Metaphysical poets, selected poems Contents
Structure and versification in The Mower against Gardens
Hidden stanzas
Although this looks like a non-stanzaic poem, it really does have hidden stanzas, and a clearly defined structure. The poem falls into two sections, ll.1-18 and ll.19-36, with a 4-line conclusion. Each section consists of four quatrains and a couplet. Each quatrain is a full sentence, and divides neatly into two rhyming couplets. Each couplet consists of an iambic pentameter and an iambic tetrameter – an interesting metre. The precise structure makes for a controlled argument, rather than a mere invective without shape or direction.
Investigating The Mower against Gardens
- Compare The Mower against Gardens with Marvell's The Garden
- In what ways do the two gardens portrayed differ?
- Why is one bad and the other good?
- How does the figure of the Mower here differ from the Mower of The Mower's Song?
The technical name for a verse, or a regular repeating unit of so many lines in a poem. Poetry can be stanzaic or non-stanzaic.
A quatrain is a 4-line stanza, usually rhyming.
A rhyming 2-line unit of verse.
A term used of speech rhythms in blank verse; an iambic rhythm is an unstressed, or weak, beat followed by a stressed, or strong, beat. It is a rising metre.
A line containing five stressed syllables or feet.
A line of verse consisting of four metrical feet (in modern verse) or eight feet (in classical verse).
The particular measurement in a line of poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (in some languages, the pattern of long and short syllables). It is the measured basis of rhythm.
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