Module 4 Lessons: Traditional Poems

8. Traditional Poems

Lesson 54

Traditional Poems

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When you think of poetry or visualize what it looks like on a page, do you see something that is quite formal in structure and appearance? Do you imagine it as being broken up into a regular pattern of verses or stanzas? Is there a consistent rhyming pattern?

If this comes close to what you see, then it's likely you believe true poetry follows strict rules in terms of form and structure. Don't feel that this is wrong. Many people believe that poetry is a demanding discipline and the poets must follow the rules.

What are some of these "rules"?

Genuine poetry can communicate
before it's understood.

—T. S. Eliot

Before you read on, what do you think are the rules that apply to formal poetry?

Dominic: The poem has to rhyme!

Lin: But it can be alternating rhyme. It doesn't have to be rhyming couplets.

Chelsea: The poem has to scan.

Brandon: What does that mean? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Chelsea: It means that there has to be a noticeable pattern to the number of syllables in the lines. If there isn't, the poem doesn't read properly. The rhythm is broken.

Mr. Haas: Excellent. So far, you've told me that traditional poems—that's what we call works that have a formal and regular structure—contain a rhyme scheme and follow a specific rhythmic pattern. What else?

Dominic: Isn't the tone of such poems usually pretty serious? I also find the vocabulary to be challenging in some of these poems.

Mr. Haas: Good point. Traditional poetry does often deal with important themes, and, if that's the case, the tone and diction should be more elevated or formal than common, everyday speech.

Lin: What do you mean by diction?

Mr. Haas: Diction refers to choice of words. A skilled language user chooses words carefully for the images and associations they can project. If you want to be formal and serious, you'd use formal diction. If you want to project a happy tone, your diction would be much less formal. It might be light and playful.

Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings:
it takes its own origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.

—William Wordsworth

The Sonnet

Brief History of the Sonnet

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The sonnet is one of the most popular forms of traditional poetry. It was invented in Italy by Petrarch (1304_1374) during the fourteenth century. Petrarch wrote a series of beautiful and elegant love poems to a woman named Laura. These poems were all 14 lines long and followed a specific rhyme scheme. This traditional form of poetry came to be known as the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet.

About 250 years later, the Petrarchan sonnet was adapted, and the new form became extremely popular in England. Shakespeare perfected the adapted form, and, in his honour, the English variation of the sonnet is called the Shakespearean sonnet.

Organization of the Petrarchan Sonnet

The 14 lines of a Petrarchan sonnet can be looked at as consisting of two parts, an octet and a sestet. In the first eight lines of the poem, the speaker introduces or raises an issue, question, theme, or problem to explore, answer, or resolve. Then the direction of the poem changes in the last six lines. Here, the speaker resolves the issue, answers the question, or comments on the theme.

You can tell the difference between the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets by looking at the rhyme scheme. If the poem ends with a rhyming couplet, it's probably Shakespearean; if it doesn't, then it's likely Petrarchan.

The following chart will help you keep the two major forms of sonnets clear in your mind.

Petrarchan Sonnet

Shakespearean Sonnet

Organization

octet—introduces an issue or question

sestet—resolves or comments on issue or question

three quatrains—introduce and provide examples of an issue or theme

rhyming couplet—comments climactically on the issue or theme

Rhyme Scheme

octet abbaabba

sestet cdecde
or cdccdc
or cdedce

quatrains abab
cdcd
efef

couplet gg

You'll find one of the most famous sonnets ever written on page 182 of Sightlines 10. It was written more than 150 years ago by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the first line has the distinction of being the most-quoted line in the history of poetry! Read the first line of the poem. Do you recognize it?

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Read "Sonnet 43" carefully more than once. As with most poetry, reading aloud and paying attention to the punctuation will help you better understand this poem. In other words, don't stop at the end of a line unless there is a period or semicolon.

Some students find that clustering is an effective strategy that helps them organize their thoughts and better understand the ideas presented in a literary text. It's also useful as a prewriting strategy. Here's how to use this strategy.

