Characteristics of Chinese poetry and English poetry

"English Poetry"

The rhythm of English poetry dasha English poetry rhythm (Rhythm)

The basis of the rhythm of English poetry is meter (metre). In Greek, the word "metre" means "measure". In English poetry, the rhyme is calculated based on the syllables and stress rhythm in the lines of poetry as the "measure (standard)".

One of the characteristics of English poetry is its arrangement format that is different from other styles. Each line of poetry does not reach the margin of each page, and the first word of each line is capitalized. Several lines form a stanza, not paragraphs. Each line must have a certain number of syllables, with or without rhyme at the end of the line, and staggered arrangements.

...Syllables are stressed (stressed) and unstressed (unstressed). … This is a formal form of stress, which is reflected in poetry as rhyme. The science that studies the rhythmic rules of poetry is called Prosody.

1. Foot:

This special combination of stressed and unstressed syllables in English poetry is called foot. The number of syllables in a foot may be two or three, but not less than two or more than three, and only one of them must be stressed. To analyze the rhythm of English poetry is to divide it into steps, distinguish what kind of steps it is, and count the number of steps. This division of steps is called scanning. According to the number of steps in an English poem, one step in each line of poetry is called a "monometer"; a line of poetry with two steps is called a "dimeter"; it contains Three-meter steps are called "trimeter"; in addition, there are four-meter steps (tetrameter), five-meter steps (pentameter), six-meter steps (hexameter), seven-meter steps (heptameter), and eight-meter steps. (octometer).

Is this | a fast, | to keqp

The lard | or lean

And clean? (Herrick)

2. Rhythm (Metre): The rhythm of English poetry is distinguished based on the number of syllables contained in the meter and the position of the stressed syllables. There are six types of meter in traditional English poetry: Lambus, Trochee, Anapaest, Dactyl and Amphibrach:

(Anapaest), Dactyl and Amphibrach:

“⌒” unstressed syllable; “/” stressed syllable.

Compiled by Tu Shoupeng, "Introduction to English Poetry"

The Rhyme of English Poetry

The rhyme of English poetry can be divided into different parts according to the repeated parts of the internal phonemes of the word. Types, the most common ones are alliteration, assonance and rhyme. Alliteration refers to the repetition of the beginning of a word, such as great and grew; alliteration refers to the repetition of stressed vowels in a word, such as great and fail; and tail rhyme refers to the repetition of phonemes at the end of a word, such as great and bait. But there may be multiple rhyme patterns in a line:

The light that lies in women's eyes. --Thomas Moore

There are both alliterations of light and lies in this line. The harmonic rhymes are light, lies, eyes, and there is also a tail rhyme (this rhyme method is called middle rhyme) lies and eyes.

The rhyming pattern between lines in English poetry is called rhyming scheme. Common rhymes include two-line alternation (AABB), alternate-line rhyme (ABCB), alternate-line rhyme (ABAB), and interlaced rhyme (ABBA).

(Compiled by Dasha)

English poetry style:

Sonnet: In the past, it was also transliterated as "Shang Lai Shi". Fourteen lines, iambic, and pentameter are used as the form of the entire poem. It first appeared in Italy and was introduced to England in the mid-16th century. It was favored by the literati of the Elizabethan era (Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603). Shakespeare, Spencer and Sidney all wrote the famous Fourteenth Century. Line poetry. The sonnet was neglected in the 18th century. However, it was later revived by the Romantic poets Keats, Wadsworth and others, and was adopted by many poets in the future. There are two types of British sonnets: Italian (Petrarvhan) and Shakespearean (British). A. Italian sonnet: imitating the style created by the Italian poet Petrarch, it consists of two parts: the first part is eight lines (The Octave), composed of four lines of poetry (Quatrains), and the rhyme is abbaabba; Two parts and six lines (The Sestet), rhyme can have different forms.

According to the strict Italian sonnet style, the poetry should come to an end at the end of the first eight lines, and then switch to a new poetry in the next six lines. B. Shakespearean sonnet: consists of three quatrains with alternating rhymes. Finally, there is the rhyming couplet. The whole rhyme is ababcdcdefefgg. In Shakespearean sonnets, the artistic conception is unified in one breath, until the last couplet, which is the climax of the whole poem. In addition to Shakespeare, other poets also used this form.

SONNET 21

So is not with me as with that Muse,

Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse,

Who heaven itself for ornament doth use

And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,

Making a couplet of proud compare,

With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems.

With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare

That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.

O, let metrue in love, but truly write,

And then believe me, my love is as fair

As any mother's child, though not so bright

As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air.

Let them say more that like of hearsay well;

I will not praise that purpose not to sell.

(Shakespaere)

"Sonnets" No. 21

My god of poetry ① is not like the one who holds the god

Only uses His poems are smeared with powder,

Even the sky is brought down to make ornaments,

Every beauty is listed to praise his beauty,

With all kinds of exaggeration

His treasures of the sun, the moon, the sea and the land,

the flowers in April, and the vast universe

contained in it Everything in my arms is wonderful.

