Analyzing Poetry
1. Rhyme Scheme:

This is the pattern of the sounds at the end of the lines. We indicate the pattern by assigning letters of the alphabet to each new sound, and lines that rhyme have the same letter, like this:
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teaming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I may never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; --then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

 a
b
a
b
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2. Meter:

This is the rhythm, which is made up of the pattern of the stresses in each line, and the pattern of lines. When analyzing the metrical pattern of a line, we indicate unstressed syllables with a shallow "u" and stressed syllables with a backslash ( / ) or dash ( -- ). So we would mark the first line above this way:

    u     /     u       /       u    /     u       /       u    /
When I     have fears   that I   may cease   to be

Next, we notice that there are ten syllables in the line which can be divided into five groups, called feet, each foot containing two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed, like this (I've divided the feet by vertical lines):

    u     /   |     u       /   |   u     /   |    u      /     |    u    /
When I     have fears     that I     may cease     to be

A two-syllable foot containing first an unstressed syllable and then a stressed one is called an iamb, or an iambic foot. When there are five iambic feet in a line, as above, it is called iambic pentameter (from Greek "penta-" = "five"). If there are four iambic feet, it is iambic tetrameter, if three then iambic trimeter, if two then iambic dimeter. If there are six, it is iambic hexameter.

The iambic foot is the most common in English poetry but there are other kinds: iamb, or iambic foot = u /
trochee, or trochaic foot is opposite of iambic = / u
anapest, or anapestic foot = u u /
dactyl, or dactylic foot is opposite of anapestic = / u u
pyrrhic foot = u u
spondee, or spondaic foot is opposite of pyrrhic = / /

The pyrrhic foot is not a regular meter but a variation in an iambic or trochaic line. The spondaic foot is not a regular meter but a variation in any of the other kinds.

3. Sonnet Structure:

All sonnets have 14 lines. There are 3 main types of sonnets, distinguished by rhyme scheme. (There are other rhyme schemes, but these are the most common.)

1) English, or Shakespearean, sonnet, which is divided into quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and has this pattern: abab cdcd efef gg.

2) Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, which is divided into an octave (a group of 8 lines) and a sestet (a group of 6 lines) and follows this pattern: abba abba cde cde (the sestet may vary widely).

3) Spenserian sonnet, which is divided into linked quatrains, like this: abab bcbc cdcd ee.

4) Other Structures:

There are a wide variety of stanza forms, many with names and many without, but if you learn to identify the rhyme scheme and meter, and pay attention to groupings into quatrains or couplets (groups of 2 rhyming lines in a row) or other patterns, you will begin to recognize certain patterns that show up frequently. There are many good handbooks of poetry that tell you the names of all the various patterns and structures and rhyme schemes and styles.

5) Figures:

Alliteration is the repetition of sounds (consonants or vowels) at the beginning of stressed syllables--"the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea"

Assonance is the repetition of internal vowels--"save where the beetle wheels his droning flight"

There are a great many other figures, such as hyperbole, personification, etc. which can be found in poetry and rhetoric handbooks and which we will talk about.

6) Comparing Sound and Sense:

After you've analyzed the rhyme scheme, meter, and structure of a poem, spend some time working out clearly the exact thoughts expressed in the poem. Then, compare the development of the thought with the development of the structure. For example, in "When I have fears that I may cease to be" (above), the sense follows the "sounds" very closely, because there is a new thought or idea expressed every time a new quatrain begins, and a final summing-up thought in the last couplet (he is afraid he will die before he can glean his brain, before he can trace the magic of the skies, before he can see his beloved again; so he removes himself to the edge of his world and thinks till it all fades).


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