Meter and Rhythm
What do you know about these terms?
Discuss!
Syllable – Stressed/Unstressed beats Poetic feet - Poetic meter
Poetry Boot Camp Day 3
Syllables
• English words have clear syllables.
• We can usually divide words into syllables easily.
• We can also determine which syllables to
emphasize, or “stress” in each word.
 For example:
• Angel = AN-gel  (not an-GEL)
/ u
–angel
• Complete = com-PLETE  (not COM-plete)
u /
- complete
More Syllables
• poem = PO-em…….(1 stressed + 1 unstressed)
• poetry = PO-e-try…….(1 stressed + 2 unstressed)
• relief = re-LIEF……. (1 unstressed + 1 stressed)
• recommend = re-com-MEND
(2 unstressed + 1 stressed)
• discomfort = dis-COM-fort… (1 unstressed + 1 stressed + 1 unstressed)
• entertainment = en-ter-TAIN-ment (2 unstressed + 1 stressed + 1
unstressed)
A Helpful Hint…
• Place your hand under your chin while reading
the poem aloud. Your chin will naturally hit your
hand on the stressed beats.
• Darth Vader decided to crush the rebel soldier.
• Luke will rebel against his father's wishes.
• How do these sound differently?
• Darth Vader decided to crush the reBEL soldier.
• Luke will REbel against his father’s wishes.
Another Helpful Procedure
Demon Deacon Basketball
1. Break into the syllables and spell phonetically
dee | mun | deek | ahn | bask | it | bahl
2. Say it aloud or think about the sound a few
times. Capitalize the syllables that seem to be
stressed.
DEE | mun | DEEK | ahn | BASK | it | bahl
not
dee | MUN | deek | AHN | bask | IT | bahl
How do I know what’s stressed and not stressed?
• Say the word out loud as you naturally would, but
listen to which syllables are emphasized.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trial
Taxes
Upset
Retain
Badminton
Government
Pirouette
• Write down your answers, using capital letters for
the syllables that you emphasized.
Is this what you said?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
TRI-al
TAX-es
up-SET
re-TAIN
BAD-min-ton
GOV-ern-ment
pir-ou-ETTE
Write your name and mark the
stressed and unstressed syllables
\ u u
Chris to pher
CHRIS toe fur
/
u
Stu art
STU art
\
u
\
Sa bol cik
SAH
/
u
E
gan
EEE gun
bull
CHICK
Scansion
• (1) the act of scanning, or analyzing poetry
in terms of its rhythmic components
• (2) the graphic representation,
indicated by marked accents, feet, etc.,
of the rhythm of a line or lines of verse
– You may have seen scansion marks like the
following:
The curved lines are
“unstressed” syllables while the
straight slashes are “stressed”
With hot intent the flames will soon expire.
with HOT in-TENT the FLAMES will SOON ex-PIRE
Poetic Foot
• A poetic foot is a repeated sequence
of rhythm comprised of two or more
stressed and/or unstressed syllables.
• Poetic meter is comprised of poetic feet
Poetic Meter
• Meters are the rhythms within poems.
• Meters are the arrangement of
stressed/unstressed syllables to occur
at apparently equal intervals.
• Metered verse has prescribed rules as
to the number and placement of
syllables used per line.
Five main patterns to poetic feet:
1. Iambic
2. Trochaic
Anapestic
4. Dactylic
5. Spondaic
3.
Iambic pattern
• 1 unstressed syllable
1 stressed syllable
followed by
• EXAMPLES:
– repose (re-POSE)
– belief (be-LIEF)
– complete (com-PLETE)
– The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown
Trochaic Pattern
• 1 stressed syllable
unstressed syllable
followed by
• EXAMPLES:
– garland (GAR-land)
– speaking (SPEAK-ing)
– value (VAL-ue)
– Come on, baby, light my fire.
Try to set the night on fire.
1
Anapestic pattern
• 2 unstressed syllables
1 stressed syllable
followed by
• EXAMPLES:
– on the road
– interrupt (in-ter-RUPT)
– unabridged, contradict, engineer,
masquerade, Galilee
– 'Twas the night before Christmas and all
through the house,
Dactylic pattern
• 1 stressed syllable followed
by 2 unstressed syllables
• EXAMPLE:
– happiness (HAP-pi-ness)
– galloping (GAL-lop-ing)
– fortunate, Saturday, daffodil, murmuring,
rhapsody
– This is the forest primeval, the
murmuring pines and the hemlocks
Spondaic Pattern
• All syllables have equal stress
• EXAMPLE:
– Heartbreak
– “Out, out…”
– "pen-knife," "ad hoc," "heartburn"
Rising and Falling Meters
• RISING FEET
• Iambic
u/
• Anapestic
• FALLING FEET
• Trochaic
/u
• Dactyllic
uu/
/uu
Rising to the stressed
beat from the
unstressed.
Falling from the
stressed to the
unstressed.
Some general, non-universal rules
that usually apply, but not always
• Single-syllable
• Single-syllable
nouns are usually
articles,
accented
conjunctions, and
prepositions are
• Multi-syllabic words
usually not
usually have at
accented (“but” or
least one stressed
“yet” can go either
syllable (even
way)
prepositions)
• Prefixes are usually
not accented
The Iambic foot
• The iamb = (1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed syllable) is the
most common poetic foot in English verse.
