Alliteration (аллитерация), Assonance (ассонанс)
Alliteration is a device based on repetition of the same or similar sounds at close distance, which makes speech more expressive. It is frequently used in idioms:
blind as a bat; tit for tat (= an eye for an eye); tit-bit (лакомый кусочек); (It is) neck or nothing {пан или пропал); bag and baggage; last but not least; waste not, want not; as good as gold; as green as grass; willy-nilly (volence-nolence); hurly-burly (= noise); to shilly-shally/to dilly-dally (= to waste time without taking action). Note also the use of alliteration in poetry:
A fly and a flea in the flue were imprisoned.
Said the fly, 'Let us flee',
Said the flea, 'Let us fly',
So they flew through a flaw in the flue
We wonder whether the weather
Will weather the wether,
Or whether the weather the wether will kill.
/ love your hills and I love your dales, And I love your flocks a-bleating (Keats) (the sound [1] repeated)
O, my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my love is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune. (R. Burns) ((r, 1| repeated)
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe, that in all ages
Every human heart is human. (Longfellow) (fh| repeated)
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream
before. (Edgar Рое) (|d| repeated)
A variant of alliteration is assonance, i.e. repetition of the same or similar vowels only, as in the phrase wear and tear (My shoes show signs of wear and tear, the wear and tear of city life).
This device is sometimes found in poetic speech; see the repetition of the vowel [e] in the line
Tenderly bury the fair young dead. (M. La Costa) or the repetition of the diphthong [ei] in the lines
Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden,
I shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore —
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name
Lenor?(E. Рое)
The term "assonance" is also used to denote an imperfect rhyme (= нетонная рифма), when only vowels are rhymed: number — blunder, same — cane.
Onomatopoeia (ономатопея, звукоподражание)
This term denotes sound imitation, i.e. the use of words which denote some phenomenon by imitating its real sounding.
It may be imitation of the sounds produced by animals: buzz (sounds of bees); hiss (snakes); bow-wow (dogs); mew/miaow and purr (cats); hoink (pigs); baa-baa (sheep); cackle (chickens); quack (ducks); cuckoo; caw (crows); moo (cows). It may also be imitation of other natural noises: bubble (булькать); rustle (шуршать); splash (плескаться);/7о/? (шлепнуться); whistle (свистеть); giggle, chuckle (хихикать, хмыкать); roar (реветь); tinkle (звякнуть); ding-dong, jingle (= звенеть), click (щелкать), tick, tick-tuck (тикать); bang, slap, rap, tap (звук удара), etc.
Words built on the basis of onomatopoeia make speech especially expressive when used in their figurative meanings: Cars were whizzing past (=moving very fast); The pot was bubbling on the fire (= boiling and making this sound); The crowd buzzed with excitement (=» made a noise like that); I'll just give him a buzz (= phone call).
Onomatopoeia may also be used in poetry: We 're foot — slog — slog — slog — slogging over Africa — Foot —foot —foot —foot — slogging over Africa. (Boots — boots — boots — boots — moving up and down again!) (Kipling)
THE USE OF RHYTHM AND RHYME IN VERSIFICATION (СТИХОСЛОЖЕНИЕ)
Rhythm in poetic speech is produced by regular alternation
(чередование) of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Why do you cry, Willie? f'uu|'uu)
Why do you cry? ('uu|')
Why, Willie, why, Willie, ('uu|'uu)
Why, Willie, Why? ('uu|')
For a purely syllabic (силлабическая) system of versification (e.g. in French poetry), the important feature is the same number of syllables in different lines, whether stressed or unstressed. For a purely-tonic (тоническая) system (as in Anglo-Saxon poetry of old times) the important feature is the number of stressed syllables (tonic= 'stressed'). For the syllabic -
tonic (силлабо-тоническая) system of versification, which is typical of modern English (and Russian) poetry, the important feature is the same number of stressed and unstressed syllables. A division (отрезок) of the poetic line from stress to stress, which contains one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables, is called a Foot (стопа). The foot is the main unit of rhythm in poetic speech. According to the correlation of stressed and unstressed syllables within the foot, we distinguish the following 5 types of feet:
1) trochee (хорей), or a trochaic foot (хореическая сто
па), with two syllables, of which the first is stressed and the
second unstressed:
Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater, (' и Г и Г и I ' u) Had a wife and couldn 't keep her See also the Russian trochaic foot: Прибежали в избу дети Второпях зовут отца...
