Fourteener (poetry)
A Fourteener, in
poetry , is a line consisting of 14 syllables, usually having 7iamb ic feet, often used in16th century English verse. Sometimes it also used to mean a poem of 14 lines, frequently asonnet .The seventh song of
Philip Sidney 's "Astrophel and Stella " is written in rhyming fourteener couplets::Who have so leaden eyes, as not to see sweet beauty's show,:Or seeing, have so wooden wits, as not that worth to know?Sidney's friend, the translator
Arthur Golding , was extremely fond of fourteeners::Now have I brought a work to end which neither Jove's fierce wrath,:Nor sword, nor fire, nor fretting age with all the force it hath:Are able to abolish quite. Let come that fatal hour:Which (saving of this brittle flesh) hath over me no power,:And at his pleasure make an end of mine uncertain time.:Yet shall the better part of me assured be to climb:Aloft above the starry sky. And all the world shall never:Be able for to quench my name. For look how far so ever:The Roman empire by the right of conquest shall extend,:So far shall all folk read this work. And time without all end:(If poets as by prophecy about the truth may aim):My life shall everlastingly be lengthened still by fame. (Ovid , "Metamorphoses " 15.984-95, tr. Golding)Poulter's measure is a meter consisting of alternate
Alexandrine s and Fourteeners, i.e. 12 and 14 syllable lines. It was often used in theElizabethan era . The term was coined byGeorge Gascoigne , because poulters, or poulterers (sellers ofpoultry ), would sometimes give 12 to the dozen, and other times 14 (see alsoBaker's dozen ).C. S. Lewis , in his "English Literature in the Sixteenth Century", castigates the 'lumbering' poulter's measure (p.109). He attributes the introduction of this 'terrible' meter toThomas Wyatt (p. 224). In a more extended analysis (pp.231-2), he comments:"The medial break in the alexandrine, though it may do well enough in French, becomes intolerable in a language with such a tyrannous
stress-accent as ours: the line struts. The fourteener has a much pleasanter movement, but a totally different one: the line dances a jig."William Blake used lines of fourteen syllables, for example in "The Book of Thel ".The iambic heptameter is closely related to the
common meter , which breaks the seven-foot line into alternating lines of 4 and 3 feet.ee also
*
Heptameter
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
Heptameter — is one or more lines of verse containing seven metrical feet (usually fourteen or twenty one syllables).An example from Lord Byron s Youth and Age :: Tis but as ivy leaves around the ruin d turret wreathe,:All green and wildly fresh without, but… … Wikipedia
Political verse — (Greek: Politikos stichos, Πολιτικός στίχος), also known as Decapentasyllabic verse (from Greek dekapentasyllabos, δεκαπεντασύλλαβος, lit. 15 syllable ) is a metric form in Modern Greek poetry. It is an iambic verse of fifteen syllables and has… … Wikipedia
Common metre — or Common measure,[1] abbreviated C. M., is a poetic meter consisting of four lines which alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line, with each foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) and… … Wikipedia
List of literary terms — The following is a list of literary terms; that is, those words used in discussion, classification, criticism, and analysis of literature.: See also: Glossary of poetry terms, Literary criticism, Literary theory CompactTOC8 name=Contents… … Wikipedia
Mulga Bill's Bicycle — Three men and a boy on a bicycle ca. 1896 ca. 1904 in Victoria, Australia Mulga Bill s Bicycle is a poem written in 1896 by Banjo Paterson. The poem is a ballad.[1] Each line is a fourteener, having fourteen syllables and sev … Wikipedia
Iamb — An iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in i amb). This… … Wikipedia
Sonnet — The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe. The term sonnet derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto , both meaning little song. By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a… … Wikipedia
Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes — Contents 1 Publication 2 Genre 3 Verse 4 Authorship … Wikipedia
