classic examples. Ode: It is a long meditative, and Iyrical poem, serious in subject, decorate in style addressed to some persons object or an abstract noun with personified quality. It can be rhymed or unrhymed usually about fifty to two hundred lines. In those poems stone and other inanimate things are eulogized or praised with acute seriousness .E.g John Keat’s “Ode to Grecian urn, “Ode to a Nightingale. P.Shelley’s Ode to west wind, etc. those poems, three things are eulogized with acute admiration. They are: “Grecian urn” “Wind” and “Nightingale” in order to show the everlasting beauty of art. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story it is emotional with a simple subject matter. Samuel T. Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the ancient mariner is good example: (a) Literary Ballads: It is usually written by skilled writers or poets. John Keats’ “LaBelle Dame sams Merci is a good example. (b) Popular or Folk Ballads: They are written by anonymous poets. They are composed to be sung by the common people in a region that forms part of their culture. It is also passed orally from singer to singer from generation to generation and from one region to another. Physical courage and love are the major themes of this balled. The major incidents always revolve round the common people not the nobles. There are repetitions of epithet and phrases which serve as refrain or chorus for song. Examples of Folk ballads are traditional songs sung during traditional ceremonies and marriages. Pastoral Poem: (from Pastor, Latin ‘shepherd’) it is a poem in which an urban poet described the peaceful, simple, ideal life of the countryside and expresses his nostalgia for it. The poet also describes the life of shepherd and other rural flock in an idealized natural background. Some of its theme include: love seduction, death and mourning. John Milton’s ‘Iycidas’ is an example. Epitaph: It is a short poem used to describe a dead person. It is often inscribed on a stones above the dead person’s grave or on tomb or monument in his memory. Example is the epitaph in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in a country churchyard”. Note that epitaph is different from elegy or dirge. Humorous Poem: It is aimed at making the reader laugh. They are burlesque and parody. (a) Burlesque: It imitates the manner (form and style) or the subject matter of a serious literary work. (b) Parody: It imitates the style of another poet with the intention to make fun of him (Poet) e.g John Phillip’ “the splendid shilling” parodied the epic style of John Milton’s “paradise lost” Idyll: This is a short idealized poem which describes a popular incident. It is always about a simple or rustic life in a country side. Panegyric Poem: It is a praise poem that eulogizes somebody or a thing e.g. Christopher Okigbo’s “Idoto”. Didactic Poetry: They are poems that teach moral lessons. They are satire and allegory: (c) Satire: It is a poem that mocks or attacks the vice of the individual or society. It laughs or scorns at human evils and calls for a change. Wole Soyinka’s the Trial of Brother Jero is a satire Allegory: It is a novel or poem in which an action represents another action and a character represents other character, e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Epithalamion: It is a poem written in celebration of marriage. Hagiology: It is a poem written to describe the life of a saint. Limerick: This is a short humorous poem which has five lines. It has rhyme scheme aabba. Epic: It is a long narrative poem which tells the story of a hero whose renowned achievements has national significance usually written in an elevated style. It celebrates culture and the heroic deeds of an idealized hero who exemplifies the values of his society. It is a heroic story with myth and legend. A well known epic in English literature is John Milton’s “Paradise Lost’. Homer’s “IIuad” and Edmond Spenser’s “Faerie Queens (1590-96) Romantic Poetry: It deals with the admiration of the beauty of nature. Matthew Arnold’s Daver Beach” and John Keats” poems are concrete examples. Sonnet: This is a Iyrical poem of fourteen lines. There are three types of sonnets. (a) The Italian or Petrarch Sonnet. It is named after and Italian poet called Francis Petrarch. Italian sonnet is divided into two parts: octave (eight) and sestet (six). The octave is the first eight lines of the sonnet. Its rhyme scene is abbaabba while the sestet is the last six lines of the sonnet which rhymes cdecde. The sonnet originated in Italy and was later introduced to England. The octave establishes an argument or worry about issue while the argument is resolved in the sestet with an amplifying conclusion. John Milton’s “When I Consider How My Light is spent is an example of Italian sonnets (b) The English or Shakespearean sonnet: This sonnet is named after the most famous dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) It has three quatrains (four lines) and mostly ends in the couple (two lines) The rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet is: abab cdcdefefgg (4-4-4-2) Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets “Shall compare thee to a summer’s day”? Is one of the sonnets Sonnet Sequence: It is the progressive arrangement of sonnets. Sonneteer is the writer of sonnets. (c) Spenserian sonnet: It is a variant type of sonnet developed by Edmand Spenser. It is differed in rhyme schemes and structure. The rhyme scheme for Spenserians sonnet is abab bcbc ededee (4-4-4-2) Spenser’s Amoretti “has this form” (d) Shape Poems or Concrete Poems: They are poems whose physical formation can be used to depict the subject matter and such shaped poem is Herbert’s “Easter Wings”: The typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect, it is sometimes referred to as visual poetry; a Poetry in the visual element are as important as the text. THE STYLISTIC IMPLICATION OF SOUNDS SOUND AND MEANING THE USE OF SOUND IN POETRY Sounds in poetry can contribute to the musicality of the poem. Effectiveness of sounds is: (i) It gives pleasure and aesthetics to the reader (ii) Sound helps the reader to get and interpret the meaning of words. (iii) It also adds significance to the words which produce the sounds. (iv) The stylistic effects of sounds not only give sense in poetry but also help to convey meaning. Poets can create pattern of sounds in the following ways: • Alliteration: It is the repetition of initial identical consonant sounds line of poetry e.g., (i) Father Friday fried fish for his friends on Friday. (ii) On the bald street breaks the blank day. • Assonance: This is the repetition of internal vowel sound in the middle of initial words In a line of poetry e.g., I, Our echoes roll from soul to soul. • Consonance/Cacophony: This is the repetition of a sequence of two or more alone, pitter-patter the same consonants, following a change in the subsequent. Dissonance: It is has to do with the language which perceived to be harsh, rough and unmusical. Dissonance in poetry is the deliberate avoidance of assonance, i.e., Patterns of repeated vowel sounds. It is similar to cacophony which is the direct opposite of euphony. Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” has such line; “Lay like the folds of bright girdle furled” Onomatopoeia: This is an effect produced when the words used contain similar sounds to the noises they describe. The sound resembles the thing or action denoted by the word. E.g.: (i) The pitter patter of rain in the roof (ii) The wall cracked (iii) The boom of a gun was heard in my school. Repetition: It is when a word or a line is repeated in poetry for the sake of emphasis, e.g. I am alone all alone. Twinkle twinkle little star etc. Incremental repetition: It is a device used in the poetry of oral tradition, especially English and Scottish ballads, in which a line is repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in a repeated part. The device is illustrated in the following stanza, from the ballad “Lord Randal” “O where ha’ you been lord Randal, my son? And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?” Rimeriche: (French for rich rhyme) It is the repetition of the consonant that precedes, as well as the one that follows the last stressed vowel; the resulting pair of words are pronounced alike, but have different meaning Eg., Stair-stare, night-knight. It was adopted by Geoffrey Chancer in his General prologue (Canterbury Tales). Parallelism: It is the repetition of identical structures, clauses and sentences in a stanza of poem. We also have phonological and syntactic parallelism, e.g You maim my Mondays You toss my Tuesdays And wet my Wednesdays: You thrash my Thursdays And freeze my Fridays And sap my Saturdays And soil my Saturdays. Refrain: It is the repetition of one or more phrases or line at interval in a poem. It usually occurs at the end of a stanza. A refrain may be an exact repetition or it may exhibit slight variations in meaning famous refrain is found in Edmund Spenser’s “Epithalamion” (1594) “The woods shall to me answer and my echo rings” Pun: It is the play on words. This occurs when two words sounding alike with different meaning are played upon by using the meaning of one for the other. (i) When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. (Khute Rockne) (ii) Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. (Arthur Roche) Prosody: This is the scientific study of versification. It is the study of Metre, number, length and rhyme scheme. It also means the study of speech sound pattern and sound effect such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, euphony and assonance. Rhyme Scheme: These are lines ending with the same sound. (i) Couplet Rhyme: This is the lines that rhyme in pairs in a poem (ii) Alternate Rhyme: It is also known as “cross rhyming” meaning) the lines alternate between two rhyming words as in abab. The effect creatd is that of an echo. Example All I have I give to you You mean the world to me And everything I say or do I do so willingly Metre: It deals with the stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. It is the recurrent basic pattern of approximately