Saturday, December 28, 2013

What is the meter of Campion's "There is a Garden in Her Face?"

I've marked below, above the words of the first few lines,
the stress and rhyme pattern.. This process is known as "scanning" and it is how you
analyze poetic meter. I use - for a weak syllable and / for a strong syllable and | to
indicate foot divisions.



/        -  | -  /  | 
-   / | -    /                       A


There is |a Gar| den
in| her face,


-          /  | -     /   |   /      /  | 
-    /           B
Where Ro|ses and | white Lill| ies grow
;|


-       /   | -  /   | -  / | -   -      /
A
heau'n|ly par|adice| is that place,|             A


Wherein
all pleasant fruits doe flow.              B
There Cherries grow, which none
may buy     C
Till Cherry ripe themselues doe cry.              
C


The basic metrical pattern is iambic tetrameter, with an
average of 1 rhythmical variation per line (fairly typical of the period) oincluding
spondaic, trochaic, and anapestic substitution, with occasional use of ellision. The
stanzas are sestets, rhymed ababcc.

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