Blissful Countryside
“Blissful Countryside” reflects the dactylic pentameter decastich with
rhyming couples. The pentameter has five feet and is associated with
qualitative meter or accentual-syllabic verse in English Language poetry. In
accentual-syllabic verse every syllable counts in creating the proper rhythm
and flow of the meter. Dactylic as a qualifier of the noun “dactyl” is a
falling meter with a trisyllabic foot meaning that the foot is made up of three
syllables; the first syllable is stressed and the two remaining syllables are
unstressed. These stressed and unstressed syllables are identified by diacritical
marks such as the ictus (⁄) for stressed syllable and the breve ( ˬ ) for
unstressed syllable in the combination of one ictus and two breve ( ⁄ ˬ ˬ ). The
words “poetry” and “dactylic” are useful mnemonics for remembering this
stressed-unstressed-unstressed pattern in the dactyl foot. The foot is the unit
of such measurement hence the measuring instrument is known as the metric foot.
Meter means measurement.
Exhibit 2
Hate
the restriction on living on folks in suburbia;
Lately
she suffers from noise, and from hyperthermia;
Longing
to swing in the trees and to feed animals and birds;
Whispering
wind on eaves in her ears and the barking curs;
Smell
the aroma of boiling sugar in atmosphere;
Hearing
the galloping sound of a buggy in tow by mare;
Rural
abode and so blissfully healthy for good life;
Loving
the land and its sacred endowments with good wife;
Marvel
at smiling sky kissing the fertile and sweet land;
Ponders
annoying dilemma; concrete jungles withstand.
High
on your feet, will you! Hear ye the planet, it cries out;
Littering
bugs they disrupt in and out; so insane! Shout;
Speak
will you, killers of earth, polluters, shameful, with hard-ears;
Polluting,
burning and wasting of crops with ashes’ tears.
Now
we behold the miracle of creation close-up;
Slaving
away on the plantation days of yore pile-up;
Free
to reminisce on porch and to savor the view;
Swinging
with the trade winds in a hammock of sky blue;
Pastures
again, the hillsides, and the fields very green;
Here
ye this! Food for masses to live fat or lean...
“Blissful
Countryside” has two stanzas and each stanza has ten verses. A poem with ten
verses in each stanza is called a decastich. The poem also has rhyming
couplets. A rhyming couplet is when two verses rhyme with each other and this poem is made up of couplets where each pair of verses rhyme with each
other and they have the same meter. Also, it falls into the category of lyric
poetry in the genre of an Idyll. What is lyric poetry? Lyric poetry presents
the deep feelings and emotions of the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a
story or presents a witty observation. Sonnets, odes, and elegies are examples
of lyric poetry. Lyric poetry has a pleasing musical quality and often can be
set to music. Examples of lyric poets of by-gone eras are William Wordsworth,
John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Blake. What is an Idyll poem? An
Idyll is defined as a pastoral poem relating to the countryside or to the rural
way of life. It stresses the picturesque nature of rural living. The theme
throughout the poem “Blissful Countryside” suggests a yearning for country
living instead of the suburban or city living. The imagery in this short
idyllic poem gives out a nostalgic feeling; there is also this impression in
the poem that the environment is badly mistreated, and is seen as an affront to
the Creator of earth. God in all his goodness and love for mankind gave this
gift called earth to mankind to take good care of it and to enjoy its wonderful
multifarious fruits it offers.
John
Milton wrote a long lyric narrative poem in idyllic form called “L’ Allegro”
(meaning “The Happy Man”) with one hundred and fifty-two verses in 1633,
forty-one years before his death. Exhibit 1 shows verses one to twenty-four
where it reflects on the pleasures of a beautiful spring day in two venues, the
countryside and in the urban setting.
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 1
L’Allegro”
A
Poem by John Milton (1608-1674)
(Excerpt)
|
|
Hence,
loathed Melancholy,
Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding Darkness sprends his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. But come, thou goddess fair and free, In Heaven yclep'd Euphrosyne, |
And
by Men, heart-easing Mirth;
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: Or whether (as some sager sing) The frolick wind, that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora playing, As he met her once a-Maying; There on beds of violets blue, And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew, Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair. |
What is a dactylic pentameter? Let’s revise some terms to help explain
this one. Meter refers to the pattern of syllables in a verse of poetry. The
most basic unit of measure in a poem is the syllable and the pattern of syllables
in a verse, from stressed to unstressed and vice versa. Two syllables together (Hate
the), three-syllable construction (re stric tion) or four-syllable
construction (ce le bra tion), each of these examples measures one foot.
These various foot types and their diacritical marks are shown in Exhibit 2 as
follows:
Exhibit 2
SYLLABLE
CONSTRUCTION
|
|||||
Disyllable Foot Types
|
Diacritical Marks
|
Trisyllable
Foot Types
|
Diacritical Marks
|
Tetrasyllable Foot Types
|
Diacritical Marks
|
Iamb
|
ˬ ⁄
|
Amphibrah
|
ˬ ⁄ ˬ
|
Antipast
|
ˬ ⁄ ⁄ ˬ
|
Spondee
|
⁄ ⁄
|
Anapest
|
ˬ ˬ ⁄
|
Choriamb
|
⁄ ˬ ˬ ⁄
|
Trochee
|
⁄ ˬ
|
Antibacchius
|
⁄ ⁄ ˬ
|
Diiamb
|
ˬ ⁄ˬ ⁄
|
Pyrrhic
|
ˬ ˬ
|
Baccius
|
ˬ ⁄ ⁄
|
Dispondee
|
⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄
|
Cretic
|
⁄ ˬ ⁄
|
Ditrochee
|
⁄ ˬ ⁄ ˬ
|
||
dactyl
|
⁄ ˬ ˬ
|
Epitrite
|
⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ˬ
|
||
Molossus
|
⁄ ⁄ ⁄
|
First
Epitrite
|
ˬ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄
|
||
Tribrach
|
ˬ ˬ ˬ
|
Second Epitrite
|
⁄ˬ ⁄ ⁄
|
||
Third Epitrite
|
⁄ ⁄ ˬ ⁄
|
||||
Fourth Epitrite
|
⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ˬ
|
||||
Greater Ionic
|
⁄ ⁄ ˬ ˬ
|
||||
Lesser Ionic
|
ˬ ˬ ⁄ ⁄
|
||||
Tetrabrach
|
ˬ ˬ ˬ ˬ
|
||||
Paeon
|
⁄ ˬ ˬ ˬ
|
||||
The dactylic pentameter is a line of verse measuring five feet. The
metrical foot of a poem is determined by the poem’s predominant meter. Metered
poems will be quite regular, but in order to provide special emphasis in some
places or to avoid monotonous rhythm of the “DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
da da DUM da da” , poets often use substitutions in some of the poems verses as are evident in “Blissful Countryside”. These substitutes are
taken from disyllable foot types (iamb, spondee, and trochee, pyrrhic) and from
trisyllable foot types (amphibrach, anapest, antibacchius, baccius, cretic, molossus and
tribrach). In dactylic pentameter
verses the spondee, trochee, cretic and anapest are often seen as substitutes.
It is okay to have variations in the rhythmic flow of verses. However, when
writing a metered poem the poet gets to choose the meter but is obligated to
maintain the selected meter throughout the poem; it’s only the foot type that
may be substituted; unless of course, the variation is set up regularly and
clearly as part of the poem’s metrical pattern. When constructing the dactylic
pentameter verse it is important to maintain the integrity of the verse by
ensuring that the first foot is a dactyl and that no other substitute supersedes
the dactyl. The foot in the third and fourth position in the verse is more likely to change. The last foot in dactylic pentameter verse tends to fall on a
spondee.
In order to verify that the verses in “Blissful Countryside” are indeed dactylic pentameter verses it was essential to produce a diagrammatic representation of this poem by way of scansion. The scansion unlocks those techniques used in creating the rhythmic effects in the poem; it helps readers grasp layers of meaning in the poem, and to indicate how to read the poem aloud. The results of the scansion of the metrical effect of the poem are shown in Exhibits 3 and 4.
In order to verify that the verses in “Blissful Countryside” are indeed dactylic pentameter verses it was essential to produce a diagrammatic representation of this poem by way of scansion. The scansion unlocks those techniques used in creating the rhythmic effects in the poem; it helps readers grasp layers of meaning in the poem, and to indicate how to read the poem aloud. The results of the scansion of the metrical effect of the poem are shown in Exhibits 3 and 4.
Exhibit 3
Exhibit 4