equal unit used in poetry for showing the number of beats (feet) in each verse. A poet’s use of regular rhythm is known as A. Allegory B. Assonance C. Metre D. Rhyme. Onomatopoeia (JAMB 2012 Q.36) The four standard patterns in English are: (i) Iambic: It contains an unstressed syllable and a stressed one. (ii) Trochaic: It contains stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (iii) Anapaestic: It contains two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one (iv)Dactylic: It has one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed one Spondee: (adj spondaic) It is a metrical foot of two stressed syllable e.g Browning’s “The Bishop Orders His Tomb” Blank Verse: It is a poem written in iambic pentameters that do no rhyme e.g. Milton’s epic “Paradise lost Free Verse: It is a poem without a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Mid-twentieth century poetry is written in free verse e.g. T.S Eliot’s “The waste land”. Couplet is a pair of lines of poetry with the same metre, especially one that rhymes: example; Who e’er she be That not possible she (Richard Crashaw. “Wishes to His supposed Mistress”) Scansion: It is the formal division of verse into feet. Verse: This is the metrical line named in terms of the number of feet it consists of Foot: It refers to the individual units or combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. The eight metrical lines are as follows: (i) Monometer-one foot line (ii) Dimetre two feet line (iii) Trimetre two feet line (iv) Tetrametrefourfeetline (v) Pentametre-five feet line (v) Hexametre-six feet line (vi) Heptametre-seven feet line (vii) Octametre-eight feet line Stanza is a division in the formal pattern of a poem, set off by a space in the text. The stanza of a poem usually has uniformity in the number and length of lines they contain. But this is not often found in poems with blank verse and free verse. They are: The Ballade is a poem of three stanzas, plus a shorter stanza called the “envoy” using only two rhymes. Heroic Couplet is the equal lines of poetry usuallly iambic pentrametre rhymic in pairs Octosyllabic Couplet is any form of eight syllable lines OttavaRima is comprised of eight line rhyming a-b-a-b-a-c-c. Octet refers to an eight line stanza with no specific metre and rhyme scheme. Quatrain is a four-line stanza of no defined metre and rhyme scheme. Quintet is a five-line stanza of no defined metre and rhyme scheme. Rhyme Royal: It is a seven-line iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc. The Rondel is a thirteen-line poem without a prescribed metre, rhyming ABBA, abba, abbaa. The Sestina consists of six-line stanzas with a three-line stanza of no metre and without a rhyme scheme. The Spenserian stanza has nine-lines, the first eight of which are in lambic lines, the first eight of which are in iambic lexametre. The rhyming scheme is ababbabcc. Tercet or Triplet: is a three-line stanza usually with a single rhyme. The Terza Rima refers to lines arranged in tercets which have the appearance of unending continuity. Triolet is a stanza of eight lines, metre not prescribed with two rhymes usually rhyming abaaabab. The villanese is a poem of nineteen lines consisting of five set of three-line stanzas and one quatrain with no fixed order of rhymes. Rhythm: It is the regular patterns Verbal features or musical flow in poetry that reveals the poetic use of figures of sounds such as assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Poetic License: It is the freedom that the poet enjoys to enable him use words. This license allows him to coin or use words that are not in consonance with rules of syntax or grammar. It is also the liberty the poets take with language. J.P. Clarke has used “executhieves” in place of “executive” in his poem. Poets can also use these: SINator for senator, representaTHIEVES for representatives, governot for governor, chair MAR for chairman, demoCRAZY for democracy. How to answer Unseen Prose and Poetry in Literature exams This simply means the study of prose and poetry extracts which a student does not have prior knowledge of. It does not mean invisible literary works. It may or may not be recommended to students so as to achieve its purpose of testing their literary prowess. It is quite common in public examination questions (WAEC, NECO, UTME and Post UME) on literature-in-English. The aim of unseen prose, drama and poetry is to test the student’s knowledge and understanding of the subject matter theme, mood, tone, figures of speech and other literary devices used in the given extract. 5. Best Approaches or Ways To Answer Unseen Prose And Poetry 1. Read carefully and highlight anything that strikes you that could suggest meaning. Make brief notes along the way. Read the poem two to three times, because the more you read the more you understand the poem 2. State what you believe to be the main idea(s) of the extract by approaching it line by line, stanza by stanza. Note the key words or phrases repeated throughout the poem, 3. Find out if there are any recurring themes in the poem 4. Identify the persona by asking yourself the following questions who is the speaker in the poem? Is it the poet, male or female? 