Making a Cluster Diagram

First, you identify the central idea of the work or the topic for your analysis or writing. Then you place that focus in the centre of a cluster diagram as shown in the example below. As you read and reread the poem, you connect supportive details from the work to the central focus. This should enable you, at a glance, to visualize the relationship between the details and the focus. You can also refer back to your cluster diagram as you continue to plan your writing.

1. The speaker in "Sonnet 43" counts the ways in which she loves someone. How many ways are there? In your notebook, make a cluster diagram to record the ways in which the speaker loves. Draw hearts and insert a key phrase from the sonnet in each of the hearts.

2. How do you interpret lines 11 and 12? What kind of an experience or stage do these lines suggest the speaker went through? Hint: The use of the word saints refers to more than its connotative meaning.

3. Why does the poet use the word thee instead of the pronoun you? What effect is created?

Did You Know?

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Did you know that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this sonnet in 1845? It was one in a series of love sonnets that she exchanged with her poet fiancé, Robert Browning, with whom she would elope to Italy in 1846.

Her sonnets were collected in a volume entitled Sonnets from the Portuguese. The strange title can be attributed to the fact that she was affectionately nicknamed "Portuguese" by her husband.

You may be familiar with some of the work of her husband, Robert Browning.

Journal Entry

In your journal, reflect on what you think makes a poem great. As you do so, consider the fact that the sonnet you've just read is considered by many to be one of the greatest love poems ever written. Do you agree that this poem deserves this recognition? What is it about this poem that appeals to so many people? Does it appeal to you? Explain.

Blank Verse

Not all traditional poems contain rhyme. Some poems contain most of the characteristics of traditional verse but do not rhyme. Traditional poets who wrote in this way were likely expressing the desire to create works that projected a more natural speaking voice.

These unrhymed traditional poems are referred to as blank verse. What entitles these poems to be described as being traditional is the fact that they're written in a predictable metre, known as iambic pentameter. Much of what Shakespeare wrote was in iambic pentameter, and many great poets since then have adopted this form for their works.

Dominic: Do poets actually go to the trouble of counting all the syllables in every line and making sure that they fit into a metrical pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds? That's a lot of work!

Mr. Haas: That's the art and discipline of poetry. Traditional poets consider the structure and formal rules to be a challenge. They believe their efforts result in the creation of something beautiful to be admired and enjoyed by others.

Brandon: But why would they pick the iamb as their pattern, and why five feet? Why not six or four? Why not begin with a stressed syllable?

Mr. Haas: Good questions, and the simple answer is that they did vary the pattern sometimes, and when they did, it was intentional. There was a reason for it. Blank verse is just one example of a variety of unrhymed verse structures. The rhythm of blank verse is very similar to your natural rhythm of speech. Without even knowing it, you're speaking in iambs!

Chelsea: I'm a poet! Is there also a reason for the five feet in every line?

Mr. Haas: Yes, similar to the reason there are seven digits in a phone number. Seven is considered the limit for easy memory retention. Ten syllables is just the right number of sounds we can make without having to stop to breathe.

Blank verse was preferred by the poet you're about to read. Robert Frost (1874_1963) used blank verse because he wanted to project a formal manner while retaining a rhythm as similar as possible to spoken, everyday language. Before you read the poem "Mending Wall," which is found on page 256 of Sightlines 10, consider the following strategy.

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When you begin to read, do you consider the title of a piece of literature? This strategy can be very useful because the title can often provide the first clue to the meaning of a work. Consider the title of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall."

4. What immediately comes to your mind when you think of a wall? Try generating a few ideas by brainstorming or concept mapping.

5. Without reading the poem or knowing anything more than the title, predict what the poem might be about.

Interacting with Poetry

Have you ever had the experience of reading something like a poem, short story, essay, or novel and realizing that you haven't remembered or understood a single thing? It's likely that you've had this experience, which may be referred to as passive reading. An effective strategy for avoiding this type of reading is to engage in active reading by interacting with the piece of literature.

