Literary terms - Accent

Literary terms Accent,Rhetorical accent,wrenched accent

Literary terms - Accent

Accent (From Ntc Dictionary)

In POETRY, the vocal force or emphasis is placed on a syllable or a word. In all sustained spoken English we sense a rhythm; that is, a recognizable although varying pattern in the beat of the stresses, or accents (the more forcefully uttered, hence louder syllables) in the stream of speech sounds. In meter, this rhythm is structured into a recurrence of regular—that is, approximately equivalent—units of stress pattern. Compositions written in the meter are also known as verse.

See also: STRESS

Accent: (From concise Oxford dictionary of Literary terms)

The emphasis is placed upon a syllable in pronunciation. The term is often used as a synonym for *STRESS, although some theorists prefer to use 'stress' only for metrical accent. Three kinds of accent may be distinguished, according to the factor that accounts for each:  etymological accent (or 'word accent') is the emphasis normally given to a syllable according to the word's derivation or *MORPHOLOGY;

Rhetorical accent (or 'sense accent') is allocated according to the relative  importance of the word in the context of a sentence or question; metrical  accent (or stress) follows a recurrent pattern of stresses in a verse line (see metre). Where metrical accent overrides etymological or rhetorical accent, as it often does in *BALLADS and songs (Example: Coleridge: 'in a far coun tree'), the effect is known as a wrenched accent.

See also:

Ictus,

Recessive accent. 

 

Accent: (From Penguin Dictionary)

The emphasis or stress (q.v.) placed on a syllable, especially in a line of verse. lt is a matter of vocal emphasis. Where the accent comes will depend on how the reader wishes to render the sense. In  the following lines, the metrical stress is fairly clear, but the accents  can be varied:  

All human things are subject to decay,  

And, when Fate summons,

Monarchs must obey.  

(Mac Flecknoe – John Dryden)

The variables are 'all', 'human', 'and', 'when', 'Fate', 'Monarchs', 'must', and 'obey'. At least half a dozen emphases are possible. Obviously, where the metrical scheme is very strict, then accent variation is limited. In blank verse (q.v.), however, many subtleties of accent are possible.

See Also:

LEVEL STRESS;

HOVERING ACCENT;  

QUANTITY. 

ICTUS;

LOGICAL STRESS;

BEAT;