Poetry

1

Blank Verse Free Verse Other Meters

Frost , Birches (pages 362-3

Donne , Break of Day (page 32

Hughes , Thistles (page 374

Plath , Mirrors (page 35 Tennyson

Ulysses (pages 102-4

Arnold , Dover Beach (page 173-4

Auden , The

Unknown Citizen (pages 127-8

Yeats , The Second

Coming (pages 425-6

Frost , Out , Out- (pages 136-7

Atwood , Siren Song (pages 342-3

2

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning and Sound Sense by Alfred Tennyson are in couplets , rhyme , and use iambic pentameter for their meter However , these

poems are quite different in their rhythmic effect . The poet 's treatment and the way he /she manages meter is more important than his /her choice of meter

While using iambic pentameter in the rhymed couplets , Browning does not make use of end stops in the poem My Last Duchess . His sentences most often end in the middle of a line instead of the end . Since the Duke is the speaker in this poem , meter is used to accentuate the way that he speaks , and thinks . When speaking as one thinks , sentences are often started , then a short pause while the speaker thinks of what to say next , and is finished . The short pause at the end of the line while the rest of the sentence is completed is how Browning achieves this rhythm in the poem

Tennyson uses end-stops in Sound Sense which create a smooth flowing effect even though he uses the same iambic pentameter couplets that Browning uses . The poem flows smoothly and rhythmically with no surprise stops . This mirrors the title of Sound Sense . The title suggests that sound is important to the interpretation of the poem and the flowing rhythm of end stops prove it

Both Browning and Tennyson use the same iambic pentameter and the same couplets in their poems My Last Duchess and Sound Sense yet both poets make use of the rhythmic patterns in completely different ways which adds to the meanings of the poems . The poets handle the meter differently and therefore create different uses

3

Margaret Atwood , a prominent Canadian poet , uses free verse in her poem , Landcrab . The free verse rhythm adds to the experience of the poem by giving the words of the poem the effect of the quick rushing sideways way that a land crab moves . This technique actually adds to the imagery of the poem

Atwood 's themes of society versus nature is prevalent in the poem Landcrab as well as the theme of sexuality . The crustacean is shown to be envious of mammals , humans in particular , and the way that they mate and bare their young . The use of cacophony displays the way that the land crab mates . Cacophony is a harsh discordance of sounds and the q and c sound leaves this harsh impression of the mating while in a shell . Euphony is also used by Atwood in Landcrab to add to the imagery of the poem . The words lobes , bulbs , scruples , warm , and milk create a maternal feel . Euphony is a...