English Literature

QUESTION: What do you mean by Trochee or The Trochaic Metre? ANSWER: The Trochaic Metre is a foot of verse. It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is stressed and the following is unstressed. This pattern is called Trochaic. Like the iambic metre its line may be of various lengths. Example: [1] Sing a / song of / six pence                      A pocket full of rye                      Four and twenty black birds,                      Baked in a pie.

QUESTION: What do you mean by Iambic Metre?  ANSWER: The Iambic metre is a foot of verse. It consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. This pattern is called iambic. The number of iambic feet in an iambic line may vary from two to seven. Example: [1] The griz/zly Bear/ is huge/ and wild;                        He has devoured the infant child.                        The infant child is not aware                        It has been eaten by the bear. [ A. E. Housman; Infant                                     Innocence] ...

QUESTION: What do you mean by Blank Verse?  ANSWER:  Blank Verse is prosody. This term is limited to unrhymed iambic pentameter. This meter has been used in Shakespeare's plays, in Melton's Paradise Lost, and in all the best dramatic poetry. Example: [1] Come you spirits                        That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here                        And fill me from the crown to the toe top full                        Of direst cruelty [Macbeth: Shakespeare]                  [2] Why do I yield to that suggestion     ...

QUESTION: What is Heroic Couplet?   ANSWER : Heroic couplet is prosody. Here the lines rhyme together in pairs, and each line consists of five iambic feet. It was a favoured form of the 18th century. For example: [1] One science only will one genius feet;       So vast is art, so narrow human wit. [2] Not only bound to peculiar arts,      But oft in those confined to single parts.   [Pope: An Essay On criticism]   [3] All human things are subject to decay,        And when Fate summons, monarchs must obey   [Dryden: Shadwell]