2) iambus (ямб), or an iambic foot, with two syllables, of
which the first is unstressed, the second stressed:
And then my love and I shall pace, (u ' I u ' lu' lu') My jet black hair in pearly braids. (Coleridge) Мой дядя самых честных правил. Когда не в шутку занемог...
3) dactyl (дактиль), or a dactylic foot: three syllables, the
first stressed, the other two unstressed:
Why do you cry, Willie? ('uul'uu)
4) amphibrach (амфибрахий), or an amphibrachic foot:
three syllables with the stress on the second:
A diller, a dollar, a ten о 'clock scholar... (и' и I u' u | u' и I и ' u)
5) anapaest (анапест): three syllables, stress on the third:
Said the flee, 'Let us fly', (uu'luu'j
Said the fly, 'Let us flee',
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
The type of foot and the number of feet in the line determine the Metre of the verse (стихотворный размер). Here we distinguish:
iambic trimetre (трехстопный ямб): three iambic feet in a line:
Who sets an apple tree (u ' I u ' lu ')
May live to see its end,
Who sets a pear tree
May set it for a friend. iambic tetrametre (четырехстопный ямб): four iambic feet in a line:
And then my love and 1 shall pace, (u ' lu' I u ' lu') My jet black hair in pearly braids. (Coleridge) iambic pentametre (пятистопный ямб)
Her lovely looks a sprightly mind disclose (u ' I и ' 1 и ' lu' lu')
Quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those. (A. Pope) trochaic trimeter (трехстопный хорей)
Ring -a — ring of roses, (' u I ' u I ' u~)
Pocket full of posies trochaic tetrametre (четырехстопный хорей)
Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater (' u I ' u I ' u I ' u) amphibrachic tetrameter (четырехстопный амфибрахий)
A diller, a dollar, a ten о 'clock scholar (и ' и 1 и' и I и ' и lu' u)
A verse with four or more feet in a line usually has a caesura (цезура), i.e. a pause in the middle of the line:
Praised be the Art \\ whose subtle power could stay Yon cloud, and fix it \\ in that glorious shape; Nor would permit || the thin smoke to escape, Nor those bright sunbeams \\ to forsake the day. (W. Wordsworth)
English versification is often characterized by certain Irregularities (нарушения) in the metre, e.g. a combination of one-syllable and two syllable feet
Pease porridge hot (' I ' u 1 ' 1)
Pease porridge cold, (' I ' и I ' I)
Pease porrjdge in the pot (' I ' и | ' и I ')
Nine days old. (I'll)
or a combination of one-syllable, two-syllable and three-syllable feet
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. ('ul'ul'uul') Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, ('ul'ul'uul'l) All the King s horses and all the King's men (' u u I " u u I ' uul ')
Couldn 'tput Humpty Dumpty together again. (' ~ I' — I' ~~\'~~\')
Another kind of irregularity is represented by the so called Pyrric foot (пиррихий), in which the rhythm is broken due to the use of unstressed words in the place of the expected stressed syllables, or vice versa, as in
Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream. (John Keats) (u'|u'|u'|uuu')
or as in the second line of the extract from A. Pope below: Her lovely looks a sprightly mind disclose (u ' I u ' I u ' lu' lu')
Quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those. (A. Pope) (' | u u ' |u u u " |u ')
Rhyme (рифма) is created by the repetition of the same sounds in the last stressed syllable of two (or more) lines in a stanza (строфа).
