Poetry Support

Select an answer you think is correct in each section:

1. Metre literally means:
a) scansion
b) measure
c) syllable

2. Poetic feet are:
a) complete lines of poetry
b) only composed of trisyllabic words
c) units of measure

3. A poet uses a definite metric pattern:
a) to control the way the message is being sent.
b) to produce real poetry
c) to create pleasing patterns

4. There are:
a) six kinds of metre
b) seven kinds of metre
c) several kinds of metre

5. Which of the following words in metric terms means four feet in the line?
a) monometer
b) hexameter
c) tetrameter
d) trimeter
e) dimeter

6.A most commonly used form of metre is the iambic pentameter - five feet in the line, each one containing an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one.

Indicate which poetic extract of the three below is written in iambic pentameter:

a)

Along the road the magpies walk
with hands in pockets, left and right.
They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.
In their well-fitted black and white.

(From Judith Wright's "Magpies")
(In Form and feeling (1990). (2nd ed.) E. Hamilton & J. Livingstone (Eds.). Melbourne: Longman.)

b)

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

(From Thomas Grey's "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard")
(In The Progress of poetry (1965). C.J. Horne & M. O'Brien (Eds.). Melbourne: Heinemann.)

c)

Farewell to barn and stack and tree,
Farewell to Severn shore.
Terence, look your last at me,
For I come home no more.

From A.E. Housman's "Farewell to barn and stack and tree)
(In The Four Corners (1968). A.K. Thomson (Ed.). Brisbane: The Jacaranda Press.)

7. Is the metre in the following extract trochaic or dactyllic?

Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing.

From Thomas Hood: "The Bridge of Sighs")
(In Oxford Book of English verse 1250-1900 (1927). A. Quiller-Courch (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford Claredon Press.)

a) trochaic
b) dactyllic

In the poem, "Break, break, break" Alfred Lord Tennyson has employed a variety of metric patterns to achieve his purpose of conveying his deep sadness at the loss of a friend. Answer the questions 8 - 10 that follow.

Break, break, break, ¹
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea! ²
And I would that my tongue could utter ³
The thoughts that arise in me. ⁴

O well for the fisherman's boy ⁵
That he shouts with his sister at play! ⁶
O well for the sailor lad, ⁷
That he sings in his boat on the bay! ⁸

And the stately ships go on ⁹
To their haven under the hill; ¹⁰
But O for the touch of a vanished hand, ¹¹
And the sound of a voice that is still! ¹²

Break, break, break, ¹³
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! ¹⁴
But the tender grace of a day that is dead ¹⁵
Will never come back to me. ¹⁶

Alfred Lord Tennyson
(In The Progress of poetry (1965). C.J. Horne & M. O'Brien (Eds.). Melbourne: Heinemann.)

8. How would you describe the metre used right across the line in lines 6, 8 and 12?
a) anapestic
b) trochaic
c) amphibrachic

9. In the middle of line 2 the words "grey stones" are two heavy beats side by side, as are the words, "come back" in line 16. Both instances are examples of :
a) iambs
b) spondees
c) dactyls

10. Lines 2, 4, 9, 14 and 16 all conclude in an iamb. What force has the use of the iamb have in them
a) gives an upward movement
b) gives a downward movement
c)gives a sense of finality

11. How would you describe the metre used in the following lines?

There was a young lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

From Edward Lear's limerick: "There was a young lady from Niger"
(In Lyrics and prose of Edward Lear. A Book of bosch. (1975). Chosen by B. Alderson. London: Puffin Books.)

a) anapestic
b) amphibrachic

12. If you were a poet who wished to write a poem in formal metre and wished to express a sad theme in the poem, which of the following combinations would you strive to use?
a) iambic and dactyllic
b) trochaic and spondaic
c) anapestic and spondaic

Score = /12
Correct answers: