Dunc
03-12-2002, 01:45 PM
This is a musing on the weight of syllables when it comes to writing poetry in English. As it happens, I was struck by the sheer music of Lamartine's Le Lac -
Ainsi, toujours poussés vers de nouveaux rivages,
Dans la nuit éternelle emportés sans retour,
Ne pourrons-nous jamais sur l'océan des âges
Jeter l'ancre un seul jour?
These are Alexandrines, of course, twelve syllables with a caesura in the middle and three stresses in each half, but that doesn't account for the music.
Note first the agreement of the vowels, esp the dominance of the long u and nasalized a. Then (if you excuse the liquid r sound), seul jour is the only example of two consonants next to each other, and l'océan is the only example of two vowels together. The rest is all a sequence of one vowel, one consonant &c. That's where the music is. (A lot more can be said of the poem, of course.)
Now, the sequence of vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant is much easier to create in French (and, though they don't have the advantage of French's nasalized vowel for n and m, other Latin-based languages like Italian and Spanish). Indeed, in English the effect is often easiest to create with words of Latin origin - eg imitation, immutability (or Greek - category, isotopic).
Nonetheless, in English an effect of lightness and smoothness can be achieved in the same way, though the nature of the language is such that it's hard to avoid putting at least two consonants in a row - in fact, if you use the word consonants then either you skip the second n by nasalizing the a, or you have three in a row.
We can, however roughly, list the consonants in order of their 'weight' on the ear - the degree to which they (often) slow things down if pronounced in full. (We're concerned with their sound when next to other consonants, of course.)
1. The plosives - p / b, t / d, k / g, ch / j - are heaviest, and the voiced ones (b d g j) are heavier than the unvoiced ones (p t k ch).
2. The fricatives - f / v, sh / zh, th / ð - are next. Again, the voiced ones are heavier.
3. s / z are also fricatives, but usually one shade lighter - sting, aspire, wisdom.
4. The liquids, l and r, are light and often (though not always) fit in easily - grew, flow, brow, slay - and for many speakers l is replaced by the semivowel w in words like milk (often pron miwk).
5. The nasals n, m and ng are also light, and can for some speakers sometimes disappear by nasalizing the preceding vowel rather than being separately sounded - ikem tax (income tax) &c.
6. h is light. So are the semi-vowels w and y.
A pile-up of consonants really slows things up - unsporting drunks' strength chopped dragsters down &c.
Then we have light and heavy vowels -
1. The triphthongs are longest and thus heaviest - layer fire coir power lower.
2. Next are the diphthongs - gay go guy cow goy ear air awe tour.
3. In the middle are the long vowels - beat, baht, bought, boot, burt.
4. Lightest are the short vowels - bit, bet, bat, but, pot, put and the neutral e (eg the second e in telegraph).
And (in English arching over all) we have the lightness or heaviness of stress - the place where your metre requires you to speed on or slow down.
Lightness in action -
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
[Bill]
Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table.
[Eliot]
But I guess that what'll happen if you settle on an atoll
is you'll get in rotten fettle living totally on nettle
turtle cuttlefish and beetle, vittles fatal to the natal
elan vital
[Apologies to the author - I forget where I got that.]
Heaviness in action -
Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy.
[Donne]
Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
[Tennyson]
What, they lived once thus in Venice where the merchants were the kings?
[Browning]
Maybe there's something in there to think about when the poetic pen is poised.
Regards / Dunc
[This message has been edited by Dunc McReil (edited 03-13-2002).]
Ainsi, toujours poussés vers de nouveaux rivages,
Dans la nuit éternelle emportés sans retour,
Ne pourrons-nous jamais sur l'océan des âges
Jeter l'ancre un seul jour?
These are Alexandrines, of course, twelve syllables with a caesura in the middle and three stresses in each half, but that doesn't account for the music.
Note first the agreement of the vowels, esp the dominance of the long u and nasalized a. Then (if you excuse the liquid r sound), seul jour is the only example of two consonants next to each other, and l'océan is the only example of two vowels together. The rest is all a sequence of one vowel, one consonant &c. That's where the music is. (A lot more can be said of the poem, of course.)
Now, the sequence of vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant is much easier to create in French (and, though they don't have the advantage of French's nasalized vowel for n and m, other Latin-based languages like Italian and Spanish). Indeed, in English the effect is often easiest to create with words of Latin origin - eg imitation, immutability (or Greek - category, isotopic).
Nonetheless, in English an effect of lightness and smoothness can be achieved in the same way, though the nature of the language is such that it's hard to avoid putting at least two consonants in a row - in fact, if you use the word consonants then either you skip the second n by nasalizing the a, or you have three in a row.
We can, however roughly, list the consonants in order of their 'weight' on the ear - the degree to which they (often) slow things down if pronounced in full. (We're concerned with their sound when next to other consonants, of course.)
1. The plosives - p / b, t / d, k / g, ch / j - are heaviest, and the voiced ones (b d g j) are heavier than the unvoiced ones (p t k ch).
2. The fricatives - f / v, sh / zh, th / ð - are next. Again, the voiced ones are heavier.
3. s / z are also fricatives, but usually one shade lighter - sting, aspire, wisdom.
4. The liquids, l and r, are light and often (though not always) fit in easily - grew, flow, brow, slay - and for many speakers l is replaced by the semivowel w in words like milk (often pron miwk).
5. The nasals n, m and ng are also light, and can for some speakers sometimes disappear by nasalizing the preceding vowel rather than being separately sounded - ikem tax (income tax) &c.
6. h is light. So are the semi-vowels w and y.
A pile-up of consonants really slows things up - unsporting drunks' strength chopped dragsters down &c.
Then we have light and heavy vowels -
1. The triphthongs are longest and thus heaviest - layer fire coir power lower.
2. Next are the diphthongs - gay go guy cow goy ear air awe tour.
3. In the middle are the long vowels - beat, baht, bought, boot, burt.
4. Lightest are the short vowels - bit, bet, bat, but, pot, put and the neutral e (eg the second e in telegraph).
And (in English arching over all) we have the lightness or heaviness of stress - the place where your metre requires you to speed on or slow down.
Lightness in action -
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
[Bill]
Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table.
[Eliot]
But I guess that what'll happen if you settle on an atoll
is you'll get in rotten fettle living totally on nettle
turtle cuttlefish and beetle, vittles fatal to the natal
elan vital
[Apologies to the author - I forget where I got that.]
Heaviness in action -
Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy.
[Donne]
Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
[Tennyson]
What, they lived once thus in Venice where the merchants were the kings?
[Browning]
Maybe there's something in there to think about when the poetic pen is poised.
Regards / Dunc
[This message has been edited by Dunc McReil (edited 03-13-2002).]