| Disyllables | |
|---|---|
| ˘ ˘ | pyrrhus, dibrach |
| ˘ ¯ | iamb |
| ¯ ˘ | trochee, choree |
| ¯ ¯ | spondee |
| Trisyllables | |
| ˘ ˘ ˘ | tribrach |
| ¯ ˘ ˘ | dactyl |
| ˘ ¯ ˘ | amphibrach |
| ˘ ˘ ¯ | anapest, antidactylus |
| ˘ ¯ ¯ | bacchius |
| ¯ ¯ ˘ | antibacchius |
| ¯ ˘ ¯ | cretic, amphimacer |
| ¯ ¯ ¯ | molossus |
| Number of feet per line | |
| one | Monometer |
| two | Dimeter |
| three | Trimeter |
| four | Tetrameter |
| five | Pentameter |
| six | Hexameter |
| seven | Heptameter |
| eight | Octameter |
| See main article for tetrasyllables. | |
Poulter's measure is a meter consisting of alternate alexandrines combined with fourteeners, to form a poem of alternating 12- and 14-syllable lines.
History[]
Poulter's measure was often used in the Elizabethan era. The term was coined by George Gascoigne, because poulters, or poulterers (sellers of poultry), would sometimes give 12 to the dozen, and other times 14 (see also Baker's dozen).[1]
In the early 17th century, George Chapman famously used the form when he produced his translation of Homer's Iliad. 2 centuries later, in his sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," John Keats expressed his appreciation for what he called the "loud and bold" quality of Chapman's translation..
C.S. Lewis, in his English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, castigates the "lumbering" poulter's measure (109). He attributes the introduction of this "terrible" meter to Thomas Wyatt (224). In a more extended analysis (231-232), he comments:
- The medial break in the alexandrine, though it may do well enough in French, becomes intolerable in a language with such a tyrannous stress-accent as ours: the line struts. The fourteener has a much pleasanter movement, but a totally different one: the line dances a jig.
Surrey, Turberville, Gascoigne, Golding, and others all used the Poulter's Measure, the rhyming fourteener, with authority.[2]
Poulter's measure written as a quatrain (in 4 lines of 3, 3, 4, and 3 feet), is called short meter.[3]
Examples[]
- Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey's "Complaint of the Absence of her lover, being upon the sea" (1547) is in Poulter's measure:
- Good ladies, ye that have your pleasure in exile
- Step in your foot, come take a place, and mourn with me awhile,
- And such as by their lord do set but little price
- Let them sit still, it skills them not what chance come on the dice.
References[]
- ↑ Attridge, Derrick. The Rhythms of English Poetry, 93. Longman: New York. Print
- ↑ Schmidt, Michael, Lives of the Poets. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998. Print.
- ↑ Short metre, Encyclopædia Britannica. Web, May 29, 2018.
External links[]
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