5. Pay close attention to the language of the poem, imagery symbolism, sounds, rhymes and rhythm. Example of Unseen Poem “And why must we be sad when the Messiahs are with us to hound us and butt-gun us into greater tomorrow” (JAMB) – Idia Ofeimun’s “The Messiahs”. The tone of the lines is: (a) Satiric (b) sarcastic (c) Indicting (d) Self-pitying The answer is A (satiric), because messiahs are supposed to serve as agents of liberation but messiahs here are brutal and wicked in nature. “An unlucky creation” His mother a street walker; His lying father, A champion at producing bastards” (JAMB) – B.S. Ubenderana”The Bastard” The subject of the poem above is: (a) prostitute (b) the lying father (c) the son (d) the orphan The answer is (c) because the subject of discourse is “the son” as suggested by double uses of pronoun” His” referring to masculine gender The Son” Example of Unseen Prose Today is my last day here; I’m done banging my head against the glass ceiling, they think I don’t know they really hired me. They are talking to dark behind my back. Begging for favor: Work permit renewals. Licences, tax and duty waivers, contracts and tenders (Ken Kamoche: A fragile hope) The technique employed in narrating the excerpt above his (a) flashback (b) Stream of consciousness (c) Foreshadowing (d) Play-within-the play The answer is (b) (see p. 29) This thing you are doing is too heavy For you, he said, “I went to school only a little, But I have killed many more years in this World than you have.” Gabriel Okara: The Voice (JAMB 2014, Q 50) It can be inferred from the passage above that the… A. Listener is more experience B. Speaker is more experienced C. Listener is wise D.Speaker is a porter. Line 3 shows that option B is correct and it is a personification. Her neck is rope-like. Thin, and skinny, And her face sickly pale’ (Okotp’Bitek: Song of Lawino) The tone of the poet is that of A. Ridicule B. Admonition C. Anger D. Sympathy (JAMB 015,Q28). Option A is the correct answer. CLASSIFICATIONS OF POETRY KINDS OF POETRY Poems are grouped into the following categories: Elegy: it is a type of Iyrical poem that expresses sadness for someone who has died. Thomas Gray’s Elegy ‘written in a country Churchyard” mourns all who lived and died quietly and never had the chance to be great. It is different from elegy because it is shorter, and usually written to be sung while elegy cannot be sung. Dirge: It is a song of lamentation sung on the occasion of someone’s death. It is different from elegy because it is shorter and usually written to be sung while elegy cannot be sung. Milton’s “ Lycidas” is a good example. Dramatic Poetry: It involves the use of characters, dialogue and action. The poet’s speech and actions in the poem are represented. It has dramatic devices such as monologue, dialogue or conversation. Wole Soyinka “Telephone Conversation” and O.M. Mtshali’s “Night fall in Soweto are classic examples. Ode: It is a long meditative, and Iyrical poem, serious in subject, decorate in style addressed to some persons object or an abstract noun with personified quality. It can be rhymed or unrhymed usually about fifty to two hundred lines. In those poems stone and other inanimate things are eulogized or praised with acute seriousness .E.g John Keat’s “Ode to Grecian urn, “Ode to a Nightingale. P.Shelley’s Ode to west wind, etc. those poems, three things are eulogized with acute admiration. They are: “Grecian urn” “Wind” and “Nightingale” in order to show the everlasting beauty of art. Narrative Poem: It is a poem that tells a story it is emotional with a simple subject matter. Samuel T. Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the ancient mariner is good example: (a) Literary Ballads: It is usually written by skilled writers or poets. John Keats’ “LaBelle Dame sams Merci is a good example. (b) Popular or Folk Ballads: They are written by anonymous poets. They are composed to be sung by the common people in a region that forms part of their culture. It is also passed orally from singer to singer from generation to generation and from one region to another. Physical courage and love are the major themes of this balled. The major incidents always revolve round the common people not the nobles. There are repetitions of epithet and phrases which serve as refrain or chorus for song. Examples of Folk ballads are traditional songs sung during traditional ceremonies and marriages. Pastoral Poem: (from Pastor, Latin ‘shepherd’) it is a poem in which an urban poet described the peaceful, simple, ideal life of the countryside and expresses his nostalgia for it. The poet also describes the life of shepherd and other rural flock in an idealized natural background. Some of its theme include: love seduction, death and mourning. John Milton’s ‘Iycidas’ is an example. Epitaph: It is a short poem used to describe a dead person. It is often inscribed on a stones above the dead person’s grave or on tomb or monument in his memory. Example