http://geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2006-01-17 01:30 pm

Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Two

Tuesday, January 17, 8th period


Welcome to your second poetry class, everyone. I'd like to thank our TA, Kiki, for the coffee and pastries she's set up for us.

[LECTURE] The word poetry is derived from the Greek word 'poeio', meaning "I create". It is a written art form in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to -- or sometimes instead of -- its semantic content. The emphasis on the aesthetics of language and the deliberate use of elements such as repetition, meter and rhyme, distinguish poetry from prose. Poetry is generally considered its own literary genre, but it can also occur within other genres. Plays, for example may be prosaic, poetic or a combination of the two.

In order to write poetry, you'll need to have an understanding of the various elements used in verse. We'll begin today with three of the most basic: rhyme, meter, and form.

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words.

Meter refers to the linguistic sound patterns of verse. Foot refers to the most basic component of meter. The meter is made up of the stresses that recur at fixed intervals in a poem. There are four commonly used meters:

Iambic (foot: "iamb" - /) is the most familiar meter used in the English language -- in fact, ordinary speech often falls into this meter. Example: "The falling out of the faithful friends", where the stress falls on "fall-", "out", "faith-", and "friends".

Anapestic (foot: "anapest"- - /) Example: "I am monarch of all I survey", where the stress falls on "mon-", "all", and "-vey".

Trochaic (foot: "trochee" / -) Example: "Double, double, toil and trouble", where the stress falls on "Dou-", "dou-", "toil", and "trou-".

Dactylic (foot: "dactyl" / - -) Example: "Take her up tenderly", where the stress falls on "Take" and "tend-".

Iambic and trochaic are known as "rising meters", while anapestic and dactylic are "falling meters". Another somewhat lesser-used form of meter is accentual meter. This is not written in feet but rather counts accents (stresses), placing the same number of stresses in each line, regardless of where they lay or how long the line is. Old English poetry is written using a strict accentual meter. An excellent example of accentual meter can be found in Coleridge's poem "Christabel":

"There is not wind enough to twirl
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the top-most twig that looks up at the sky."

Meter can be found in any length, although most commonly between one foot (monometer) and eight (octameter). The most common poetic meter in the English language is the iambic pentameter, a line made of five iambs, or iambic feet. It occurs in nearly all blank verse, heroic couplets, and sonnets.

Form is the design of a poem as a whole. Closed form has a set pattern, and tneds to look regular and symmetrical on paper. Open form has no pattern, and often makes use of white space for emphasis.


[ASSIGNED READINGS] The works you've been reading by Petrarch and Shakespeare are sonnets. From the Italian sonnetto, meaning "little song", the sonnet owes a great deal of its prestige to Petrarch. This style of poetry utilizes a fourteen line pattern and a set rhyme scheme, which is different for English and Italian sonnets. Both rhyme schemes are set into two distinct parts: the "octave", or first eight lines, and the "sestet", or second six lines.

The English sonnet follows this rhyme scheme, which ends in a couplet: abab cdcd efef gg
The Italian sonnet uses a slightly different scheme: abba abba for the octave, and any of cdcdcd/cdecde/cdccdc for the sestet.

[Discussion] From your assigned reading, choose one sonnet from the first ten in Canzoniere and one by Shakespeare from the list of those assigned (numbers 13, 18, 20, 35, 71, 75, 83, 89, 96, 130, and 137), and give a brief analysis of their similarities and differences. You can compare style, form, subject matter, even word use if you like.

[WRITING ASSIGNMENT] Due Next Week: Write your own sonnet, using either the Italian or English form. Sonnets can be written on any topic, so choose something you find meaningful yourself. Advanced Students: Your assignment is to write one sonnet in each form.

***Assignment for Next Week: Read the following Child ballads:***
10. The Twa Sisters
18. Sir Lionel
37. Thomas Rymer
39. Tam Lin
54. The Cherry-Tree Carol
74. Fair Margaret and Sweet William
78. The Unquiet Grave
84. Bonny Barbara Allen
164. King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France
200. The Gypsy Laddie
275. Get Up and Bar the Door

Class Roster
[livejournal.com profile] oatmanspatient
[livejournal.com profile] teen_twin
[livejournal.com profile] 12parseckessel
[livejournal.com profile] time_agent
[livejournal.com profile] kikidelivers (TA) -- advanced student
[livejournal.com profile] death_n_binky -- advanced student
[livejournal.com profile] sharon_valerii
[livejournal.com profile] future_visions
Auditing: [livejournal.com profile] gotcanewillpoke

