Poetic Rhythm and Rhyme

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 / /

Shakespeare’s SONNET 138 (IAMBIC)

U / U / U / U / U /When my love swears that she is made of truth

I do believe her though I know she lies,

That she might think me some untutor’d youth

Trochaic /

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

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)

/ / / /

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

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

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

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

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

Practice

• Let’s complete some scansion practice!