Hudibrastic is a type of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse (poetry), a line or lines in a poetic composition * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict meter or rhyme, but still re ...

named for Samuel Butler's ''

Hudibras ''Hudibras'' () is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediate ...

'', published in parts from 1663 to 1678.Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2004, For the poem, Butler invented a

mock-heroic Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic ...

verse structure.

Description

Instead of

pentameter Pentameter (, 'measuring five ( feet)') is a term describing the meter of a poem. A poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five metrical feet. A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, ...

, the lines were written in

iambic tetrameter Iambic tetrameter is a meter (poetry), poetic meter in Ancient Greek poetry, ancient Greek and Latin poetry; as the name of ''a rhythm'', iambic tetrameter consists of four metra, each metron being of the form , x – u – , , consisting of a spo ...

. The

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

is the same as in

heroic verse Heroic verse is a term that may be used to designate epic poems, but which is more usually used to describe the meter(s) in which those poems are most typically written (regardless of whether the content is " heroic" or not). Because the meter typ ...

(AA BB CC DD), but Butler used frequent

feminine rhyme A masculine ending and feminine ending or weak ending are terms used in prosody (poetry), prosody, the study of verse form. In general, "masculine ending" refers to a line ending in a accent (poetry), stressed syllable; "feminine ending" is its ...

for humor.Baldick, Christopher (1996).
Hudibrastic verse
in ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms''. Oxford Reference Online (subscription required), Oxford University Press. Retrieved on February 27, 2007.

Example

The first fourteen lines of ''Hudibras'' illustrate the verse form: :When civil dudgeon first grew high, :And men fell out they knew not why; :When hard words, jealousies, and fears, :Set folks together by the ears, :And made them fight, like mad or drunk, :For Dame Religion, as for punk; :Whose honesty they all durst swear for, :Though not a man of them knew wherefore: :When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded :With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded, :And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, :Was beat with fist, instead of a stick; :Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, :And out he rode a colonelling.

Further description

The rhyme of "swear for" with "wherefore" and "ecclesiastic" with "(in)stead of a stick" are surprising, unnatural, and humorous. Additionally, the rhyme of "-don dwelling" with "a colonelling" is strained to the point of breaking, again for humorous effect. Further, the rhyme scheme in a Hudibrastic will imply inappropriate comparisons. For example, the rhyme of "drunk" and "punk" (meaning "a prostitute") implies that the religious ecstasies of the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

s were the same as that of sexual intercourse and inebriation. The hudibrastic has been traditionally used for

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

, for example, wrote nearly all of his poetry in hudibrastics.

Other usage

In 18th-century usage, "hudibrastic" could also be used grandiloquently to indicate any general satire, as in its use for ''

The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror ''The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror'' was a British fortnightly magazine of humour, humorous and satire, satirical prints, first issued in 1806 by London publisher Thomas Tegg, and edited by George Moutard Woodward, George Woodward, ...

'' published by

Thomas Tegg Thomas Tegg (1776–1845) was a British bookseller and publisher. One of his best-known publications is the '' London Encyclopaedia'' of 1829 and 1839. Early life Tegg was the son of a grocer, born at Wimbledon, Surrey, on 4 March 1776, and was ...

between 1807 and 1819.

Notes

{{reflist Poetic forms 17th-century poetry English poetry