Common measure
The common measure or common meter is a four-line stanza form with a rhyme scheme common in English poetry [xaxa], which alternates between iambic four- lifter and iambic three-lifter . The scheme of the stanza is in metric notation :
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
As an example, a verse from A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns :
- As fáir art thóu, my bónie láss,
- So déep in lúve on Í:
- So déep in lúve on Í:
- And Í will lúve thee stíll, my déar,
- Till á 'the séas gang drý.
And from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner :
- The Sún came úp upón the léft,
- Out óf the Séa came hé:
- And hé shone bríght, and ón the ríght
- Went dówn into the Séa.
The stanza form, which is known as the hymnal stanza because of its distribution in the hymn , is metrically the same, but has the cross rhyme as the rhyme scheme[abab]. As an example the well-known hymn Amazing Grace by John Newton (1779):
- Amázing Gráce, how swéet the sóund,
- That sáved a wrétch like me!
- I ónce was lóst, but nów am fóund,
- Was blínd, but nów I sée.
A variant with a shortened, only three-part first verse is called a short measure :
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
The corresponding cross- rhymed form is the Short hymnal stanza . As an example, the first stanza of George Herbert's The Elexir :
- Teach me, my Gód and Kíng,
- In áll things thée to sée,
- In áll things thée to sée,
- And whát I dó in ány thíng,
- To dó it ás for thée [...]
Conversely, in the long measure all verses are four-part:
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
Correspondingly again in the cross- rhymed Long hymnal stanza .
The four-line forms can be doubled to form eight-lines . The corresponding names are Common octave , Hymnal octave , Short octave , Short hymnal octave , Long octave and Long hymnal octave .
Finally, there is as short Particular measure called sechzeilige stanza with the scheme
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡—
◡ — ◡ — ◡ — ◡—
mostly according to the scheme [aabaab] is rhymed.
Similar in structure to the common meter is Ballad stanza ("ballad stanza ") or Ballad meter , with the difference that the verses do not have to be regularly iambic, but that only the number of elevations and the male cadence are specified. An example from the folk ballad Lord Thomas and Fair Annet :
- '0 árt thou blínd, Lord Thómas?' she sáid,
- 'Or cánst thou not véry well sée?
- Or dost thou not see my own heart́s blóod
- Runs tríckling dówn my knée? '
The verse pairs of four and three levers can also be understood as the up and down verse of a seven leg long line . The ballad stanza appears in this long line form, for example, in Kipling's Ballad of East and West (1889):
- The Cólonel's són has táken hórse, and a ráw rough dún was hé,
- With the móuth of a béll and the héart of Héll and the héad of a gállows-trée.
In German literature, the ballad meter corresponds to the Chevy Chase verse . The name refers to the folk ballad The Ancient Ballad of Chevy-Chase about a fateful hunt in the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland , written around 1550 , which appeared as the opening poem of Percy's famous collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). The first stanza reads:
- The Pérse owt óf Northómbarlánde
- And a vówe to Gód mayd hé
- That hé wolde húnte in thé mountáyns
- Off Chýviat withín dayes thre.
literature
- Chris Baldick: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 019280118X , pp. 24, 46, 235.
- Lewis Turco: The New Book of Forms. A Handbook of Poetics. University Press of New England, Hanover & London 1986, ISBN 0-87451-380-4 , pp. 121-123.
Web links
- Common meter . In: Britannica Online Encyclopedia . Retrieved July 28, 2016.