Ch. 11 Lyrics

Exposition sets forth the necessary information concerning character, plot, and what happened before the play began. Narration follows and relates the sequence of events that answer the question “What happened?” Persuasion is a tool used by one character to get what they want from another, and description is used throughout in order to create the verbal picture of how things appear.

song lyrics must conform to the musical melody; song lyrics are bound by the tempo and duration of the music – in other words, time controls the singer and the listener.

in its original sense means "the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively" (bardweb.net).

• Includes:
• ladder/ lyric ascension
• irony
• aliteration
• antithesis
• assonance
• metaphor
• onomatopoeia
• parenthesis
• simile

Rhetorical device in which the action is sequentially built up, often through the use of verbs or adjectives.

A ladder goes up, building the dramatic action; a list goes down, and energy goes with it (avoid lists).

• the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply,
• Ex "How nice!" when I said I had to work all weekend

• repetition of the same initial consonant sound throughout a line of verse
• "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought...." (Sonnet XXX)

juxtaposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction

• "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
• Rome more." (Julius Caesar, III, ii)

repetition or similarity of the same internal vowel sound in words of close proximity "Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks." (Romeo and Juliet, V, iii)

• implied comparison between two unlike things achieved through the figurative use of words
• "Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York." (Richard III, I, i)

use of words to imitate natural sounds

• "There be more wasps that buzz about his
• nose." (Henry VIII, III, ii)

insertion of some word or clause in a position that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence (asides are rather emphatic examples of this)

• an explicit comparison between two things using "like" or "as"
• "My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease" (Sonnet CXLVII)

the pattern of stress in the syllables of each line

• poetic/lyric line defined by a fixed metrical pattern and
• number of syllables; may be rhymed or un-rhymed.
• Rhymed verse, whether in song or Shakespeare, almost always indicates heightened emotion or drama. Again, the adage “it’s so important we have to sing” comes into play, as when we break into song into a musical we also often break into rhyme as well.

writing that is not confined by meter, has everyday, vernacular quality to it; not rhymed