Schematic summary of the characteristics of poetry. Structure, stanzas, verses, rhetorical figures and the various types of poetic composition.
What is poetry?
The term poetry derives from the Greek verb poièo which means “to do, to produce” and in fact it is the art of producing verbal compositions.
Poetry has existed since the dawn of time and in ancient times it had a sacred value and was therefore used as a tool that put heaven and earth in contact.
In poetry, unlike other texts, what is said is as important as how it is said and for this reason there is a strong relationship between meaning and signifier.
The characteristics of poetry
Metrics : a set of conventions relating to the rhythm and structure of verses.
Rhythm : the succession of stressed and unstressed sounds.
Verso : derives from vertere which means to return to the beginning and is the fundamental unit of measurement of the poetic text.
Syllable . The syllable is the unit of measurement of the verse and depending on the number of syllables the verse can be parisyllabic or imparisyllabic.
Metric figures . Metric figures are figures that regulate the meeting of vowels in the verse:
- Synalepha : the last letter of a word and the first letter of the next word are considered a single syllable if they are both vowels;
- Dialephe : the last letter of a word and the first of the next word come together if they are both vowels, they should be considered a single syllable, but if the first is stressed, they should not.
- Umlaut : two syllables that would normally be considered a diphthong are highlighted with an umlaut to separate them.
- Syneresis : when two vowels that are normally in hiatus are considered a diphthong.
Rhythmic accent . The accent that gives a particular rhythm to the line.
Hemistich . From the Greek half verse.
The verses
Smooth, flat and truncated verses . The verse is said:
- sdrucciolo : when the tonic accent falls on the antepenultimate letter and one less syllable is removed from the counting of syllables.
- piano : when the accent falls on the penultimate.
- trunk : when the accent falls on the last one and therefore one more syllable is counted.
Caesura . A very important device of verse is the caesura which has the purpose of creating a pause and which derives from the Latin term caedo which means cut.
Its placement is more or less in the middle of the verse, but it is not always regular and often coincides with a syntactic pause such as a comma or a logical pause, which indicates a change of discourse.
The caesura is used when one wants to highlight a key word such as a particular adjective or noun, which the poet interprets as fundamental to understanding the content of his poem.
Enjambment
Enjambement is one of the many devices of the language that the poet uses to enrich his text. It literally derives from the French term enjamber which means “to go beyond, to go beyond” the measure of the verse and in fact means “to step over and arch”.
In poetry the poet adopts a series of rules that allow him to choose when to start a new line and when the metrical units and the syntactic units, that is, the sentence and the verse, must coincide.
Overlapping, because the sentence spills over into the next verse and this means that the syntactic parts of a sentence can be found in different verses.
Many poets, such as Foscolo, use enjambement for various purposes, to make the poem make sense or to slow down the pace of the poem.
By separating the less important syntactic parts, you can cheer up by using enjambement to speed up the poem, while if you want to give an impression of melancholy, you can use it to slow it down.
Rhyme
Poetic text is characterized by a fundamental element called rhyme , which in the past was almost obligatory. Rhyme is the identity of sound of the final part of two words, called rhyme companions starting from the tonic vowel, that is, the accented one.
Unrhymed verses are blank verses, like modern ones. The rhyme is not chosen at random, but rather words that are synonymous or opposite are often chosen as rhyming companions.
Rhyme schemes.
- Kissed : AABBCCDD. Lively nursery rhyme effect.
- Alternate : ababcdcd. A little more variant but seems cheerful enough.
- Crossed : Abbacddc
- Chained : Ababcbcdc. Dante is the one who invented this artifice.
Middle rhyme . Middle rhyme occurs in the final part of the hemistich in its vicinity, where the caesura occurs and rhymes with the last one or with another in the middle of a subsequent line.
Internal rhyme . Internal rhyme occurs in any other position that is internal to the line.
Terza rima . Terza rima is a metrical structure created by Dante Alighieri who used it in the Divine Comedy and brought it to fame in that work.
A composition in terza rima presents a sequence of three hendecasyllables with linked rhyme: ABA BCB CDC.
Ottava rima . The ottava rima is a metrical form that was used above all by the poet Boccaccio, composed of stanzas of eight lines of which six are hendecasyllables with linked rhyme and two hendecasyllables with rhyming couplets.
The ABABABCC metrical scheme was used by epic poems of the 1500s.
Rhyme according to the relationship of meaning:
- Perfect rhyme : occurs when two words have a perfect identity of sound starting from the accented vowel and therefore corresponds to the rhyming couplet.
- Imperfect rhyme : there is a partial identity of sound starting from the thematic vowel given by the fact that the word is conditioned by assonance (different consonants and equal vowels) and by consonance (equal consonants except the tonic vowel, whereas for others it is the exact opposite of assonance).
- Equivocal rhyme : occurs when two words are phonetically identical but have different meanings.