How do you do this? Easy. You write interactive notes as you read. That's what you'll practise doing in question 6.

Active reading involves such actions as these:

asking yourself questions as you read and then seeking answers
visualizing
paying attention to repeated elements
highlighting important points in the text
taking notes
creating webs
filling in charts
writing journal entries

6. In your notebook, create a chart similar to the one that follows.

"Mending Wall"- Interactive Notes
First Listening	Second Listening	Third Listening

Now listen three times to the recording of

Mending Wall"¹ on your

. Each time, write down "good bits" from the poem in a column of your chart. "Good bits" are words and phrases to which you naturally respond. They're words or phrases that create vivid pictures in your mind.

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For instance, from the first four lines you might jot down details such as "wall," "frozen-ground-swell," "spills the upper boulders," and "sun." Write these words down so you can see them and think about their possible meanings. Listen for more details concerning the neighbouring farmer, the broken wall, the hunters and nature, and the disagreement.

7. Having completed your listening and note-taking exercise, do you think it was helpful? If so, what benefit did you find there is in writing down details like this as you listen to a poem?

Journal Entry

In your journal, record the thoughts associated with the mental picture you have after reading "Mending Wall."

Do not retell the story told in the poem, but rather use the details or images that you can vividly recall as the basis for personal writing on the subject of walls. Consider walls between people, relationships with neighbours, problems in communication, or whatever other strong theme the poem suggested to you.

Now that you've tried your hand at making interactive notes on "The Mending Wall," the following discussion will further focus your attention on the details of the poem. As you read the discussion, you may refer to the poem on pages 256_257 of Sightlines 10.

Mr. Haas: What does the poem "Mending Wall" say to you?

Dominic: I think Frost is criticizing people who think that "Good fences make good neighbours." The speaker talks about forces of nature—and he seems to like nature—that work at tearing down walls. Then his neighbour insists that walls between people make for good relations, and he goes out and puts them back up.

Lin: That's ironic isn't it? Everybody knows that walls separate people, but this guy thinks walls make good neighbours possible!

Mr. Haas: Even though the poem is about walls made up of boulders and rocks, these physical walls symbolize much more. What else do they stand for?

Chelsea: They represent the "walls" human beings put up between themselves. I think that Frost is telling us we should tear down these walls—or at least stop deliberately building up such barriers.

Scanning Blank Verse

8. Now that you've read "The Mending Wall" several times and considered its meaning, go on to consider its form. This poem is blank verse. How can you tell?

In this lesson, you learned about the traditional forms and structures of poetry. You studied a Petrarchan sonnet and were introduced to the differences between Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets. You also learned about metre and in particular the iambic pentameter rhythm used by Shakespeare and other writers of blank verse.

Lesson Glossary

active reading: reading while using strategies that increase comprehension and appreciation of a text
blank verse: a traditional form of poetry that consists of unrhymed iambic pentameter lines
diction: choice of words
iambic pentameter: a line of poetry that consists of five (penta) metrical feet, each with a weakly stressed and a more strongly stressed syllable (an iamb)
octet: a group of eight lines in a poem
passive reading: reading a work without engaging with it on any level
sestet: a group of six lines in a poem
traditional poems: poetry that follows a formal and regular structure in terms of rhythm and rhyme
quatrain: a group of four lines in a poem

"Mending Wall"- Interactive Notes
First Listening	Second Listening	Third Listening
wall frozen-ground-swell gaps hunters not one stone rabbit No one has seen them. neighbour keep the wall fingers rough pine apple orchard Good fences make good neighbours. no cows walling in or walling out Something . . . wants it down.	walk the line make repair to each the boulders loaves eat the cones Spring is the mischief . . . stone grasped firmly Something there is that doesn't love a wall. moves in darkness	gaps set the wall between us no one seen . . . or heard them old-stone savage in each hand shade of trees Good fences make good neighbours. (repeated)