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Metrics is the study of meter in versification. A meter is a rhythmic template which the poet matches with a line of text. By doing so, the poet exploits those phonological categories which also characterise rhythm in natural language, e.g., syllables and stress. In this seminar we discuss different approaches to meter stemming from both literary and phonological studies. By concentrating mainly on the iambic pentameter (cf. [1]), the most popular since Chaucer and Shakespeare to the present day, we will describe the phonological categories relevant for the meter and the restrictions that hold when matching a line to it.
(1) So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see (Shakespeare, Sonnet 18.13)
Since English meters are overwhelmingly stress-based, we will learn how stress of different degrees as well as rhythm in language can be characterised and how they are employed by the poet. We will also see that restrictions on the association of the line with the meter can be stated very precisely. Those restrictions should allow the characterisation of lines as metrical, as in (2), or as unmetrical, as in (3).
(2) Concéit in wéakest bódies stróngest wórks. (Hamlet 5.1.223)
(3) Concéit wórks stróngest in wéakest bódies. [canonical word order]
Another aspect to be discussed is variation in the realisation of the same meter that we find between different poets. For example, we will ask why Shakespeare, but not Milton, allows lines like (4). And we will ask why Shakespeare, but not Milton, can fit up between 12 and 14 syllables into a iambic pentameter line. Is Shakespeare really working with syllables, or is it something else that he matches with positions in the meter?
(4) Resembling strong youth in his middle age (Shakespeare, Sonnet 7.6)
Register online (via WUSEL) during the official registration period of the department.
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