Oh, let me sincerely love, let me sing with all my heart,

And, believe me, my love can rival any mother's son, even if Bright

Not as bright as the golden candlestick hanging in the sky.

Whoever likes empty talk, let him talk endlessly;

I am not interested in selling, and I don’t need to pray for myself.

See "Liang Zongdai's Translated Poems", page 107, Hunan People's Publishing House, 1983 edition. ① (Original translation annotation) The god of poetry: that is, the poet, and the male pronoun "he" is used below.

Compiled by Tu Shoupeng, "Introduction to English Poetry", page 38

Elegy is written to mourn a public activist, a friend or a loved one A contemplative lyric; by extension, any introspective lyric on a wider range of topics that laments the impermanence of the world. In classical literature, the so-called elegies are just poems written in elegiac meter (the lines alternate between iambic hexameter and pentameter), and there are no restrictions on the subject matter. In some modern literature, such as German literature, elegiac meter was adapted to language, so that the word elegiac came to refer only to this meter rather than to the content of the poem.

"Concise Encyclopedia Britannica" China Encyclopedia Publishing House 1985 edition 170 pages of Super Star Existence Other reading materials (Dasha Note: Many concepts in the article are not unified, please note that the Chinese and English definitions shall prevail ):

Xie Zujun, "English Rhetoric", 1st edition, June 1988, pages 151-179

Wang Zuoliang Ding Wangdao, "Introduction to English Stylistics", First edition, December 1987, pages 365-385

Chen Shuhua, "English Rhetoric and Translation (English-Chinese)", first edition, June 1990, pages 321-324

Xu Peng, "English Rhetoric", 1st edition, October 1996, pages 341-450

Liang Shoutao, "A Brief Introduction to the Rhythm of English Poetry", The Commercial Press, 1979

Metrics in English Poetry By Samuel Schuman, Univ. of MN, Morris

Metrics How to go about the analysis of the rhythm, the meter and the rhyme scheme of an English poem.

(The author uses the following simple poem to introduce poetry throughout the article)

A Stupid Poem

I put my hat upon my head And walked into the strand And there I met another man Whose hat was in his hand.

First, divide the lines into syllables, and count them:

I / put / my / hat / up/on / my / head (8) And / walked / in/to / the / strand (6) And / there / I / met / a/noth/er / man (8) Whose / hat / was / in / his / hand (6)

(The first step in poetry analysis is to divide syllables. It may be a little difficult for non-native English speakers like us. The basic method is one vowel and one syllable. For example, upon is two syllables. Another is three syllables. Sometimes poets use omitted words in order to emphasize dialect and other reasons. In this case, specific issues need to be analyzed. Sometimes it is omitted to make up syllables)

Which syllables are accented or “stressed?” (stressed)

“Stress” in English poetic metrics means “said loudly.” It has nothing to do with the tension in your life. The symbol u means unstressed; the symbol / means stressed(The stress in poetry is not necessarily the same thing as the stress in the pronunciation of a word itself. Generally speaking, stressed words , are all words that have practical meaning and play an important role in the sentence. As long as you hear the stressed words clearly, you can understand the meaning of a sentence.

For example, in the first sentence, if you hear the four words put/hat/pon/head clearly, you will roughly know what it is talking about, but if you only hear the four words I/my/u/my clearly...)

u / u / u / u /

u / u / u / u / I put my hat upon my head u / u / u / And walked into the strand u / u / u / u / And there I met another man u / u / u / Whose hat was in his hand

Notice the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables:

In this poem , there is a repeated pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: (in this poem, there is always a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable)

I PUT / my HAT / upON / my HEAD

The smallest unit (always 2 or 3 syllables) of repeated patterned stress is called a “poetic foot.” Here, the first foot is “ I put” the second “my hat” and so on. (The repetition of several stressed/unstressed syllables constitutes the smallest component of poetry - meter)

In this idiotic poem, the lines are made up of alternating numbers of “feet:” Line 1 has 4 feet, line 2 has 3 feet, line 3 has 4 feet, and line 4 has 3 feet. foot/trimeter)

Here, I've indicated the “feet:”

I put * my hat * upon * my head (4 ft.) And walked * into * the strand (3) And there * I met * anoth*er man (4) Whose hat * was in * his hand (3)

Types of Poetic Feet

u / Iambic (iamb) - unstressed, stresssed (u /) - re peat

/ u Trochaic (iamb) - (/ u) - un it

u u / Anapestic( iambic) - (u u /) - in ter cede

/ u u Dactylic (iamb) - (/ u u) - wash ing ton (This word is not found in the dictionary, I made it up myself )

/ / Spondaic (Yang Yange) - (/ /) - heart break

Types of Poetic Lines (Number of Feet) (The following is simple, you have learned the root You should all know them. Monometer, dimeter, and so on.

) Monometer - 1 foot (e.g. "I put.") Dimeter - 2 (I put my hat) Trimeter - 3 (I put my hat upon) Tetrameter - 4 (I put my hat upon my head) Pentameter - 5 Hexameter - 6 Heptameter - 7So...for example, "trochaic tetrameter (trochaic tetrameter)" is a line with 4 feet (8 syllables) with a pattern of stress-unstress in each foot: (A digression, what does it mean in Chinese Iambic pentameter, in addition to the exam, it has to be a Chinese exam, or to trick MM, it is of no use)

/ u * / u * / u * / u Lovely Morris figures rebates

and, “iambic pentameter” means five feet (10 syllables) with each foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable:

u / * u / * u /*u /* u / “Which alters when it alteration finds”

Most of Shakespeare's verse is “iambic pentameter.” (You can start to deceive people if you know that Shakespeare uses mostly iambic pentameter.)

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What is the form of the “stupid poem” we have been examining?

u / u / u / u / I put * my hat * upon * my head u / u / u / And walked * into * the strand u / u / u / u / And there * I met *anoth*er man u / u / u / Whose hat * was in * his hand.

ANSWER: It is all iambic, with alternating lines of TETRAMETER (4 feet - lines 1 & 3) and TRIMETER (3 feet - lines 2 & 4). No problem, right?

And now, for something easier- -

Rhyme Schemes(rhyme scheme? )The sound of the last syllable of every line is assigned a letter, beginning with "a"(Rhyme division is the key to poetry analysis. The last syllable of every line is a rhyme, represented by a letter. And so on. If a rhyme is repeated as before, it will be marked with the same letter as before.

)

I put my hat upon my head (a) And walked into the strand (b) And there I met another man (c) Whose hat was in his hand (b) The rhyme scheme is: a b c b

Stanzas (stanzas)

The combination of rhythm (that is, “iambic, trochaic, dactylic”, etc.), meter (that is, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, etc. .), and rhyme scheme (for example, “a b c b”) can create certain stanzaic forms which have become accepted poetic conventions. (Another very important concept.

To put it simply, a rhyme scheme can be regarded as a stanza)

Some of these historically important stanza forms in English poetry are:

Couplets (couples) Any two lines which rhyme , regardless of rhythm and meter (couplets are the earliest form of poetry, just rhyme)

Example of a COUPLET

Candy Is dandy

Heroic Couplet(我 I can’t find an accurate translation, it seems to be Heroic Couplet Two lines which rhyme (a couplet) which are written in iambic pentameter. The “Heroic Couplet” was the dominant form of English poetry in the 18th century, and lots of authors from Chaucer to the present have used this form.

Example of an HEROIC COUPLET

Say first, of God above, or man below What can we reason, but from what we know?

(from Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man)

Quatrains(four lines)

Any stanza with 4 lines

Candy Is dandy But liquor Is quicker.

Ballad Stanza()

A “quatrain” with alternating tetrameter and trimeter E.g., the idiotic poem we have been studying! I put my hat upon my head And walked into the strand And there I met another man Whose hat was in his hand.

A serious example of BALLAD STANZA

The king sits in Dumferline town, Drinking the blood-red wine: “O where will I get a good sailor To sail this ship of mine?”

from anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens (after 1200)

The Sonnet (Sonnet)

14 lines Iambic pentameter Two main types:

Italian or Petrarchan (Petrarchan Sonnet) - Two quatrains plus a “sestet” (6 line unit) - often abba abba cdecde

English or Shakespearean (Shakespearean sonnet) - Three quatrains plus a couplet - often abab cdcd efef gg

< p>An Italian Sonnet

Divers doth use, as I have heard and know, When that to change their ladies do begin To mourn and wail, and never for to lin, Hoping thereby to pease their painful woe. And some there be, that when it chanceth so That women change and hate where love hath been, They call them false and think with words to win The hearts of them which otherwhere doth grow. But as for me, though that by chance indeed Change hath outworn the favor that I had, I will not wail, lament, nor yet be sad, Nor call her false that falsely did me feed, But let it pass, and think it is of kind That often change doth please a woman's mind. Wyatt, Divers Doth Use (c. 1540)

A Shakespearean Sonnet

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self that seals up all the rest. In me thou seest the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the deathbed whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourished by. This thou perceiv'st which makes thy love more strong, To love that well, which thou must leave ere long. (1609)

Blank Verse (blank verse)

Unrhymed iambic pentameter Torment, sweet friend, that base and aged man That durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer, With greatest torments that our hell affords. Marlowe, Dr. Faustus (1604)

Some other stanzaic forms

Rime royal - 7 lines, iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc Ottava rima - 8 lines rhyming abababcc Spencerian stanza - 9 lines, rhyming ababbcbcc, first 8 lines iambic pentameter, line 9 iambic hexameter You don't need to know these !!!

《 Chinese Poetry"