[tei-council] Guidelines Ch. 6

[Martin Holmes]

I think I'm with you on this. Rhyme schemes are variable in sestets 
(according to Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestet>), so it 
makes no sense to characterize a rhyme scheme using "sestet".

Cheers,
Martin

On 13-01-07 06:15 AM, Rebecca Welzenbach wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've been reading Chapter 6, which overall seems to be in really good
> shape--extremely thorough examples and very clearly written. One bit
> that gives me pause is below.
>
> In 6.1 there is an example:
>
> <lg type="stanza">
>   <lg type="sestet">
>    <l>In the first year of Freedom's second dawn</l>
>    <l>Died George the Third; although no tyrant, one</l>
>    <l>Who shielded tyrants, till each sense withdrawn</l>
>    <l>Left him nor mental nor external sun:</l>
>    <l>A better farmer ne'er brushed dew from lawn,</l>
>    <l>A worse king never left a realm undone!</l>
>   </lg>
>   <lg type="couplet">
>    <l>He died — but left his subjects still behind,</l>
>    <l>One half as mad — and t'other no less blind.</l>
>   </lg>
> </lg>
>
> Followed by some commentary:
> "Note the use of the type attribute to name the type of unit encoded
> by the lg element; this attribute is common to all members of the
> att.divLikeclass (see section 4.1.1 Un-numbered Divisions). ‘Sestet’
> and ‘couplet’ might conceivably also be used as the values of the
> rhyme attribute in an analysis of rhyme scheme, for which see below,
> section 6.3 Rhyme and Metrical Analysis. The type attribute is
> intended solely for conventional names of different classes of text
> block; the met attribute is intended for systematic metrical
> analysis."
>
> I'm not convinced that 'sestet' and 'couplet' are on their own viable
> values for @rhyme. These terms simply define how many lines are in a
> group. While there are conventions/implications about what this means
> for rhyme in certain kinds of poetry, they do not explicitly document
> a rhyme scheme, which is the purpose of @rhyme. If others agree, I
> propose the following revision:
>
> "Note the use of the type attribute to name the type of unit encoded
> by the lg element; this attribute is common to all members of the
> att.divLikeclass (see section 4.1.1 Un-numbered Divisions). When used
> on <lg>, the type attribute is intended solely for conventional names
> of different classes of text block. For systematic analysis of
> metrical and rhyme schemes, use the met and rhyme attributes, for
> which see below, section 6.3 Rhyme and Metrical Analysis."
>
> Or maybe I'm wrong: would 'sestet' and 'couplet' become meaningful
> values for @rhyme if (and perhaps only if) a specific rhyme scheme
> corresponding to each were defined in <metDecl>? In this case, my
> proposed revision to the text is still correct, but the original could
> stay as it is.
>
> Becky
>

-- 
Martin Holmes
University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre
(mholmes at uvic.ca)