- Hypermetric rhyme : occurs when the last syllable of a line exceeds the length of the line itself and from a metrical point of view is part of the following line.
- Rich rhyme : occurs when there is an identity of sound or phoneme preceding the tonic vowel.
Stanzas
Stanzas are a grouping of multiple lines , characterized by the number of lines used, the arrangement of the rhyme scheme, and the type of rhyme
Metric forms or meter . Combination of stanzas with certain types of verses or rhymes of medieval, Renaissance or modern origin.
Types of poetic composition
Sonnet . The sonnet is the most used metrical form and also the oldest, it originated in the Sicilian School . The sonnet is composed of two quatrains followed by two tercets (14 lines).
Usually quatrains have cross or alternating rhyme: ABBA – ABAB. Instead, tercets usually have alternating rhyme (CDC DCD) or inverted rhyme (CDE EDC).
Song . The song was initially accompanied by music and was later used above all by Francesco Petrarca .
The song is a metrical form of varied and elevated content composed of a maximum of ten stanzas and a minimum of five.
The verses that make up the stanzas of this particular metrical form are hendecasyllables and septenaries, with rhymes between them with various possibilities.
Free song . The free song is a less constrained, more modern and free metric form, used above all by Giacomo Leopardi . The free song is composed like the normal song of hendecasyllables and septenaries, often however free.
Ballad . The ballad is a composition that in ancient times was accompanied by both music and dance and its most common characteristic is that of having a refrain that repeats identically until the end of the stanza.
This metric form, which can have various lengths and of which Petrarch is the greatest exponent, was born in 1300 and found various uses in subsequent numbers.
Madrigal . The madrigal is a metrical form that takes its name from the music that accompanies it, it was formed in the 14th century.
The madrigal is a composition of 2 or 5 tercets closed by one or two couplets and the verses that compose it can only be hendecasyllables. This metrical form was used until the 19th century.
Ode . The ode is a metrical form whose greatest exponent was Giuseppe Parini and is made up of mixed or single shorter verses that can be quinary or septenary or octosyllabic and quaternary.
The ode can have many contents (religious or political) and many metrical patterns, these are the reasons for its many names, in fact it can be called hymn, novel and canzonetta.
Rhetorical figures
Rhetorical figures are expressive forms based on a deviation from common language, the purpose of which is to make the message more effective and expressive, therefore they can be considered efficient devices.
They are also used in everyday language, but it can be said that they triumph in poetry, their most fertile ground.
Rhetoric was born in Greece and then spread to Rome and in ancient times indicated the art of convincing and speaking well and was professed by the orator, the one who spoke in public.
Types of rhetorical figures . The current use in the poetic field is mostly ornamental and is used by the poet to demonstrate his skill and the plasmatic characteristic of the language, which has many adjustments and facets.
Rhetorical figures are divided into three main categories: sound (the phonic-rhythmic aspect of words), sense and meaning (the shift in meaning that words can assume) and syntactic order (arrangement of order in the sentence).
Read also
Figures of Speech: Meaning and Examples
Rhetorical figures of sound
The rhetorical figures of sound are those related to the repetition and parallelism of sounds. Together with rhyme and often replacing it, they give the poetic text particular phonic and meaning effects.
Some phonetic figures arise from the reproduction or imitation of the sound and phonosymbolism figures can be created when the chosen words have a certain meaning.
Sound reproduction:
- Paronomasia: the juxtaposition of two words that are similar in sound but different in meaning.
- Consonance: similarity of sound between two words, created by the fact that the final letters are identical, except for the tonic vowel, or by the same consonants and different vowels in the final part.
- Assonance: similarity of sound that is created when the vowels at the end of two words are the same and the consonants are different.
- Argument: occurs when words sound the same but have different meanings.
- Alliteration: repetition of an identical initial or internal sound between neighboring words.
Imitation of sounds:
- Pure proper: imitation of sound explicitly through words.
- Impurative Improper: Imitation of the sound implicitly using words that resemble the sound.
Rhetorical figures of meaning and significance
Rhetorical figures of sense and meaning are also called translations and imply relations inherent in the meaning of the terms used.
The meaning and significance of a poem can be very different from person to person because the poet uses a type of language called connotative, which depends on subjection, and never uses denotative, which has an original basic meaning.
Similitude . A simile is an explicit comparison, made clear in its entirety without any part being implied, a rhetorical procedure in which two terms are compared, one of which is known and one is not.
And what is not known is made known by comparison with the first, so that I will know perfectly well what the characteristics of the term being compared are thanks to the known term.
Metaphor . Metaphor comes from the Greek term metaferein : to transfer and transport. There is a concrete term, a figurative term and a ground of comparison and in fact the metaphor is a form similar, but richer in meanings to the simile because it is an abbreviated comparison since there is an underlying term.
Analogy . Analogy is a procedure that consists in placing side by side two terms that seem opposite and that are never commonly associated from the logical point of view of meaning.
