WEEK 4 – INTRO. TO LIT. LECTURE NOTES
ELEMENTS OF POETRY CONT’D – RHYME, RHYTHM & METRE
RHYME & RHYME SCHEMES:
Rhyme is the repetition of identical vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of two or more words, as well as
of all subsequent sounds after this vowel sound.
The purpose of rhyme in a poem can be to establish or intensify the rhythm; and/or to establish the unities
and divisions within a poem. A poet’s rhyme scheme (pattern of rhymes) may distinguish the stanzas from
each other, as well as unify the poem as a whole through its recurrent regularity. The two or more words
that rhyme become linked and the lines in which they appear become a separate unit. In the heroic couplet,
for instance, the rhyme sets the verse into two-line pieces and makes each pair suggest or become a
distinct and complete statement:
Some have for wits, then poets passed,
a
Turned critics next, and then proved plain fools at last.
a
Some neither for wits nor critics pass,
b
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass. b (Alexander Pope, 1711)
History of rhyme:
Research seems to suggest that rhyme as we know it originated in the Catholic
Church in Africa during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tertullian (160-230 A.D.) Later, European priests
began introducing rhymes into services to help make long passages of liturgy easier to remember and listen
to. By the 4th century A.D. important liturgies had evolved into rhymed poems. During the Middle Ages
(around 5th Century A.D. to 15th century), hymns were composed that combined alliteration and end-rhyme.
Unrhymed verse written in English dates as far back as the 16th century. At this time blank verse first
appeared when the Earl of Surrey used it for his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (1540). Over the years, blank
verse has become the most common English verse form, especially for extended poems, as it is considered
the closest form to natural patterns of English speech. Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and
especially John Milton (Paradise Lost 1667) made ample use of this type of verse and are generally
credited with establishing blank verse as the preferred English verse form. The modern trend has been
toward dispensing with rhyme, or minimizing its use. While the use of the imperfect rhyme has increased,
nonrhyming forms have become even more popular; free verse and other unrhymed verse have become
the dominant means of poetic expression.
Types of rhymes:
Perfect rhyme (true/full rhyme) – an exact match of sounds in a rhyme; only the
sounds before the first stressed vowel in the rhyming words may differ. Eg.
bard/lard/marred/guard.
Imperfect rhyme (slant/oblique/off/half rhyme) – the sounds are similar but not
exactly the same; consonant and vowel sounds are similar but not “perfectly” the
same. Eg. port/heart, bard/ beard/ board. Many modern poets deliberately use
imperfect or “partial” rhymes in which the reader experiences the pleasure of the
expected but varied sound, which is also often used to contribute to or enhance the
meaning of the imperfectly rhymed words.
Masculine rhyme – consists of a single stressed syllable. Eg. far/car, still/hill.
Feminine rhyme – has either two (double rhyme) or three (triple rhyme) syllables. It
involves one stressed syllable followed by one or two identical sounding unstressed
syllables. Eg. shatter/splatter (double), clattering/flattering. Double and triple rhymes
usually have a comic effect, for example, in Byron’s Don Juan, he addresses the
husbands of educated wives: But – Oh! Ye lords of ladies intellectual
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Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked you all?
End rhyme occurs at the end of a line of verse. It is the most frequent type of rhyme.
Beginning rhyme occurs at the beginning of a line of verse.
Internal rhyme is between two or more words within a single line of verse. Eg. “And
all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.”
Eye rhyme – the words appear to rhyme only based on their spelling; they sound
completely different when pronounced. Eg. dough/tough, bread/bead, prove/love,
daughter/laughter.
RHYME SCHEME: the pattern of rhyme in a poem. A lower case letter is assigned to each new rhyming
sound. Certain rhyme schemes follow specific conventions:
Couplet – two successive rhymed lines which are equal in length. A heroic couplet is a pair of
rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. In Shakespeare’s plays, characters often speak a heroic couplet before
exiting the stage. Eg. Hamlet’s couplet at the end of the scene in which he discovers that his uncle has
killed his father the king:
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
a
That ever I was born to set it right!
a
Some couplets stand alone, as in the typical epigram (a short poem, often comic, that ends with a sharp
turn of wit or meaning), and in two-line stanzas. When placed at the end of a poem or scene in a play, as in
the English/Shakespearean sonnet, the couplet tends to form a complete thought, with the statement’s
meaning extending or contrasting the structure and contents of the preceding lines. When couplets appear
as the basic verse form of longer poems, they function as complete units as well as steps in a narrative or
lyric flow. In the Neoclassical Period the heroic couplet was the most popular verse used in translations of
The Aeneid and The Iliad. However, during the 18th century the heroic couplet declined, and by the
Romantic Period it was seen as artificial and mechanical. The heroic couplet is still not in frequent use
today.
Quatrain – a four line stanza. It is the most common form of English verse and has many variants.
No rhyme needs to exist in a quatrain, but there are a few common rhyme schemes used by poets, like
abba. One of the most important is the heroic quatrain, written in iambic pentameter with an abab rhyme
scheme. The ballad stanza is the most common pattern of the ballad form which consists of 4 lines rhymed
abcb or abab, in which the 1st and 3rd lines have 4 metrical feet and the 2nd and 4th lines have 3 feet. Eg.