is the epitaph in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in a country churchyard”. Note that epitaph is different from elegy or dirge. Humorous Poem: It is aimed at making the reader laugh. They are burlesque and parody. (a) Burlesque: It imitates the manner (form and style) or the subject matter of a serious literary work. (b) Parody: It imitates the style of another poet with the intention to make fun of him (Poet) e.g John Phillip’ “the splendid shilling” parodied the epic style of John Milton’s “paradise lost” Idyll: This is a short idealized poem which describes a popular incident. It is always about a simple or rustic life in a country side. Panegyric Poem: It is a praise poem that eulogizes somebody or a thing e.g. Christopher Okigbo’s “Idoto”. Didactic Poetry: They are poems that teach moral lessons. They are satire and allegory: (c) Satire: It is a poem that mocks or attacks the vice of the individual or society. It laughs or scorns at human evils and calls for a change. Wole Soyinka’s the Trial of Brother Jero is a satire Allegory: It is a novel or poem in which an action represents another action and a character represents other character, e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Epithalamion: It is a poem written in celebration of marriage. Hagiology: It is a poem written to describe the life of a saint. Limerick: This is a short humorous poem which has five lines. It has rhyme scheme aabba. Epic: It is a long narrative poem which tells the story of a hero whose renowned achievements has national significance usually written in an elevated style. It celebrates culture and the heroic deeds of an idealized hero who exemplifies the values of his society. It is a heroic story with myth and legend. A well known epic in English literature is John Milton’s “Paradise Lost’. Homer’s “IIuad” and Edmond Spenser’s “Faerie Queens (1590-96) Romantic Poetry: It deals with the admiration of the beauty of nature. Matthew Arnold’s Daver Beach” and John Keats” poems are concrete examples. Sonnet: This is a Iyrical poem of fourteen lines. There are three types of sonnets. (a) The Italian or Petrarch Sonnet. It is named after and Italian poet called Francis Petrarch. Italian sonnet is divided into two parts: octave (eight) and sestet (six). The octave is the first eight lines of the sonnet. Its rhyme scene is abbaabba while the sestet is the last six lines of the sonnet which rhymes cdecde. The sonnet originated in Italy and was later introduced to England. The octave establishes an argument or worry about issue while the argument is resolved in the sestet with an amplifying conclusion. John Milton’s “When I Consider How My Light is spent is an example of Italian sonnets (b) The English or Shakespearean sonnet: This sonnet is named after the most famous dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) It has three quatrains (four lines) and mostly ends in the couple (two lines) The rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet is: abab cdcdefefgg (4-4-4-2) Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets “Shall compare thee to a summer’s day”? Is one of the sonnets Sonnet Sequence: It is the progressive arrangement of sonnets. Sonneteer is the writer of sonnets. (c) Spenserian sonnet: It is a variant type of sonnet developed by Edmand Spenser. It is differed in rhyme schemes and structure. The rhyme scheme for Spenserians sonnet is abab bcbc ededee (4-4-4-2) Spenser’s Amoretti “has this form” (d) Shape Poems or Concrete Poems: They are poems whose physical formation can be used to depict the subject matter and such shaped poem is Herbert’s “Easter Wings”: The typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect, it is sometimes referred to as visual poetry; a Poetry in the visual element are as important as the text. THE STYLISTIC IMPLICATION OF SOUNDS SOUND AND MEANING THE USE OF SOUND IN POETRY Sounds in poetry can contribute to the musicality of the poem. Effectiveness of sounds is: (i) It gives pleasure and aesthetics to the reader (ii) Sound helps the reader to get and interpret the meaning of words. (iii) It also adds significance to the words which produce the sounds. (iv) The stylistic effects of sounds not only give sense in poetry but also help to convey meaning. Poets can create pattern of sounds in the following ways: • Alliteration: It is the repetition of initial identical consonant sounds line of poetry e.g., (i) Father Friday fried fish for his friends on Friday. (ii) On the bald street breaks the blank day. • Assonance: This is the repetition of internal vowel sound in the middle of initial words In a line of poetry e.g., I, Our echoes roll from soul to soul. • Consonance/Cacophony: This is the repetition of a sequence of two or more alone, pitter-patter the same consonants, following a change in the subsequent. Dissonance: It is has to do with the language which perceived to be harsh, rough and unmusical. Dissonance in poetry is the deliberate avoidance of assonance, i.e., Patterns of repeated vowel sounds. It is similar to cacophony which is the direct opposite of euphony. Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” has such line; “Lay like the folds of bright girdle furled” Onomatopoeia: This is an effect produced when the words used contain similar sounds to the noises they describe. The sound resembles the thing or action denoted by the word. E.g.: (i) The pitter patter of rain in the roof (ii) The wall cracked (iii) The boom of a gun was heard in my school. Repetition: It is when a word or a line is repeated in poetry for the sake of emphasis, e.g. I am alone all alone. Twinkle twinkle little star etc. Incremental repetition: It is a device used in the poetry of oral tradition, especially English and Scottish ballads, in which a line is repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in a repeated part. The device is illustrated in the following stanza, from the ballad “Lord Randal” “O where ha’ you been lord Randal, my son? And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?” Rimeriche: (French for rich rhyme) It is the repetition of the consonant that precedes, as well as the one that follows the last stressed vowel; the resulting pair of words are pronounced alike, but have different meaning Eg., Stair-stare, night-knight. It was adopted by Geoffrey Chancer in his General prologue (Canterbury Tales). Parallelism: It is the repetition of identical structures, clauses and sentences in a stanza of poem. We also have phonological and syntactic parallelism, e.g You maim my Mondays You toss my Tuesdays And wet my Wednesdays: You thrash my Thursdays And freeze my Fridays And sap my Saturdays And soil my Saturdays. Refrain: It is the repetition of one or more phrases or line at interval in a poem. It usually occurs at the end of a stanza. A refrain may be an exact repetition or it may exhibit slight variations in meaning famous refrain is found in Edmund Spenser’s “Epithalamion” (1594) “The woods shall to me answer and my echo rings” Pun: It is the play on words. This occurs when two words sounding alike with different meaning are played upon by using the meaning of one for the other. (i) When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. (Khute Rockne) (ii) Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. (Arthur Roche) Prosody: This is the scientific study of versification. It is the study of Metre, number, length and rhyme scheme. It also means the study of speech sound pattern and sound effect such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, euphony and assonance. Rhyme Scheme: These are lines ending with the same sound. (i) Couplet Rhyme: This is the lines that rhyme in pairs in a poem (ii) Alternate Rhyme: It is also known as “cross rhyming” meaning) the lines alternate between two rhyming words as in abab. The effect creatd is that of an echo. Example All I have I give to you You mean the world to me And everything I say or do I do so willingly Metre: It deals with the stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. It is the recurrent basic pattern of approximately equal unit used in poetry for showing the number of beats (feet) in each verse. A poet’s use of regular rhythm is known as A. Allegory B. Assonance C. Metre D. Rhyme. Onomatopoeia (JAMB 2012 Q.36) The four standard patterns in English are: (i) Iambic: It contains an unstressed syllable and a stressed one. (ii) Trochaic: It contains stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (iii) Anapaestic: It contains two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one (iv)Dactylic: It has one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed one Spondee: (adj spondaic) It is a metrical foot of two stressed syllable e.g Browning’s “The Bishop Orders His Tomb” Blank Verse: It is a poem written in iambic pentameters that do no rhyme e.g. Milton’s epic “Paradise lost Free Verse: It is a poem without a regular meter or rhyme scheme. Mid-twentieth century poetry is written in free verse e.g. T.S Eliot’s “The waste land”. Couplet is a pair of lines of poetry with the same metre, especially one that rhymes: example; Who e’er she be That not possible she (Richard Crashaw. “Wishes to His supposed Mistress”) Scansion: It is the formal division of verse into feet. Verse: This is the metrical line named in terms of the number of feet it consists of Foot: It refers to the individual units or combination of stressed and unstressed syllables. The eight metrical lines are as follows: (i) Monometer-one foot line (ii) Dimetre two feet line (iii) Trimetre two feet line (iv) Tetrametrefourfeetline (v) Pentametre-five feet line (v) Hexametre-six feet line (vi) Heptametre-seven feet line (vii) Octametre-eight feet line Stanza is a division in the formal pattern of a poem, set off by a space in the text. The stanza of a poem usually has uniformity in the number and length of lines they contain. But this is not often found in poems with blank verse and free verse. They are: The Ballade is a poem of three stanzas, plus a shorter stanza called the “envoy” using only two rhymes. Heroic Couplet is the equal lines of poetry usuallly iambic pentrametre rhymic in pairs