Page 49 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Self Assessment

State the following sentences are True or False:
1. Synecdoche is closely related to metonymy.
2. In poetry meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse.
3. A rhymed pair of lines of iambic pentameter make a sonnet.
4. Eight feet making up the line was either a dactyl or spondee.
5. An ode is typically a lyrical verse written in praise of.
6. ABBACDECDE is the most common rhyme of english ode.
7. Repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and
songs are called rhyme.
8. Milton was the most famous writer of heroic couplets.
9. Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques.
10. Metonymy and synecdoche may be considered as sub-species of metaphor.

4.7.2 Spenserian Sonnet

A variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet, named after Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
in which the rhyme scheme is, abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. In a Spenserian sonnet there does not appear to be a
requirement that the initial octave sets up a problem that the closing sestet “answers”, as is the case
with a Petrarchan sonnet. Instead, the form is treated as three quatrains connected by the interlocking
rhyme scheme and followed by a couplet. The linked rhymes of his quatrains suggest the linked
rhymes of such Italian forms as terza rima. This example is taken from Amoretti.

Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands
Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands, (a)
Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b)
Shall handle you, and hold in love’s soft bands, (a)
Like captives trembling at the victor’s sight. (b)
And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b)
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c)
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b)
Written with tears in heart’s close bleeding book. (c)
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c)
Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d)
When ye behold that angel’s blessed look, (c)
My soul’s long lacked food, my heaven’s bliss. (d)
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e)
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e)

4.7.3 Modern Sonnet
With the advent of free verse, the sonnet came to be seen as somewhat old-fashioned and fell out of
use for a time among some schools of poets. However, a number of modern poets, including Wilfred

42 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY