Stephen Fry
Unlocking the Poet Within
HUTCHISON LONDON
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Version 1.0
Epub ISBN 9781407088433
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Published by Hutchinson in 2005
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Copyright © Stephen Fry 2005
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First published in 2005 in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Also by Stephen Fry
Foreword
How to Read this Book. Three Golden Rules
1 Metre
I How We Speak. Meet Metre. The Great Iamb. The Iambic Pentameter. Poetry Exercises 1 & 2
II End-stopping, Enjambment and Caesura. Poetry Exercise 3. Weak Endings, Trochaic and Pyrhhic Substitutions. Substitutions. Poetry Exercise 4
III More Metres: Four Beats to the Line. Mixed Feet. Poetry Exercise 5
IV Ternary Feet:The Dactyl, The Molossus and Tribrach, The Amphibrach, The Amphimacer, Quaternary Feet. Poetry Exercise 6
V Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. Poetry Exercise 7. Sprung Rhythm.
VI Syllabic Verse. Poetry Exercises 8 & 9: Coleridge’s ‘Lesson for a Boy’.
TABLE OF METRIC FEET
2 Rhyme
I The Basic Categories of Rhyme. Partial Rhymes. Feminine and Triple Rhymes. Rich Rhyme.
II Rhyming Arrangements.
III Good and Bad Rhyme? A Thought Experiment. Rhyming Practice and Rhyming Dictionaries. Poetry Exercise 10
RHYME CATEGORIES
3 Form
I The Stanza. What is Form and Why Bother with It?
II Stanzaic Variations. Open Forms:Terza Rima, The Quatrain, The Rubai, Rhyme Royal, Ottava Rima, Spenserian Stanza. Adopting and Adapting. Poetry Exercise 11
III The Ballad. Poetry Exercise 12
IV Heroic Verse. Poetry Exercise 13
V The Ode: Sapphic, Pindaric, Horatian, The Lyric Ode, Anacreontics.
VI Closed Forms:The Villanelle. Poetry Exercise 14. The Sestina. Poetry Exercise 15. The Pantoum, The Ballade.
VII More Closed Forms: Rondeau, Rondeau Redoublé, Rondel, Roundel, Rondelet, Roundelay, Triolet, Kyrielle. Poetry Exercise 16
VIII Comic Verse: Cento, The Clerihew. The Limerick. Reflections on Comic and Impolite Verse. Light Verse. Parody. Poetry Exercise 17
IX Exotic Forms: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka. Ghazal. Luc Bat. Tanaga. Poetry Exercise 18
X The Sonnet: Petrarchan and Shakespearean. Curtal and caudate sonnets. Sonnet Variations and Romantic Duels. Poetry Exercise 19
XI Shaped Verse. Pattern Poems. Silly, Silly Forms. Acrostics. Poetry Exercise 20
4 Diction and Poetics Today
I The Whale. The Cat and the Act. Madeline. Diction. Being Alert to Language.
II Poetic Vices. Ten Habits of Successful Poets that They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Poetry School, or Chicken Verse for the Soul Is from Mars but You Are What You Read in Just Seven Days or Your Money Back. Getting Noticed. Poetry Today. Goodbye.
INCOMPLETE GLOSSARY OF POETIC TERMS
APPENDIX – Arnaud’s Algorithm
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FURTHER READING
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
For Rory Stuart, a good, superior and great teacher.
Also by Stephen Fry
FICTION
The Liar
The Hippopotamus
Making History
The Stars’ Tennis Balls
NON-FICTION
Paperweight
Moab Is My Washpot
Rescuing the Spectacled Bear
with Hugh Laurie
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
A Bit More Fry and Laurie
Three Bits of Fry and Laurie