Octosyllabic Couplet is any form of eight syllable lines OttavaRima is comprised of eight line rhyming a-b-a-b-a-c-c. Octet refers to an eight line stanza with no specific metre and rhyme scheme. Quatrain is a four-line stanza of no defined metre and rhyme scheme. Quintet is a five-line stanza of no defined metre and rhyme scheme. Rhyme Royal: It is a seven-line iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc. The Rondel is a thirteen-line poem without a prescribed metre, rhyming ABBA, abba, abbaa. The Sestina consists of six-line stanzas with a three-line stanza of no metre and without a rhyme scheme. The Spenserian stanza has nine-lines, the first eight of which are in lambic lines, the first eight of which are in iambic lexametre. The rhyming scheme is ababbabcc. Tercet or Triplet: is a three-line stanza usually with a single rhyme. The Terza Rima refers to lines arranged in tercets which have the appearance of unending continuity. Triolet is a stanza of eight lines, metre not prescribed with two rhymes usually rhyming abaaabab. The villanese is a poem of nineteen lines consisting of five set of three-line stanzas and one quatrain with no fixed order of rhymes. Rhythm: It is the regular patterns Verbal features or musical flow in poetry that reveals the poetic use of figures of sounds such as assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Poetic License: It is the freedom that the poet enjoys to enable him use words. This license allows him to coin or use words that are not in consonance with rules of syntax or grammar. It is also the liberty the poets take with language. J.P. Clarke has used “executhieves” in place of “executive” in his poem. Poets can also use these: SINator for senator, representaTHIEVES for representatives, governot for governor, chair MAR for chairman, demoCRAZY for democracy. How to answer Unseen Prose and Poetry in Literature exams This simply means the study of prose and poetry extracts which a student does not have prior knowledge of. It does not mean invisible literary works. It may or may not be recommended to students so as to achieve its purpose of testing their literary prowess. It is quite common in public examination questions (WAEC, NECO, UTME and Post UME) on literature-in-English. The aim of unseen prose, drama and poetry is to test the student’s knowledge and understanding of the subject matter theme, mood, tone, figures of speech and other literary devices used in the given extract. 5. Best Approaches or Ways To Answer Unseen Prose And Poetry 1. Read carefully and highlight anything that strikes you that could suggest meaning. Make brief notes along the way. Read the poem two to three times, because the more you read the more you understand the poem 2. State what you believe to be the main idea(s) of the extract by approaching it line by line, stanza by stanza. Note the key words or phrases repeated throughout the poem, 3. Find out if there are any recurring themes in the poem 4. Identify the persona by asking yourself the following questions who is the speaker in the poem? Is it the poet, male or female? 5. Pay close attention to the language of the poem, imagery symbolism, sounds, rhymes and rhythm. Example of Unseen Poem “And why must we be sad when the Messiahs are with us to hound us and butt-gun us into greater tomorrow” (JAMB) – Idia Ofeimun’s “The Messiahs”. The tone of the lines is: (a) Satiric (b) sarcastic (c) Indicting (d) Self-pitying The answer is A (satiric), because messiahs are supposed to serve as agents of liberation but messiahs here are brutal and wicked in nature. “An unlucky creation” His mother a street walker; His lying father, A champion at producing bastards” (JAMB) – B.S. Ubenderana”The Bastard” The subject of the poem above is: (a) prostitute (b) the lying father (c) the son (d) the orphan The answer is (c) because the subject of discourse is “the son” as suggested by double uses of pronoun” His” referring to masculine gender The Son” Example of Unseen Prose Today is my last day here; I’m done banging my head against the glass ceiling, they think I don’t know they really hired me. They are talking to dark behind my back. Begging for favor: Work permit renewals. Licences, tax and duty waivers, contracts and tenders (Ken Kamoche: A fragile hope) The technique employed in narrating the excerpt above his (a) flashback (b) Stream of consciousness (c) Foreshadowing (d) Play-within-the play The answer is (b) (see p. 29) This thing you are doing is too heavy For you, he said, “I went to school only a little, But I have killed many more years in this World than you have.” Gabriel Okara: The Voice (JAMB 2014, Q 50) It can be inferred from the passage above that the… A. Listener is more experience B. Speaker is more experienced C. Listener is wise D.Speaker is a porter. Line 3 shows that option B is correct and it is a personification. Her neck is rope-like. Thin, and skinny, And her face sickly pale’ (Okotp’Bitek: Song of Lawino) The tone of the poet is that of A. Ridicule B. Admonition C. Anger D. Sympathy (JAMB 015,Q28). Option A is the correct answer.