Chapter 26
Section 26 of 1001 Questions and Answers on English Grammar. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. 1001 Questions and Answers on English Grammar by Benjamin Hathaway.
Prosody Question 1. What is prosody? It is that part of grammar which treats of the quantity of syllables, accent, and versification. Question 2.
What is accent? It is a particular stress of voice laid upon a certain syllable in a word as la-dee-gram-mer-ian. 3. What is emphasis? It is a stress of voice laid upon particular words or word in a sentence to mark its importance
as you did say so. 4. What is quantity? The quantity of a syllable is the time required to pronounce it, and poetry every syllable is considered to be either long or short.
The former is equal to two of the latter. 5. What is poetry? It is a discourse written in measured language. 6.
How many kinds of poetry are there? Poetry is of two kinds, rhyme and length verse. 7. What is rhyme? It is a similarity of sound in the last syllables of two or more lines.
8. What is blank verse? It is a verse without rhyme. 9. What is meant by a line in poetry?
A greater or lesser number of poetic feet, certain combinations of syllables. 10. What is a poetic foot? A portion of a line consisting of two or three syllables. 11.
What is a defined verse? It is a poetical composition consisting of a certain number of long and short syllables disposed according to rules of measure. 12. Define a stanza.
A stanza is a regular division of a poem and may consist of a combination of several lines or even of verses. The terms verse and stanza are often interchanged. 13. What is a couplet or distich?
Two poetical lines in rhyme. 14. What is a triplet? Three poetical lines that rhyme together. 15.
What is scanning or scansion? It is dividing a verse into the feet of which it is composed. 16. Name the principal English feet. The iambus, the trochee, the spondae, each having two syllables.
The dactyl, the anapest, and the amphibron, each having three syllables. 17. What is an iambus? A foot that has the first syllable unaccented and the second accented as I want to go to school and learn.
18. What is a trochee? A foot that has the first syllable accented and the second not as bear in mind that I am feeble. 19.
What is a spondae? It is a foot with both syllables accented as rocks, caves, lakes, bogs, farewell. 20. What is a dactyl? A foot that has the first syllable accented and the last two unaccented as sunbeams are
sparkling or hill and dale. 21. What is an anapest? A foot that has the last syllable accented and the first two not as if you ever were sad you may know how I feel.
22. What is an amphibron? A foot that has the first and third syllables unaccented and the middle one accented as a handsomer lady I never did look at. 23.
How are different kinds of verse named? They are named from the foot that predominates in them as the iamic, the trochaic, etc. 24. Give an example of hexameter. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints Adorthy.
25. Is not poetry sometimes composed of different feet in the same line? Yes, it is frequently composed of different measures and of different feet as my sorrows I then might assuage. 26.
What is a catalectic verse or foot? A catalectic foot is one in which a syllable is wanting. It occurs at the end of a line. 27. What is an accatalectic verse or foot?
One that has the full number of syllables. 28. What is an acephalous verse or foot? A verse or foot in which a syllable is wanting at the beginning. 29.
What is a hyper-catalectic line? One that has a redundant syllable at the end. 30. What is a final pause? A pause at the end of a line.
This should always be observed in reading poetry, even when not required by grammatical construction. 31. What is a caesural pause? A pause in the verse, generally in the middle of a line.
End of section 26. End of 1001 Questions and Answers on English Grammar by Benjamin Hathaway.
