Martin Luther King Quote
Poetry Newsletter 1-5-06
Welcome to the Poetry Newsletter, a place for poets and poetry lovers to read, learn, and be inspired.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. "
Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
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Daily Poetry
She Walks in Beauty Like the Night
By Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
This poem by Lord Byron is full of rhythm and elegance. There is a symmetry to this poem that comes somewhat from its form. The rhyme scheme here is basic, but what I mean by form is the structure of the stanzas.
There are three stanzas and each one has six lines. This is called a sexain, a stanza with six lines. It is usually found in classic poetry, such as this one by Byron or “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by Wordsworth. It is also used in sestinas, which require the poet to repeat the end words of each line in a pattern.
The attraction that poets have to equal line numbers in each stanza seems to have to do with the symmetry this creates. It also sets up a natural comparison between the message of one stanza with that of another.
To give the reader the feeling of progressing in an orderly fashion to a conclusion at the end of your piece, try giving your stanza an equal number of lines.
**Refer a friend to Poetry Newsletter**
Poetry Lesson
Sexain is a stanza of six lines, as used in some fixed forms, including the sestina.
Example: This stanza from Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is a sexain:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.