The stressed syllables also show alliteration, i.e., they begin with the same sound. In habite as an heremite un holy of werkes, Though there are a varying number of unstressed syllables (placed haphazardly), there are consistently four stresses per line: Wente wide in this world wondres to here. In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes, I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were, In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
A lot of earlier poetic forms tended to ignore the number and placement of unstressed syllables in any line and only dealt with the stresses per line. We stress, or emphasize, certain syllables, while other syllables remain unstressed, or de-emphasized. Rhythm in speech or poetry is created because we don’t place the same emphasis on every syllable we speak. Whatever other hallmarks a culture’s poetry might have, be it rhyme, alliteration, or fixed structure, they all have rhythm.
The poetic feature you cannot duck, however, is rhythm. 1360 isn’t rhymed, but Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published about 20 years later, is. Rhymed poetry seems to have come into fashion in English around the late 14th century William Langland’s The Vision of Piers Plowman published ca. One of the things you’ll be happy to discover is that there are many examples of period poetry that don’t actually rhyme. So, you slept through the poetry portion of your High School English class and you paid someone like me to write your sonnet for you, but now that you’re in the SCA you’re moved to create poetry.
0 kommentar(er)
