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crossref-it.info - AS/A2 English Literature Study Guides - texts in context.

 

Poems for study » I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark » Structure and versification in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark

Regularity

The sonnet structure is very similar to Carrion Comfort in its neat division of the octave into two quatrains, and the sestet into two tercets. The rhyming of the sestet is slightly unusual for Hopkins: ccd ccd.

Hopkins’ use of sprung rhythm is minimal, preferring regular iambic pentameters. The rhythm is only disturbed twice: in ll.5-7 and ll.11-12. Here, the inner torment disturbs the even rhythm by adding extra stresses.

The enjambement and mid-line breaks are the only things that show real disturbance, producing a definite counterpointing.

Investigating I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
  • Scan ll.6,11, locating the spondees.
    • Look at the repetition and play on words as well.
      • What effect does this have on the rhythm?
  • In reading the poem aloud, which do you find most effective:
    • to take longer pauses and read it slowly and quietly
    • or to hurry the poem and try to bring out some intensity?
    • Note down your conclusions.
A quatrain is a 4-line stanza, usually rhyming.
A 3-line unit of verse, usually forming part of a sestet. Sometimes it rhymes within itself, sometimes it has the same rhyme scheme as a following tercet.
The device, frequently used at the ends of lines in poetry, where words with the same sound are paired, sometimes for contrast ' for example, 'breath' and 'death'.
The 6-line stanza of a Petrarchan sonnet, occupying the last six lines, sometimes divided into tercets or couplets. It often resolves the problem poses in the octave or comments significantly on it.
A term given by Gerard Manley Hopkins to his versification. It does have a regular basic metre, but contains additional feet or outriders and other planned irregularities.
A term used of speech rhythms in blank verse; an iambic rhythm is an unstressed, or weak, beat followed by a stressed, or strong, beat. It is a rising metre.
A line containing five stressed syllables or feet.
In all languages, some syllables are pronounced with more of an emphasis than others. In poetry of many languages, this becomes a significant means of patterning. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line of verse is called its
The technique used in blank verse and other verse forms in which the sense of a line runs on without a pause to the next one; this often gives a sense of greater fluency to the lines.
In music, the playing of two tunes at the same time, allowing them to interweave. In poetry, the use of two rhythms at the same time, for example, one being based on the metre, and one on the grammatical structure of the sentence.
A unit of metre, being a foot of just one stressed syllable.
The musical effect of the repetition of stresses or beats, and the speed or tempo at which these may be read.

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hoürs we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.
With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.