Rhyme and Meter in Poetry

Another Note Taking Adventure

Rhyme Scheme

• Some poems and poem types follow a rhythmic pattern called a rhyme scheme. Often, this occurs in the last word in each line of a stanza.

Rhyme Scheme example #1

• Simple

From Dream-Land

By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,

Where an Eidolon, named Night

On a black throne reign upright.

~Poe, Edgar Allen

Rhyme Scheme

A

A

B

B

Rhyme Scheme Example #2

• More Complex

From The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame

With conquering limbs astride from land to land

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

~Lazarus, Emma

• Rhyme Scheme

A

B

B

A

Do Now

• Read I Wandered As Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth and In Between by P. Lord. Map out the rhyme schemes for each poem. Write the rhyme scheme in your journals.

Types of Rhyme

Common Rhyme: (bat, hat) (Hair, Flair) (Portray, Convey)

Internal Rhyme: These are rhymes within a line of poetry.

Internal Rhyme Example

From The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary AA

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore- B

While I nodded, nearly napping, Suddenly there came a tapping, CC

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. CCB

~Poe, Edgar Allen

Types of Rhyme

Slant Rhyme: These are near rhymes used liberally or when no common rhyme can be formed.

Slant Rhyme Examples

• What is a slant rhyme for Orange … Door Hinge

Vacuum …

Ginger Bread…

Finish these Typhoid…

Hurricane…

Garbage…

Slant Rhyme Examples #2

• We were camped on the plains at the head of the Cimarron When along came a stranger who stopped to arger some. He looked so very foolish that we began to look around, We thought he was a greenhorn that had just ’scaped from town.

• Spanish is the lovin’ tongue,          Soft as music, light as spray.          ’Twas a girl I learnt it from          Livin’ down Sonora way.          I don’t look much like a lover,          Yet I say her love words over          Often when I’m all alone—          “Mi amor, mi corazon.”  

Homework

• Create a rhyme scheme with at least four sets of rhymes. Write a poem using that rhyme scheme. This may be on any subject.

• Extra challenge: Try to incorporate all three types of rhyme in this poem.

Meter

• Meter in poetry is like a drumbeat in a song. It is the up and down rhythm created by syllables in a line of poetry.

Example of Meter

• Ex: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

• Question: Do you hear the up and down rhythm?

Do Now

• Write “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.” Draw an up arrow over where the meter/stress goes up and a down arrow below where it goes down.

Finished Example.

Finished Example

• Each arrow represents a syllable. There are 12 syllables altogether.

• The up arrow represents a “stressed” syllable and the down arrow an “unstressed syllable. Together they are called a “trochee”.

• The opposite of a trochee is an “iamb”

Example of what a trochee look like.

• Poets represent stressed and unstressed syllables like this.

Stress

Unstress

Shakespeare and Iambs

• Shakespeare is famous for using Iambs in his poetry.

• He used Iambic Pentameter almost exclusively.

• So what is Iambic pentameter?

• Lets break it down.

Iambic pentameter

• An iamb is an unstressed and a stressed syllable. Penta (like Pentagon) means five and meter is the rhythm. So Iambic pentameter means there will be five iambs per line of poetry (or 10 syllables).

Example of Iambic Pentameter• From Sonnet 18

Syllabic Rhyme

• Some poets use meter as a form of rhyme. This helps trick the mind into anticipating the length of the next line of poetry.

Example of Syllabic rhyme• MY SOUL IS DARKMy soul is dark – Oh! quickly string And ach’d in sleepless silence long;

The harp I yet can brook to hear; And now ‘tis doom’d to know the worst,

And let thy gentle fingers fling And break at once – or yield to song.

Its melting murmurs o’er mine ear.

If in this heart a hope be dear, ~Lord Byron (1815)

That sound shall charm it forth again:

If in these eyes there lurk a tear, (All 8 Syllable Lines)

‘Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.

But bid the strains be wild and deep,

Nor let thy notes of joy be first:

I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep,

Or else this heavy heart will burst;

For it hath been by sorrow nursed,

Do Now

• Read I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud and In Between again, and find out what type of syllabic rhyme is used.

Homework

• Create a rhyming poem that has a working rhyme scheme, that also uses syllabic rhyme.

• Use one of these two patterns

Meter (8,6) Rhyme Scheme(aabbccdd)

OR

Meter (Iambic Pentameter) Rhyme Scheme (ababcdcd)