By the type of the stressed syllable we distinguish the male
rhyme (мужская рифма), when the stress falls on the last
syllable in the rhymed lines, and the female rhyme (женская
рифма), when it falls on the last but one syllable:
When the lamp is shattered (female rhyme)
The light in the dust lies dead; (male rhyme)
When the cloud is scattered, (female)
The rainbow's glory is shed, (male) (P.B. Shelley)
See also the alternation of male and female rhymes in the
Russian verse in Pushkin's rhymed novel «Евгений Онегин»:
Мой дядя самых честных правил, (женская рифма)
Когда не в шутку занемог, (мужская)
Он уважать себя заставил (женск.)
И лучше выдумать НС МО2. (мужск.)
There may be paired rhymes (парные, смежные рифмы). when the rhyming pattern is aabb:
The seed ye sow, another reaps; (a)
The wealth ye find, another keeps; (a)
The robes ye weave, another wears; (b)
The arms ye forge, another bears, (b) (Shelley) or alternate rhymes (перекрестные рифмы), with the pattern abab:
A slumber did my spirit seal; (a)
I had no human fears: (b)
She seemed a thing that could not feel (a)
The touch of earthly years, (b) (W. Wordsworth) or enclosing rhymes (охватные, опоясанные рифмы), with the pattern abba:
Much have I travel!'d in the realms of gold, (a)
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; (b)
Round many western islands have I been (b)
Which bards in fealty (= loyalty) to Apollo hold, (a) (J. Keats) There may also be more complicated variations of these patterns:
Rough wind, that meanest loud (a) Grief too sad for song; (b)
Wild wind, when sullen cloud (a) Knells all the night long; (b)
Sad storm, whose tears are vain, (c)
Bare woods, whose branches stain, (c)
Deep caves and dreary main, — (c)
Wail for the world's wrong/ (b) (Shelley)
Note also the possibility of the so called eye-rhyme (графическая рифма), when the elements rhymed are similar only in spelling, but not in pronunciation:
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind. (J. Keats)
For us, even banquets fond regret supply
In the red cup that crowns our memory. ( Byron)
Types of Stanza (типы строф, строфика)
The most common stanza, one consisting of four lines, is called a quatrain (катрен, четверостишие); the more seldom one, consisting of two, is called a couplet (двустишие).
There is also a ballad stanza, typical of poetic folklore, especially that of the 14th—15th centuries. A ballad is a poem with a plot (сюжет), which tells some story. The ballad stanza usually has four lines, of which the first and third lines contain four feet, while the second and fourth — three or two.
The first word that Sir Patrick read, (4 feet)
Sae loud, loud laughed he; (3)
The neist word that Sir Patrick read, (4)
The tear blinded his ее. (3)
This type of stanza is also found in later poetry:
The fairest one shall be my love's, (4 feet)
The fairest castle of the nine! (3)
Wait only till the stars peep out, (4)
The fairest shall be thine. (3) (Coleridge)
In R. Kipling's ballad cited below, the quatrains are combined into couplets, within which, however, is preserved the alternation of four-foot and three-foot metres:
Oh, East is East, and West is West, (4) and never the twain shall meet (3)
Till Earth and Sky stand presently (4) at God's great Judgement Seat (3).
A specific type of stanza is used in a sonnet. There we usually find twelve lines (three quatrains, i.e. three stanzas with four lines), followed by two final lines (a couplet), which contain a kind of summary of the whole verse:
O, lest the world should ask you to recite
What merit lived in me, that you should love,
After my death, dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove;
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie, To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
O, lest your true love may seem false in this, That you for love speak well of me untrue, My name be buried where my body is, And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
For I am ashamed by that which I bring forth, And so should you, to love things nothing worth.
(Shakespeare, Sonnet No. 72) There may also be blank verse (белый стих), in whic!:here is no rhyming, but the rhythm and metre are to some extent preserved; such is, for instance, the verse of Shakespeare's tragedies:
To be or not to be, — that is the question: —
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, — to sleep, —
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, — to sleep; —
To sleep! Perchance to dream: — ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
Wfien we have shuffled off this mortal coil... (Hamlet)
Part 4