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] kikidelivers.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Kiki puts her name at the top of the list. She'll collect it at the end of class.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] anextimeagent.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack signs in.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] oatmanspatient.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Marty signs in.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] 12parseckessel.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Han signs in.
demonbelthazor: (Smirk)

Re: SIGN IN

[personal profile] demonbelthazor 2006-01-17 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Bel does not sign in, but collects the assignment for Phoebe, who has a doctor's excuse.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] teen-twin.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Connor signs in and takes a seat

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] gotcanewillpoke.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
House signs in for the formality, and instead of taking his usual seat in the back, sits up closer to the students to listen to their discussion.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] death-n-binky.livejournal.com 2006-01-18 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
*DEATH signs in and then takes a seat next to House. He is wearing his beatnik poetry outfit, complete with newly aquired purple beret.*

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] gotcanewillpoke.livejournal.com 2006-01-18 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
House glances at DEATH, and shakes his head with a little smile.

Re: SIGN IN

[identity profile] sharon-valerii.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Sharon signs in and would glance at DEATH, but as such, can't quite see him. She shakes her head and takes a seat on the opposite side of the room.

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] oatmanspatient.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"I read sonnet 18 from Shakespeare and sonnet 5 from the other guy," Marty says.

"Shakespeare's sonnet deals with the aspect of comparing one's love to something that doesn't stand the test of time, while the other poem deals more with how the poet feels unworthy of someone else's love."

Marty's tone seems to be on the distracted side.

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] oatmanspatient.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Sorry Geo- Professor. It's been a rough couple of days."

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] kikidelivers.livejournal.com 2006-01-17 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Kiki folds her hands on her desk. "I looked at sonnet 83 - 'I never saw that you did painting need' - and canzoniere 54 - 'Because she bore Love's emblems,'" Kiki begins.

"In both, the speaker has shown himself as, basically, unable to express their love. In Petrarch's, however, it is a failing, a point of cowardice. He's so enraptured with this girl that he follows her, but cannot speak to her, and the road he is on - that he sees many dangers on - is a metaphor for his view of their relationship: he's afraid that telling her how he feels will only bring trouble and heartbreak, so he opts instead to go away. Shakespeare's sonnet, on the other hand, speaks of the inability of the poet or the artist to do true honor to his subject - it's really an aesthetic judgement as opposed to being too afraid to speak up. It is his art that is frail, not his feeling. He does not lament his love or his love's beauty, but instead his inability to express it and do it justice."

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] death-n-binky.livejournal.com 2006-01-18 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
*DEATH flips through a very a collection of parchments before setting on the second poem by Petrarch and the 18th sonnet by Shakespeare. He strikes what he hopes ia very dramatic and bohemian pose and, truth be told, all he is missing is a hand-rolled cigarette to complete the look. He tips his beret to an even more jaunty angle before attempting to discuss*



*DEATH snaps his fingers twice, a sound much like the death toll of church bells, and then takes a seat.*

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] kikidelivers.livejournal.com 2006-01-18 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Love kills?" Kiki repeats, a bit aghast, "but that's -"

She breaks off, and after pause, she adds, "You have a good point, and I think you just might be right."

Re: CLASS DISCUSSION

[identity profile] sharon-valerii.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Sharon carefully clears her throat, a little uncertain, but game. "I felt a strange affinity to Petrarch's #7, and Shakespear's #13." She pauses for a moment, to consider how like and yet unlike the Colonies the poetry of this worled is. "Both have similar themes, the experience of life, the approach of death.

"The way life can blind you to the truth until all that's left is you and the cold." Sharon pauses. "This is not to say either are without their humor or warmth. Shakespear essays that you can be true to yourself, knowing your place in the world. And Petrarch's lilting irony that all is vanity comes full circle to the brief flight of joy."

Then she stops, hoping that made sense.

Re: OOC

[identity profile] sharon-valerii.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
I'd like to apologize for my tardiness, and note that it can be marked as an abscence as need be. I had no brain for RP last night.

Re: OOC

[identity profile] kikidelivers.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ooc: Much love for the Tam Lin reading assignment! Here's the great part: when we read selections of Canterbury Tales in my BritLit class in HS, one of our choices for assignments was to write our own tale. So I introduced a new pilgrim, a Scottish woman, and had her tell the story of Tam-Lin. It was something like 5 pages of OMG rhyming Scots dialect. My brain hurt at the end of it. :D ]