Synesthesia . Synesthesia comes from aisthánomai which means “to perceive together”. This is a rhetorical figure that consists in juxtaposing two terms that belong to completely different sensory spheres.
Baudelaire made abundant use of this figure.
Allegory . Allegory derives from allei (Greek adverb) agoreuin (to speak): in another way.
Allegory is a rhetorical procedure in which a conceptual content is represented with an image that expresses an idea that is completely autonomous and different from the content it is representing.
It represents something with a concept that has nothing to do with it, an example would be to represent avarice with a she-wolf. The poet who makes abundant use of it is Dante .
Metonymy . The term Metonymy is a noun translated from the Greek which indicates the exchange of names.
It can be considered as a metaphor that is based on the substitution of terms but with the difference that in the metaphor the terms that are replaced are similar to each other, whereas in the metonymy the terms that are replaced have a relationship of contiguity in the logical sphere.
Metonymy can express the matter for the object or there can be effects instead of the cause or vice versa or the author instead of the work.
Synecdoche . Synecdoche is a form of metonymy that derives from the Greek term Sinechdechestai and consists in replacing a term with another that is in a relationship of greater or lesser extent with the first.
It is used to indicate: the part for the whole (a homeless person); the whole for the part (I saw a lady with a mink coat); something more generic instead of something more specific; the genus for the species; the species for the genus (you took the bread out of my mouth).
Antithesis . Antithesis, from the Greek antitesis , indicates the juxtaposition of all phrases or two words that have a contrasting meaning.
Oxymoron . The term oxymoron derives from the Greek oxus (acute, intelligent), moros (foolish, foolish).
An oxymoron indicates the juxtaposition of two words with opposite meanings that seem to exclude each other and are almost always two adjectives with the aim of increasing the meaning.
Litotes . Litotes, from the Greek litotes meaning simplicity, indicates the affirmation of a concept by denying its opposite.
Climax . Climax, which in Greek means “ladder,” consists of placing three terms side by side that have either a descending or ascending meaning.
Hyperbole . Hyperbole derives from the Greek verb hyperbole ( hyper = beyond; bole : to throw = to exaggerate) is a rhetorical figure in which one exaggerates by excess or defect.
Apostrophe . The apostrophe comes from the Greek apostrefein and consists in addressing a person or a personified object which is addressed with the vocative and has the purpose of emotionally involving the reader.
Personification . Personification comes from the Latin term “ persona ” and consists in considering objects or what is not a living being as something that has a soul.
Periphrasis . Periphrasis derives from the Greek verb perifrazein ( peri = around; frazenin = to speak) which means to speak around and therefore periphrasis defines someone with a turn of phrase.
Reticence . Reticence, from the Latin verb “ reticere ” which means to be silent and indicates those sentences that remain suspended and therefore a suspension that arouses expectation, emotion, suspense and that leaves the reader with his imagination.
Reticence is recognized by the presence of dots.
Rhetorical figures of the syntactic order
Poetry also operates the shift from common language by modifying the order that words normally have in the sentence, since the arrangement of the order in the sentence can modify the content of the poem .
The arrangement is very important and under that specific order there is a study to deviate from common language and also to ensure that the poem can be better understood, which will thus have more meaning.
Figures of inversion : Anastrophe and Hyperbaton.
Anastrophe , derives from the Greek verb anastrefein which means to overturn and is in fact the Anastrophe is the reversal of the syntactic order of two elements or two successive syntagms.
So for example, perhaps in the usual order there could be: subject, object complement and predicate.
Hyperbaton derives from iperbaton , which means transposition and consists in the insertion of one or more words between two elements that should be contiguous, that is, one after the other, with the aim of highlighting them.
Anaphora . Anaphora derives from the Greek anaferein which means to report or from the Latin iterazio , nis which means repetition and in fact consists in the repetition of one or more words at the beginning of successive statements with the aim of reinforcing the rhythm and meaning.
Parallelism . Parallelism consists in the repetition of the same order of elements that constitute successive sentences or verses or syntagms.
Chiasmus . Chiasmus, derives from chiasmos which means crossed arrangement and in fact the elements of the two lines are arranged in reverse order and are linked by aspect, by meaning or grammatically.
Polysyndeton . Polysyndeton, derives from polisedenton meaning tied together and is the exact opposite of asyndeton, therefore it consists in the union of multiple elements connected to each other by the same conjunction.
Asyndeton . Asyndeton derives from the Greek asidenton , which means “not linked” and in fact involves the elimination of conjunctions between one term and another. Asyndeton therefore exists when all terms are conjuncts or without punctuation or with a comma without a conjunction.
Hypallage . Hypallage mainly concerns adjectives and derives from the Greek ipallasein which means “to exchange” and consists of an exchange of attributions and occurs when an adjective is grammatically linked to a noun but logically refers to another.
Antonomasia . Antonomasia comes from the Greek antonomazein and means to change name and consists in calling a person not by their proper name but by their common name or by a proverbial name.
