Meter and Rhythm
Creative Writing
Mr. Way
Overview
• Rhythm/Meter
• iamb
• Beat
Definitions
• Rhythm/Meter: the arrangement of words
into a more or less regular sequence of
stressed and unstressed or long and short
syllables
• iamb: two syllables, one short and one long.
• Beat: The rhythmic space of one iamb
Rhythm/meter
• When using strict meter, count syllables to
make sure that there are exactly the same
number in each line.
• If you have to, spell words creatively to make
them fit the way you want.
Sonnet #29, Shakespeare
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heav’n with my bootless cries
And look upon myself, and curse my fate
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply, I think on thee, and then my state
Like to the lark at the break of day arising
From sullen Earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate
For they sweet love, rememb’red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings
iamb:
One short syllable and one long syllable
• I want to show you what I mean when I say
“stressed,” “unstressed.”
• I want to show you what I mean when I say
“stressed,” “unstressed.”
Importance of iambs
• iambs are included naturally in the flow of the
English language.
• Some syllables are long and some are short
• We tend to alternate between long and short,
and do so intentionally when writing poems.
Sonnet #29, Shakespeare
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heav’n with my bootless cries
And look upon myself, and curse my fate
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despis’ng,
Haply, I think on thee, and then my state
Like to the lark at break of day aris’ng
From sullen Earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate
For they sweet love, remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings
Meter/Rhythm
• Sometimes, however, the rhythm is not so
strict.
• Just make sure the lines are approximately the
same length, and that they have the same
number of beats.
Beats
• The number of beats is the number of
stressed syllables.
• A normal beat is two syllables (one iamb)
• However, sometimes you can squeeze three or
more syllables into one beat
(two unstressed, one stressed)
• Alternately, you could put just one syllable
where two could fit.
– Just the stressed one and a slight pause.
The Road Less Traveled
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
The Road Less Traveled
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost