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/lit/ - Literature

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2861785 No.2861785[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I need help /lit/
It's my senior year in highschool, and I'm taking AP Lit. Unfortunately, in order to get a good understanding in the subject, I'll have to understand pentameter. This includes iambic pentameter, iamb, trochee, spondee, etc. I know their definitions, I just don't understand them. Can someone please explain it?

>> No.2861787

Reported for underage.

>> No.2861793

Is it so hard to read your fucking textbook?

>> No.2861816

>>2861787
/Lit/ isn't 18+, and I never even said my age. My school kicks you out at 19.
>>2861793
I have, I'm looking for a better explanation than my textbooks are giving me.

>> No.2861817

>>2861816
>/Lit/

Yeah, underage.

>> No.2861819

>>2861816
No, it is. All boards are.

>> No.2861825

>>2861816

All of 4chan is 18+. The blue boards simply denote "SFW" - safe for work.

Also, do you really think 4chan is a better source of academic information than a professionally written text book? You are really dumb.

>> No.2861834

You have to understand meter. Pentameter is a specific kind of meter.

When describing a meter, we need two elements - essentially, we need to know the number of beats that we're going to have per line, and we need to know what form the beats should take. So iambic pentameter tells us those things. "Pentameter" tells us that there's going to be five beats per line, and "iambic" tells us that those beats are going to be iambs. So we know that we'll probably have five iambs in each line.

Now an iamb is one metrical unit - there are others (trochee and spondee as you point out) but iambs are most common. Now all an iamb means is that you have a two-syllable unit where the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. So then, in iambic pentamter, each line is usually going to go something like "bah-BAH bah-BAH bah-BAH bah-BAH bah-BAH". That's pretty much all that iambic pentameter means. Now you can do fancy things like inversion or breaking meter - or you can have different numbers of beats per line, as in trimeter (3 beats per line) or tetrameter (4 beats per line) - or you can use different metrical units, like the trochee (stressed syllable followed by unstressed - BAH-bah BAH-bah) or the dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed - BAH-bah-bah). It's really not that complicated, it's pretty much just a way of describing the beat of the poem. To see what this means in practice, look at something like "Kubla Khan", the beginning of which is in a very severe iambic tetrameter - "In XA-na-DU did KU-bla KHAN..." and etc.

If this doesn't help, honestly, explaining this in person is a lot easier because you can actually beat out the rhythms. So ask your teacher when classes start.

>> No.2861836

>>2861825
There was a lack of "18+" next to the board name, I'm a newfag. But it doesn't matter, I'm of age. I see 4chan as a better source than a textbook, because I know what these things are, but I don't understand them. The textbook doesn't help me understand what words have heavy stress, and what ones have light.

>> No.2861837

>implying any of that is remotely complicated

I don't think you belong here kid. Don't forget to learn anapestic tetrameter.

>> No.2861839

>>2861836

Do you not speak English? You sound like one of those unintelligent overachiever types.

Have fun in college. you won't

>> No.2861841

You don't have to understand any of that shit. High school english is a fucking joke. Not one of the kids in my AP class read a single book the entire year and they all managed to pass.

>> No.2861848

You must be going to a retarded school if /that's/ what they want you to take away from stories.

Stop being such a grade mongler, shouldn't have done AP Lit if you don't like the technical side of writing.

>> No.2861849

>>2861834
That actually helps a ton, thanks!
How can you figure out which syllables are going to sound unstressed though? Do you need to insert stress into the lines while reciting to hear how it will sound?

>> No.2861853

>>2861839
My apologies. I don't put any effort in my writing when I'm on the internet. I honestly don't give a fuck whether you see me as stupid or not, I'm just looking for explanations.

>> No.2861860

>>2861849
The stresses come from the natural stresses of the words in English. Pretty much, in the English language all words have a syllable which is accented - that's why we say "SYLabble" and not "sylABle". So the poet chooses and arranges his words so that the natural stresses will fall into the appropriate metric pattern.

Most of the time, this means that you can figure it out pretty easily by just reading it aloud and trying to pay attention to the syllables you naturally stress. If there's anything you're in doubt of, just look it up in a dictionary.

>> No.2861862

>>2861853
>I'm just looking for explanations
>I'm not stupid
pick one

Confirmed for summer

>> No.2861869

>>2861860
Thanks for your help, question answered. /thread