The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

393 Pages·2005·2.22 MB·English

by  Stephen Fry

The Ode Less Travelled
Unlocking the Poet Within
Also by Stephen Fry

FICTION

The Liar
The Hippopotamus
Making History
The Stars’ Tennis Balls

NON-FICTION

Paperweight
Moab Is My Washpot
Rescuing the Spectacled Bear

with Hugh Laurie

A Bit of Fry and Laurie
A Bit More Fry and Laurie
Three Bits of Fry and Laurie
Stephen Fry
The Ode Less Travelled

Unlocking the Poet Within

HUTCHINSON
LONDON
Published by Hutchinson in 2005
Copyright © Stephen Fry 2005
Stephen Fry has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the
publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being
imposed on the subsequent purchaser
First published in 2005 in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson
HUTCHINSON
The Random House Group Limited 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SWIV 2SA
Random House Australia (Pty) Limited 20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney
New South Wales 2061, Australia
Random House New Zealand Limited 18 Poland Road, Glenfield Auckland 10,
New Zealand
Random House South Africa (Pty) Limited Isle of Houghton, Corner Boundary
Road & Carse O’Gowrie, Houghton, 2198, South Africa
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
www.randomhouse.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 1-4295-2143-0
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD

For Rory Stuart, a good, superior and great teacher.
Table of Contents

Foreword

How to Read this Book. Three Golden Rules

1 Metre

I How We Speak. Meet Metre. The Great Iamb. The Iambic
Pentameter. Poetry Exercises 1 & 2

II End-stopping, Enjambment and Caesura. Poetry Exercise 3. Weak
Endings, Trochaic and Pyrhhic Substitutions. Substitutions. Poetry
Exercise 4

III More Metres: Four Beats to the Line. Mixed Feet. Poetry Exercise
5

IV Ternary Feet: The Dactyl, The Molossus and Tribrach, The
Amphibrach, The Amphimacer, Quaternary Feet. Poetry Exercise 6

V Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. Poetry Exercise 7. Sprung Rhythm.

VI Syllabic Verse. Poetry Exercises 8 & 9: Coleridge’s ‘Lesson for a
Boy’.

T M F
ABLE OF ETRIC EET

2 Rhyme

I The Basic Categories of Rhyme. Partial Rhymes. Feminine and
Triple Rhymes. Rich Rhyme.

II Rhyming Arrangements.

III Good and Bad Rhyme? A Thought Experiment. Rhyming Practice
and Rhyming Dictionaries. Poetry Exercise 10

R C
HYME ATEGORIES

3 Form

I The Stanza. What is Form and Why Bother with It?

II Stanzaic Variations. Open Forms: Terza Rima, The Quatrain, The
Rubai, Rhyme Royal, Ottava Rima, Spenserian Stanza. Adopting and
Adapting. Poetry Exercise 11

III The Ballad. Poetry Exercise 12

IV Heroic Verse. Poetry Exercise 13

V The Ode: Sapphic, Pindaric, Horatian, The Lyric Ode,
Anacreontics.

VI Closed Forms: The Villanelle. Poetry Exercise 14. The Sestina.
Poetry Exercise 15. The Pantoum, The Ballade.

VII More Closed Forms: Rondeau, Rondeau Redoublé, Rondel,
Roundel, Rondelet, Roundelay, Triolet, Kyrielle. Poetry Exercise 16

VIII Comic Verse: Cento, The Clerihew. The Limerick. Reflections
on Comic and Impolite Verse. Light Verse. Parody. Poetry Exercise
17

IX Exotic Forms: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka. Ghazal. Luc Bat. Tanaga.
Poetry Exercise 18