Ah! Well-a-day! What evil looks
a
Had I from old and young!
b
Instead of the cross, the Albatross c
About my neck was hung.
b
(Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798)
The ballad stanza is also called common metre, and it has a heavy pause after the second line. “Amazing
Grace” and many other hymns are in common metre, and they influenced many poets who followed the
hymnal tradition, such as George Herbert and Emily Dickenson.
Sonnet – a single stanza lyric poem (poem focusing on the speaker’s feelings) containing 14 lines
written in iambic pentameter. It was introduced to English in the 16th century and flourished during the
Renaissance Period, specifically the Elizabethan Period, when major writers composed many sonnets to
their lovers. It declined during the Neoclassical Period, but the Romantic poets revived the form and it
continues to be used occasionally even by modern poets. William Shakespeare is the best known author of
sonnets in English. 19th century sonneteers include John Keats and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Sonnets
may address a range of themes, but love, the original subject of the sonnet, seems to continue to be the
most prevalent.
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet – developed by the Italian poet Petrarch, it is divided into an octave (first 8
lines) with the rhyme scheme abbaabba or abbacddc, and a sestet (final 6 lines) with the rhyme scheme
cdecde or cdccdc. The sestet normally marks a shift in mood or focus.
Shakespearean/English/Elizabethan sonnet – was made famous by Shakespeare. It contains three
quatrains (four lines of verse) and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg. In this sonnet the
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shift in focus/mood comes after the 12th line. Shakespeare usually uses his couplet at the end to sum up the
content of the preceding lines with a general comment, a motto, or a promise.
Spenserian sonnet – is a variant of the Shakespearean sonnet developed by the poet Edmund Spenser. It
has the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee. Once again the shift in focus comes after line 12.
Tercet – a grouping of three lines, often but not always bearing a single rhyme. It can refer to a part
of a larger stanza like the two three line components of a sestet in the Italian/Petrarchan sonnet, or be a
stanza in itself, like the terza rima stanza. The terza rima is a system of tercets with an interlocking rhyme
scheme: aba bcb cdc etc. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” (1820) is perhaps the most famous English
example, and Robert Frost used it in 1928 for “Acquainted with the Night”:
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in the rain – and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
a
b
a
I have looked down the saddest city lane,
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
b
c
b
RHYTHM & METRE
Rhythm and metre are the building blocks of poetry. Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the varying
length and emphasis given to different syllables. The beat or pattern is established by pauses and stressed
and unstressed syllables. A fixed and recurring rhythm establishes the metre; when stresses fall
systematically and at regular intervals, the result is metre. The many metres that are used in poetry are
classified by differences in those intervals. The pace of the rhythm and the strength of the beat help
determine the tone (writer’s attitude towards the subject) of the work, and the rise and fall of spoken
language is called its cadence. Metre helps to speed up the reading of a poem or slow it down; it sets
rhythmic patterns that structure the content and establish the tone. There is a close connection between a
poem’s subject matter and metre; serious themes call for certain metres and comic approaches call for
others.
The metrical unit of a line of verse is called a foot and usually consists of one stressed syllable and one or
more unstressed syllables. Standard English feet include the iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee and
pyrrhic:
iamb – an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable – today
trochee – stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable – carry
anapest – 2 unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllable – it is time
dactyl – a stressed syllable followed by 2 unstressed syllables – difficult
spondee – 2 successive syllables with strong stresses – stop, thief!
pyrrhic – 2 successive syllables with light stresses – up to no good
ACTIVITY: Read the following lines aloud and listen to the specific type of feet used in each line.
Iambic –
Anapestic –
Trochaic –
Dactylic –
Spondaic –
Pyrrhic –
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.
There they are, my fifty men and women.
Eve with her basket, was
Deep in the bells and grass.
Good strong thick stupefying incense smoke. (the first 2 feet of the line)
My way is to begin with the beginning. (the 2nd and 4th feet have 2 lightly stressed syllables)
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Most English poetry has four or five feet in a line, but there can be as few as one or as many as eight,
though these are rare:
Monometer – one foot
Dimeter – two feet
Trimeter – three feet
Tetrameter – four feet
Pentameter – five feet
Hexameter – six feet
Heptameter – seven feet
Octameter – eight feet
ACTIVITY: See if you can identify the type of metric line used in the above examples.
Few poems are written using only one type of foot; poets generally vary the metrical pattern to keep their
poetry from sounding too singsongy or restricted. Identifying the poem’s metre requires identifying the
dominant type of foot used. Common metrical lines include iambic pentameter, used in blank verse, and
trochaic tetrameter. The ballad form uses alternating tetrameter and trimeter, usually iambic and rhyming.
The villanelle is a 19-line poem made up of five tercets and a final quatrain in which all 19 carry one of only
two rhymes. The metre of the villanelle does not have to conform to any particular type, and can use more
that one metrical pattern in the poem. Free verse does not conform to any fixed metre or rhyme scheme. It
has no or very few units of recurrent stress patterns.
Examples:
Iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimester (used in the ballad stanza/common metre) A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
Iambic pentameter (used in the heroic quatrain) –
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must someday die….
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