Poetic Rhythm and Rhyme

RHYTHM

BEAT

CADENCE

METER

Meter

• Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables• The basic unit of meter is a foot.• Most common feet in English poetry:

Iamb / Trochee / Anapest / Dactyl / Spondee / /

/ Iambic

/ / / /I asked my mo·ther for fif·ty cents / / / x / /To see the el·e·phant jump the fence / / / / He jumped so high, he touched the sky / / / / /And he did not come back ‘til the Fourth of

Ju·ly

Shakespeare’s SONNET 138When my love swears that she is made of truthI do believe her though I know she lies,That she might think me some untutor’d youthUnlearned in the world’s false subtleties.

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,Although she knows my days are past the best,Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:On both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d.

But wherefore says she not she is unjust?And wherefore say not I that I am old?O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,And age in love loves not to have years told:

Therefore, I lie with her and she with meAnd in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.

Trochaic /

/ / / / / / Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers

x / / / / / / If Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers

/ / / / Where’s the peck of pick·led pep·pers

/ / / (iambic)That Pe·ter Pi·per picked?

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire in thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? 

And what shoulder, and what art? Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand, and what dread feet? 

What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 

When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb, make thee? 

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Anapestic /

/ / /

There was an old man in a tree / / /

Who was hor·rib·ly bored by a bee / /

When they said, "Does it buzz?“ / /

He re·plied, "Yes, it does! / / /

It's a reg·u·lar brute of a bee!"

Edward Lear

/ Dactylic (po·e·try)

/ / / / / /

This is the forest prim·eval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

/ / / /

Picture your self in a boat on a river with / / / /

tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.

dactylic hexameter: Longfellow, Evangeline

Dactylic tetrameter ¾ time: The Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds “

Spondaic / /Rarely an entire line of poetry

/ / / /See Saw, Margery Daw

/ / / / I scream. You scream./ / / We all scream for ice cream

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells - From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. -- E.A. Poe

Metrical Lines

• One foot monometer• Two feet dimeter• Three feet trimeter• Four feet tetrameter• Five feet pentameter (iambic pentameter)• Six feet hexameter (dactylic hexameter)• Seven feet heptameter• Eight feet octameter

Stanzas

• 2 line stanzas: couplets

• 3 line stanzas: tercets triplets: aaa bbb ccc

ddd terza rima: aba bcb

cdc ded

• 4 line stanzas: quatrains

• 5 line stanzas: quintets

• 6 line stanzas: sestets

• 7 line stanzas: septets

• 8 line stanzas: octaves

Rhyme Scheme

The ends of lines repeat the same sounds.

Mary had a little jam,she spread it on a waffle.And if she hadn't eaten tenshe wouldn't feel so _____.

ABCB

The snow came downAnd covered the townThe snow came down last nightThe snow came downAnd covered the townAnd left it snowy _____.

AABAAB

Shakespeare’s SONNET 138When my love swears that she is made of truth aI do believe her though I know she lies, bThat she might think me some untutor’d youth aUnlearned in the world’s false subtleties. b

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, cAlthough she knows my days are past the best, dSimply I credit her false speaking tongue: cOn both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d. d

But wherefore says she not she is unjust? eAnd wherefore say not I that I am old? fO, love’s best habit is in seeming trust, eAnd age in love loves not to have years told: f

Therefore, I lie with her and she with me gAnd in our faults by lies we flatter’d be. g

Kinds of Rhyme

• Exact: eye/sky/pie; sing/ding/ring• Near or Half: sing/dung/rang• Eye: tough/through/dough• Internal:

"Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December"

/ /

• Masculine: rang/sang / /

• Feminine: ringing/singing

Rhyme Patterns

Onomatopoeia – words that sound like what they represent

Buzz

Hiss

Roar

Woof

Tick-tock

Assonance – same vowel sounds

Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese

Three free throws.

Alliteration –repetition of sounds

Initial: The wild and woolly walrus waits and wonders when we’ll walk by.Internal: baobab; purple potpourriFinal: “Knox in box. Fox in socks. Knox on fox in socks in box. “ – Dr. Suess

Repeated words

…and Sky was chasing chasing chasing

with his feet going every which way

and his tailwag-wag-wagging

BELLS by Edgar Allen Poe

I.Hear the sledges with the bells - Silver bells!What a world of merriment their melody foretells!How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,In the icy air of night!While the stars that oversprinkleAll the heavens seem to twinkleWith a crystalline delight;Keeping time, time, time,In a sort of Runic rhyme,To the tintinnabulation that so musically wellsFrom the bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells, bells, bells - From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.