Applications of a Connectionist Model of Poetic Meter to Problems in Generative Metrics
Meter is one of the most distinctive formal features of English verse. Yet theoretical approaches to metrical analysis have proved problematical for a number of reasons. Traditional metrics, based upon scansion systems derived from Latin forms, is strong and flexible in its ability to describe individual units of a line, but fails to describe well the dynamics of the line as a whole and the lexical and syntactic structures which underlie that line. Moreover, traditional metrics does not address the general issue of metricality: most lines of poetry show some variation from metrical norms through the substitution of irregular units (such as a trochee opening an iambic line). When do such variations, which are permissible in individual units, render the line as a whole unmetrical? Generative metrics does address these issues by analyzing underlying lexical and syntactic structures and formulating rules to describe allowable and unallowable metrical transgressions. In this way, the theory defines metricality, distinguishing between lines which are metrical and those which are not. This approach has had some success, and yet counter-examples, lines which are unmetrical by its analysis but are found to be used by poets, have proved somewhat intractable.
Generative metrics is not, moreover, well adapted to describing verse in its actual performance. While generative metrics does account for some of the factors that affect the metrical rhythm of a line of poetry, such as lexical stress and the syntactic structure of a textual unit, it does not have a place for other features which may impact on the amount of stress that a syllable receives in performance, such as rhyme, alliteration, repetition, and the reader's interpretation of the significance of the word in the poem. Any or all of these features may affect the speaker's decision to give a certain prominence to the word, a prominence which will be realized in performance by stress. Moreover, since stress is measured in comparison to adjacent units, the amount of stress given to one unit will affect other units in its immediate environment. One reader of Keats's line, 'My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains' may stress 'heart', rather than 'aches'; this will affect the amount of stress given to 'aches'.
C. Connotations:The poem is written in free verse with no rhyme or rhythm to be
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
poem. The tone used by each poet is critical because it indicates to the reader their
...n potential death. What the FDA should do is support funding for more advertising, encouraging all citizens to be more aware with the potentially hazardous products they consume. I’m sure if people without food allergies were more aware of the potential harm their daily snack could cause to someone else, they would start to use a lot more caution.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Poetry is more than just a correlation of words; poetry contains power. Poetry works by sculpting the English language in such a way that it produces sound, while endeavoring to recreate experiences. I really grasped this concept when we read Dulcem Et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen. Among other things, this poem contains haunting imagery, and a rhythm that produces the sound of being in the trenches. While reading this poem, Wilfred Owen’s words made me fearful and paranoid. The slightest sound could hold my attention. I also noticed how silent the room felt after we finished the poem. We were all struck and disturbed by the old phrase Dulcem Et Decorum Est.
...ration, onomatopoeia, rhyme etc. One of the sound types I will be looking at is Full or perfect rhyme. This sound type is significant as in Dulce Et Decorum Est at the end of each sentence rhymes with the one before the last. This is significant as when reading this poem you notice this rhyming scheme and take more time to stop and ponder over the significance of the language it is based around and what connotations that word has: “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” and “Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs”. This is one of the most effective rhyming schemes in the poem. Due to every second line rhyming this makes your remember what the poet was trying to put across in the previous lines as all the different lines have a way of tying in with one another.
Sound Devices help convey the poet’s message by appealing to the reader’s ears and dr...
...was open about his sheer hatred for Othello taking his position he would surely be frowned upon for being so petty. For exampled discouraging an individual from trying something just because in their option that person isn't capably of accomplishing their goals. If everyone was honest Iago would of told Roderigo he really didn't have a chance with Desdemona, and stop giving him a false sense of hope. If everyone was honest people would say how they honestly felt or their option.
One particularly useful cross-disciplinary element employed in concrete poetry is the use of space. The poetry of Emmett Williams, Seiichi Nikuni, and Ilse and Pierre Garnier in particular, make use of spatial relationships in their poetry. The use of space can be employed in place of traditional grammar and syntax to convey meaning in concrete poetry, particularly when the spatial position of one element is taken into consideration with other elements of the poem. Another element that may arise from these spatial relationships is a temporal aspect that all poetry employs, but which becomes uniquely meaningful in the context of the concrete poetry of the twentieth century. Without these relationships concrete poems may appear as crude distortions of words on a page, with no significant sense or meaning to communicate. Therefore, the temporal/spatial relationships between poetic elements become necessary tools which the reader needs in order to fully understand the linguistically driven meaning behind many concrete poems.
Abstract. Traditional analyses of meter are hampered by their inability to image the interaction of various elements which affect the stress patterns of a line of poetry or provide a system of notation fully amenable to computational analysis. To solve these problems, the connectionist models of James McClelland and David Rumelhart in Explorations in Parallel Distributed Processing (1988) are applied to the analysis of English poetic meter. The model graphically illustrates the dynamics of a poetic line and incorporates a number of features associated with the actual oral performance of a poetic text, while providing a notational system that allows mathematical analyses of poetic meter.
"Characteristics of Modern Poetry - Poetry - Questions & Answers." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 09 Jan. 2012. .
Renaissance poets, such as Marlowe, use metrical patterns and rhyme schemes to create a musical quality. In “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” there is iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of aabb ccdd etc, “Come live with me and be my love, / And we will all the pleasures prove / That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, / Woods, or steepy mountain yields” (Marlowe 1-4). The ending of every last word such as ‘love’ and ‘prove’ or ‘fields’ and ‘yields’ creates a natural beat for the reader to follow. In contrast, Rice’s song “A Whole New World” is accompanied with a soundtrack due to its lack of a uniform rhyme scheme. The song’s first two stanzas show a rhyme scheme of abbc deef, but the stanzas that follow show do not “A whole new world / A new fantastic point of view / No one to tell us no or where to go / Or say we're only dreaming” (Rice 9-12).
...oes hand in hand with the structure of the poem as well; bringing about a certain rhythm through punctuation and line breaks. It is this rhythm brings out the repetition and clash of elements especially with parentheses, which allows us to look at the element of starvation while considering the reaction of the press.
A second step in analyzing a poem is to identify the main idea or point of the poem. In “The Author to ...