The effect of the poem's language derives in part from Byron's choice of an appropriate pattern of rhyme (or rhyme scheme): these adjacent, rhyming lines are called couplets. In this case, the rhymes come right next to each other, which emphasizes them, and therefore emphasizes the sound, the physical nature, of the language. (This process of analyzing a poem's rhythms is called scansion.) The poem also rhymes (not all poems do), and the rhymes follow a pattern (they do not have to). This poem has a pleasurable and appropriate rhythm, and that rhythm has a name: this poem is written in anapestic tetrameter. A line with four feet is said to be in tetrameter ( tetra-, from the Greek for four). Those basic patterns are called feet, and this particular pattern (weak weak STRONG) is called an anapest. In "The Destruction of Sennacherib", each line has the basic pattern of two unstressed syllables followed by a third stressed syllable, with this basic pattern being repeated four times in a line. A poem having a regular rhythm (not all poems do) is said to follow a certain meter. The lines are not simply rhythmic: the rhythm is regular within a line, and is the same for each line. Rather, it is simply pleasurable to read, say, and hear.Ĭritical terminology becomes useful when one attempts to account for why the language is pleasurable, and how Byron achieved this effect. The poem does not have a deep, hidden, symbolic meaning. In other words, the physicality of the language-how it sounds and feels-accounts for a large measure of the poem's effect. The lines have a powerful, rolling, and very evident rhythm, and they rhyme in a way that is impossible to ignore. The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.īyron's use of meter and rhyme is especially evident and rewarding when one reads the lines out loud. Consider, for example, the first stanza of Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib": One can derive pleasure from two of the most fundamental tools in the poet's toolbox- meter and rhyme-without necessarily knowing a lot of terminology. Overview "The Destruction of Sennacherib", by Lord Byron A reader might use the tools and techniques of poetry analysis in order to discern all that the work has to offer, and thereby gain a fuller, more rewarding appreciation of the poem. A writer learning the craft of poetry might use the tools of poetry analysis to expand and strengthen his or her own mastery.
A teacher might analyze a poem in order to gain a more conscious understanding of how the poem achieves its effects, in order to communicate this to his or her students. There are many different reasons to analyze poetry. A reader analyzing a poem is akin to a mechanic taking apart a machine in order to figure out how it works. The work done by this "machine made of words" is the effect it produces in the reader's mind. Machines are designed to produce some effect. One might think of a poem as, in the words of William Carlos Williams, a "machine made of words ".
The words poem and poetry derive from the Greek poiēma (to make) and poieo (to create). Poetry analysis is the process of investigating a poem's form, content, structural semiotics and history in an informed way, with the aim of heightening one's own and others' understanding and appreciation of the work. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) ( January 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.
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