xiv lines

Poesy, Prosody, Essays and Critique

Category: Working with Pope

  • An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    Being the Prologue to the SatiresVersion by the University Tutorial Press Ltd, Foxton 1950 What This Is and Is Not. In a similar fashion to other analyses, this review will only consider metrical variations in the verses. However, the common substitution of a trochee for an iamb at the start of a verse will not…

  • The Dunciad—Part 4: Book I—verses 46, 47

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    Verse 46: 45  In clouded Majesty here Dulness Shone;46  Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne. What we will find with general analysis is that one of the verses of a couplet will be iambic pentameter, and the other will have a minor variation. In his instance, the first verse is of the expected iambicity.…

  • The Dunciad—Part 3: Book I—verses 20, 37

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    Verse 20: 19  O Thou! whatever title please thine ear,20  Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! The first verse is what we call typical in that it is the normal iambic pentameter verse:    19  Ŏ Thōu! | whătēv | ĕr tī | tlĕ plēase | thĭne ēar A wonderful verse with the alignment of both metrical…

  • An Essay on Criticism

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    Introduction ( or What This is Not) This analysis is not exactly a critique, but in some ways it may well be. One would be daring to criticize a master such as Pope. However, this is about analyzing the metrical variations that Pope has employed in his work. In some instances, the verses do not…

  • The Dunciad—Part 2: Book I—verses 15, 17

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    Verse 15: 15  Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind,16  She rul’d, in native Anarchy, the mind. The temptation in most readings knowing Pope’s form is to immediately place a metrical accent on every second syllable assuming that it is likely iambic pentameter. With this closed couplet, it goes well to a point, in this case…

  • The Dunciad—Part 1: Book I—verses 11, 12

    —

    by

    Ferrick
    in

    11  Dulness o’er all possess’d her ancient right,12  Daughter of Chaos and eternal night: If we look at this couplet with the intent of examining its iambicity, we find both unwanted promotion and demotion of speech stress conflicting with metrical accent. Thus we are tempted to say that this couplet is not pure iambic pentameter.…