• iambic foot examples:
– beHOLD
– desTROY
– the SUN (articles such as “the” are usually unstressed syllables)
– and WATCH (conjunctions such as and are usually unstressed
syllables)
Irregularities – PAY ATTENTION TO THEM
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
IAMBIC
PENT
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
IAMBIC
PENT
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
IAMBIC
PENT
IAMBIC
PENT
IAMBIC
TRI
Trochaic poem: a stressed syllable
followed by an unstressed one
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's “The Song of
Hiawatha”
By the / shores of / Gitche / Gumee,
By the / shining / Big-Sea /-Water,
Stood the / wigwam / of No / komis,
Daughter / of the / Moon, No / komis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before' it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
Anapestic poetry:
2 unstressed syllables + 1 stressed one
Limericks contain anapestic meter (in blue)
A Limerick by Edward Lear:
There was / an Old Man / with a beard,
Who said, "It is just / as I feared!
Two Owls / and a Hen,
Four Larks / and a Wren,
Have all / built their nests / in my beard!"
Dactylic poem:
1 stressed + 2 unstressed
Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Half a league, / half a league,
Half a league / on ward,
All in the / valley of / Death
NOTICE
Rode the / six hundred.
THE
SPONDEE.
"Forward, the / Light Brigade!
WHY
DOES IT
Charge for the / guns!" he said:
FIT TO
PUT
Into the / valley of / Death
THERE?
Rode the / six hundred.
Spondaic Poem: 2 equal syllables
• Because of this nature of the spondee,
a poem (usually) cannot be solely
spondaic.
• It would be almost impossible to construct a
poem entirely of stressed syllables.
• Therefore, the spondee usually
occurs within a poem having another
dominant rhythm scheme.
Metrical Feet
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
One Foot
Two Feet
Three Feet
Four Feet
Five Feet
Six Feet
Seven Feet
Eight Feet
= Monometer
= Dimeter
= Trimeter
= Tetrameter
= Pentameter
= Hexameter
= Heptameter
= Octameter
Type + Number = Meter
Number of feet per
line
Types of Poetic
Feet
• Iambic (1 unstressed + 1
stressed)
• Trochaic (1 stressed + 1
unstressed)
• Anapestic
(2 unstressed +
1 stressed)
• Dactylic (1 stressed + 2
unstressed)
• Spondaic (all syllables
equal)
+
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Monometer
Dimeter
Trimeter
Tetrameter
Pentameter
Hexameter
Heptameter
Octometer
When lines don’t quite add up…
• Take close note when patterns are broken
– Are ideas, tones, images shifted, too?
• Catalectic foot – when there is an
incomplete foot on the end of a line.
/ u
/
u / u
/ _?_
Music, when soft voices die,
/ u
/ u
/ u / __?__
Vibrates in the memory—
/
u
/
u
/ u / u
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
/
u / u
/
u
/ u
Live within the senses they quicken.
Other Metrical Terms
 Caesura
–
–
A pause in the meter or rhythm of a line
Flood-tide below me! || I see you face to face!
 Enjambement
–
–
A run-on line, continuing into the next without a
grammatical break
Green rustlings, more-than-regal charities
Drift coolly from that tower of whispered light
The Process
1. Break down each word in the line into its
syllable(s)
2. Mark stressed and unstressed beats. Pay
attention to words like “a,” “the,” “in,” etc. that are
usually unaccented. Also pay attention to words
that are usually accented (single syllable nouns)
3. Spot the pattern of feet. Are there mostly iambs,
trochees, dactyls, or anapests?
4. How many feet per line? (monometer, tetrameter,
pentameter, hexameter, etc.)
5. Where are there pattern breaks? How does the
effect fit with the content?
1.
2.
3.
4.
u
/
u
/
u /
u /
Whose woods these are I think I know
u
/ u / u /
u
/
His house is in the vil lage though
u /
u /
u
/
u
/
He will not see me stop ping here
u
/
u /
u /
u
/
To watch his woods fill up with snow
What meter does this poem have?
1.
2.
3.
4.
u
/
u
/
u /
u /
Whose woods these are I think I know
u
/ u / u /
u
/
His house is in the vil lage though
u /
u /
u
/
u
/
He will not see me stop ping here
u
/
u /
u /
u
/
To watch his woods fill up with snow
IAMBIC TETRAMETER!
Read pages 734-737
Practice Time
Complete a scansion
analysis of the poems on
the half sheet provided.
SOUND DEVICES – the effects
that the sound of a word has
when read aloud
ALLITERATION—is the repetition of the initial
letter or sound in two or more words in a line
of verse. Sneaky snakes slide side straddle.
ONOMATOPOEIA—is the use of a word to
represent or imitate natural sounds (buzz,
crunch, gurgle, sizzle, hiss)
More Sound Devices
ASSONANCE—is the similarity or repetition of a
vowel sound in two or more words. Lake and
stake are rhymes; lake and fate are assonance.
Base and face are rhymes; base and fate are
assonance.
CONSONANCE—is the repetition of consonant
sounds within a line of verse. Consonance is
similar to alliteration except that consonance
doesn’t limit the repeated sound to the initial
letter or a word.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep.
More Sound Devices
REFRAIN—is the repetition of one or more
phrases or lines at intervals in a poem,
usually at the end of a stanza. The refrain
often takes the form of a chorus.
REPETITION—is the reiterating of a word or
phrase within a poem.
End of
Presentation
Metrical Feet
1. Once upon a midnight dreary
2. Leaf again, life again
3. Because I could not stop for Death, he
kindly stopped for me
4. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
5. I am called to the front of the room
Metrical Feet
•
Once upon a midnight dreary
– trochaic tetrameter
•
Leaf again, life again
– dactylic dimeter
•
Because I could not stop for Death, he
kindly stopped for me
– iambic heptameter
Metrical Feet
•
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
– iambic pentameter
•
I am called to the front of the room
– anapestic trimeter