Writing About Literature
12. Rhythm and Rhyme
Rhythm
►A
strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement
or sound
► Sources:
 From the Oxford English Dictionary: “marked by the
regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or
of opposite or different conditions”
 From Latin rhythmus “movement in time”
 From Greek rhythmos “measured flow or movement”
Meter
►A
pattern of stressed* syllables alternating in
regular intervals with syllables of less stress
► The
basic rhythmic structure of poetry
► Compositions
verse
written in meter are said to be in
Foot
► Each
unit of stressed and unstressed syllables is
called a foot
Foot type
Style
Stress pattern
Syllable count
Iamb
Iambic
Unstressed + Stressed
Two
Trochee
Trochaic
Stressed + Unstressed
Two
Spondee
Spondaic
Stressed + Stressed
Two
Anapest
Anapestic
Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed
Three
Dactyl
Dactylic
Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed
Three
Amphibrach
Amphibrachic
Unstressed + Stressed + Unstressed
Three
Pyrrhic
Pyrrhic
Unstressed + Unstressed
Two
Foot Examples
► Some,
but not all, feet can be represented with
single words:
Foot type
Stress pattern
Examples
Iamb
Unstressed + Stressed
˘ /
a·wake
Trochee
Stressed + Unstressed
/ ˘
ap·ple
Spondee
Stressed + Stressed
/
/
dead·lock
Anapest
Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed
˘ ˘
/
in·com·plete
Dactyl
Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed
/ ˘ ˘
cri·mi·nal
Amphibrach
Unstressed + Stressed + Unstressed
˘ /
˘
re·gard·less
Pyrrhic
Unstressed + Unstressed
˘
˘
/
/
˘ ˘
/
/
When the blood creeps and the nerves prick
Metrical Lines
► The
meter for a line of poetry is
Line types
Length
determined by the type of foot
Monometer One Foot
and the number of feet in that
Dimeter
Two Feet
line
Trimeter
Three Feet
Tetrameter
Four Feet
Pentameter
Five Feet
known as iambic trimeter. A line
Hexameter
Six Feet
with six dactylic feet is known as
Heptameter Seven Feet
► So,
a line with three iambic feet is
dactylic hexameter.
Iambic pentameter:
Line Examples
/
/
/
/
/
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day
from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
/
/
/
/
/
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
from Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare
/
/
/
/
/
A little learning is a dangerous thing
from An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope
Line Examples
Determine the meter:
/
˘
˘
/
˘
˘
Half a league, half a league,
/
˘
˘
/
˘
Half a league onward,
/
˘
˘
/
˘
˘
All in the valley of Death
/
˘
˘
/
˘
Rode the six hundred.
from The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Meter and Form
► Some
forms of poetry are written entirely in one
meter
► Some
forms of poetry require several different
meters
► And
yes, some forms of poetry even mix meters
in individual lines
Rhyme
► Rhyme:
a repetition of similar sounds in two or
more words
 Example: To rhyme is sublime
► End
rhyme: Rhymes that occur at the end of the
verse line
 Example: And the waves oozing through the porthole made
His berth a little damp, and him afraid.
► Internal
Rhyme: Rhymes that occur within a
verse line.
 Example: Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow
Rhyme Scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of end-rhymed lines in a
poem:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
a
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, b
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
a
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
b
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
c
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
d
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
c
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
d
from Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Line Break
►
A line break in poetry is the termination of the line of a
poem (usually on the right), and the beginning of a new
line (usually on the left).
►
When a line ends with a syntactical pause and
punctuation that indicates a pause, it is “end-stopped”
►
When a line ends within a syntactical unit and has no
punctuation that indicates a pause, it is “enjambed”
►
Enjambment literally means 'to straddle‘ (or to put one's
leg across, or to step over) and is a form of line break
Enjambment
These lines are end-stopped, that is, the end of
the line coincides with the end of a grammatical
unit:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 18)
Enjambment
These lines are enjambed, that is, the line does not
end with a grammatical break. Here are a few lines
from Keats' Endymion which demonstrate how
enjambment works:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and asleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.(ll .1-5)
The first and last lines above are end-stopped; lines 2,
3 and 4 are enjambed
Enjambment
►
Enjambment increases the pace of the poem whereas
end-stopped lines, which are lines that break on
caesuras (pauses), emphasize these silences and slow
the poem down
►
may also be used to delay the intention of the line until
the following line and thus play on the expectation of the
reader and surprise them
►
the line cannot stand alone, cannot make sense without
the following line
Closed Form
► Together,
meter and rhyme scheme may
determine a specific pattern or design of poetry
► When
these forms are strictly defined, they are
referred to as closed forms
► In
English, closed forms include the:
 Sonnet
 Blank verse
 Sestina
 Heroic couplet
 Villanelle
 Roundel
 Ballade
Ottava Rima
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
Open Form
► Does
not follow a traditional rhyme scheme,
stanza pattern, or meter
► Does
► Often
not have a recognized, traditional form
(if successful) informed by a more subtle
organic structure
► Became
the dominant form of poetry in Europe
and America in the 20th century
War
Open vs. Closed
Free verse vs. Formal verse
Experimental vs. Traditional
Machine age vs. Agrarian age
Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the
net down. –Robert Frost
I never thought poetry was supposed to be a
game. –Galway Kinnell