Rhythm in Poetry
Meter
Free Verse
Rhyme
Alliteration and Onomatopoeia
Practice
The Sounds of Poetry
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Like music, poetry is based on rhythm—the alternation of stressed and unstressed sounds that makes the voice rise and fall.
Rhythm in Poetry
Poetic rhythm can take the form of
• metera strict rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line
• free versea loose kind of rhythm that sounds like natural speech
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Rhythm in Poetry
In metrical poetry, stressed and unstressed syllables are arranged in a regular pattern.
The mountain mists, condensing at our voice
Under the moon, had spread their snowy flakes,
From the keen ice shielding our linkèd sleep.
from “Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Listen to this excerpt. Which syllables are stressed in each line?
Meter
˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
˘ ˘ ’ ’ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
’ = stressed syllable ˘ = unstressed syllable
Marking the stressed (′) and unstressed (˘) syllables of each line is called scanning a poem.
Meter
Varying the meter
The mountain mists, condensing at our voice
Under the moon, had spread their snowy flakes,
From the keen ice shielding our linkèd sleep.
from “Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
˘ ˘ ’ ’ ’ ˘ ˘ ’ ˘ ’
Metrical poetry is made up of metrical units called feet. A foot consists of at least one stressed syllable and usually one or more unstressed syllables.
Five Metrical Feet Single-Word Examples
iamb insist
trochee double
anapest understand
dactyl excellent
spondee football
˘ ’
’ ˘
˘ ˘ ’
’ ’
’ ˘ ˘
Meter
Identify the dominant metrical foot in these lines: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, or spondee.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,from “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I am monarch of all I survey; from “The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk” by W. Cowper
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,from “Sonnet 55” by William Shakespeare
Meter
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Quick Check
Because it is “free” of metric rules, free verse sounds more like prose or everyday speech than formal poetry.
Free verse is poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.
Never, in all your career of worrying, did you imaginewhat worries could occur concerning the flying cat.You are traveling to a distant city.The cat must travel in a small box with holes.
—from “The Flying Cat” by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Imagists [End of Section]
Free Verse
Rhyme is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all subsequent sounds in a word.
A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.
from “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” by William Wordsworth
Rhyme
Listen to this excerpt. What words rhyme?
The chiming sounds of rhyme
• punctuate the poem’s rhythm
• give the poem structure
• make the poem easier to remember
Rhyme
End rhyme is rhyme that occurs at the ends of lines.
Internal rhyme is rhyme within a line.
This knowledge, from an Angel's voiceProceeding, made the heart rejoice
—from “The Pilgrim’s Dream” by William Wordsworth
The sails at noon left off their tune,
—from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rhyme
• In an exact rhyme, the words rhyme perfectly.
heart—startflicker—thickerordering—bordering
• In an approximate rhyme, the sounds are similar but not exactly the same.
light—latewhisper—winterbays—waves
Rhymes may be exact or approximate.
Rhyme
Identify the exact and approximate end rhymes in these stanzas.
Rhyme
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Quick CheckAll suddenly the wind comes soft,And Spring is here again;And the hawthorn quickens with buds of
green, And my heart with buds of pain.
My heart all Winter lay so numbThe earth so dead and froreThat I never thought the Spring would
comeOr my heart wake any more.
—from “Song” by Rupert Brooke
Listen to this excerpt. What consonant sound is repeated?
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in words that appear close together.
More about alliteration
A long, long yellow on the lawn,A hubbub as of feet; Not audible, as ours to us, But dapperer, more sweet;
from “A long, long yellow on the lawn” by Emily Dickinson
Alliteration and Onomatopoeia
Listen to this excerpt. What word is an example of onomatopoeia?
Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like what they mean.
Here the water went down, the icebergs slid with gravel, the gaps and the valleys hissed
from “Prairie” by Carl Sandburg
Alliteration and Onomatopoeia
Alliteration and Onomatopoeia
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I shall come near your window, where you look out when your eyes open in the morning,
And there I shall slam together bird-houses and bird-baths for wing-loose wrens and hummers to live in, birds with yellow wing tips to blur and buzz soft all summer,
from “Broken-face Gargoyles” by Carl Sandburg
In this excerpt, find at least two examples of alliteration and onomatopoeia.
Quick Check
As in ancient days, when poetry was not written but only spoken or sung, poetry today is addressed to the ear. You can’t really say that you know a poem until you’ve heard it read aloud.
• Choose one of the poems you’ve read in this chapter (or any favorite poem), and read it aloud to yourself and then to a partner or a small group.
• Then, write a paragraph or two discussing the poem’s rhythm, rhyme, or other sound effects.
Practice
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