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20210220105259

The document outlines various stanza forms in poetry, including Heroic Couplet, Terza Rima, Spenserian Stanza, and Blank Verse. Each form is defined with examples and characteristics, such as the rhyme schemes and meter used. The document also provides historical context and notable poets associated with each stanza form.

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13 views4 pages

20210220105259

The document outlines various stanza forms in poetry, including Heroic Couplet, Terza Rima, Spenserian Stanza, and Blank Verse. Each form is defined with examples and characteristics, such as the rhyme schemes and meter used. The document also provides historical context and notable poets associated with each stanza form.

Uploaded by

sanjiiv003
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Stanza Forms

Heroic Couplet

• A couplet is a literary device that can be defined as having two successive


rhyming lines in a verse, and has the same meter to form a complete
thought.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,


I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
(Shakespeare's True Love- concluding couplet)

• A heroic couplet is a specific type of rhyming couplet that discusses


heroic themes and that usually uses iambic pentameter. The heroic
couplet traditionally appears in long, narrative poems called epics, but it
can also be used in mock epics that parody the 'heroic' tone of epic
poetry.

Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey,


Dost sometimes Counsel take—and sometimes Tea.

(from The Rape of Lock by Alexander Pope)

• Closed and Open Couplets-

✓ Open couplets- A couplet that cannot render a proper


meaning alone is called an “open couplet. It's a part of a bigger
composition.
✓ Closed couplets have the ability to stand apart from the rest of
the poem; it is independent, and hence it is called a “closed
couplet.”

WEB SOURCES-- 1. https://www.thoughtco.com/heroic-couplet-definition-4140168

2. https://literarydevices.net/couplet/
Terza Rima
• Terza rima is an Italian stanza form
• A three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern ABA BCB CDC
DED.
• There is no limit to the number of lines, but poems or sections of poems
written in terza rima end with either a single line or couplet repeating the
rhyme of the middle line of the final tercet.
• First used by Dante in Divine Comedy
• In 14th-century Italy- used for allegorical and didactic poetry,
by Petrarch and Boccaccio
• Introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the 16th century.

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, A


Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead B
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, A

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, B


Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, C
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed B

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, C


Each like a corpse within its grave, until D
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow C

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill D


(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) E
With living hues and odours plain and hill: D

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; E


Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear! E

(from- Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind)


.
WEB SOURCE- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/terza-rima
Spenserian Stanza

• Spenserian Stanza is a verse form that consists of eight lines in


iambic pentameter followed by the ninth line of six iambic feet called an
alexandrine
• The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBCC.
• The first eight lines produce an effect of formal unity, while
the hexameter completes the thought of the stanza.
• Introduced by Edmund Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene
• the Spenserian Stanza has origins in
➢ the Old French ballade (eight-line stanzas, rhyming ababbcbc)
➢ the Italian ottava rima (eight iambic pentameter lines with a rhyme
scheme of abababcc)
➢ the stanza form used by Chaucer in his Monk’s Tale (eight lines
rhyming ababbcbc).
• It was revived in the 19th century by the Romantic poets—e.g., Byron
in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Keats in “The Eve of St. Agnes,” and
Shelley in “Adonais.”

Forth came that auncient Lord and aged Queene, A


Arayd in antiquerobes downe to the ground, B
And sad habiliments right well beseene; A
Anoble crew about them waited round B
Of sage and sober Peres, all gravely gownd; B
Whom farre before did march a goodly band C
Of tall young men, all hable armes to sownd, B
But now they laurell braunches bore in hand; C
Glad signe of victorie and peace in all their land. C
(from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser)

WEB SOURCES-- 1.https://www.britannica.com/art/Spenserian-stanza

2. https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/spenserian-stanza/
Blank Verse

• Blank Verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in


iambic pentameter.
• It has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter);
where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones
• Without rhyme.

Features of Blank Verse%

• Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.


• It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and
long narrative poems.
• It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic
monologues
• It may also be written in other metres but iambic pentameter is the most
commonly used one.

Of Man’s/ First Dis/obe/dience,/ and the Fruit


Of that/ Forbi/dden Tree,/ whose mor/tal taste
Brought Death/ into /the World, /and all/ our woe,
With loss/ of E/den, till/ one grea/ter Man
Restore/ us, and /regain/ the bliss/ful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse,...........................
Source: Paradise Lost- Book 1
John Milton

WEB SOURCE- https://literarydevices.net/blank-verse/

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