Rhythmand Meter

T. Miller – AP Literature

Rhythm – any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound

syllable´ I believe you.

I believe you.

Pauses…

I don’t believe you because you’venever given me reason to. However,

I might reconsider.

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//

Caesuras – pauses that occur within lines of poetry

Sorrow is my own yardwhere the new grassflames // as it has flamedoften before // but notwith the cold firethat closes round me this year.

A noiseless patient spider,I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launched forth filament, // filament, // filament, // out of itself,Ever unreeling them, // ever tirelessly speeding them.

End-stopped line

A noiseless patient spider,I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

Run-on line(enjambment)

Sorrow is my own yardwhere the new grassflames as it has flamedoften before but notwith the cold firethat closes round me this year.

Introduction

• meter – comes from the Greek term for measure

• poetry written in a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

• the recognition and naming of broad wave patterns in lines of verse (like waves on the shore or the wave patterns of sounds in physics)

Meter – the identifying characteristic of rhythmic language that we can tap

our feet to

Meter continued• there are a succession of lines or sentences that have

the same metrical pattern, but is not necessarily exactly rhythmically identical

• lines are repeated again and again in the same broad rhythmical patterns, creating a rhythmical unit

• eg: “To this I witness call the fools of Time• Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.”

Poetry has Feet

• the technical meaning – has one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables or has one unstressed syllable and one or more stressed syllables

• is a measurable, patterned, conventional unit of poetic rhythm

• the non-technical meaning – connected to how we walk

• pattern and rhythm of steps equal to pattern and rhythm of poems

• rhythm of music connected to movement of body and rhythmical pattern of movement

Meter = Measure

Metrical Feet

Iamb

Trochee

Anapest

Dactyl

to-day, the sun

dai-ly, went to

in-ter-vene, in the dark

mul-ti-ple, col-or of

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Meter = Measure

Metrical LinesMonometer

Dimeter

TrimeterTetrameter

One foot

Two feet

Three feetFour feet

Pentameter Five feetHexameter Six feet

Whoa!Did you get that?

OK. Let’s review, shall we?

Scansion

• the system of using symbols to represent stressed and unstressed patterns in a poem in order to be able to “read” the poem

• gives the broad wave pattern, but doesn’t define the individual wave or pattern

Kinds of patterns

iamb(ic) – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

• * ‘ * ‘• The way a crow • * ‘ * ‘• Shook down on me.

Trochee(trochaic)

• stressed followed by unstressed • ‘ * ‘ * ‘ * ‘ *• Once upon a midnight dreary

Anapest (anapestic)

• has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one

• * * ‘ * * ‘ * * The Assyr/ ian came down/ like a

• ‘ * * ‘• wolf/ on the fold,

Dactyl

• one stressed followed by two unstressed• ‘ * * ‘ * * ‘ **• Hickory, dickory, dock

Spondee (spondaic)

• is a foot composed of stressed syllables

• ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘• We, real, cool. We left school.

Pyrrhic

• three unstressed followed by a stressed

• * * * ‘ * * * ‘• At their/return,/up the/high strand,/

Iambic Pentameter

Shall I / com-pare / thee to / a sum- / mer’s day ´� ´ ´ ´ ´� � � �1 2 3 4 5

Scansion´�She lived in storm and strife,

Her soul had such desire

For what proud death may bring

That it could not endure

The common good of life

But lived as ‘twere a king

That packed his marriage day

With banneret and pennon,

Trumpet and kettledrum,

And the outrageous cannon,

To bundle time away

That the night come.

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Scansion´�She lived | in storm | and strife,

Her soul | had such | desire

For what | proud death | may bring

That it | could not | endure

The com | mon good | of life

But lived | as ‘twere | a king

That packed | his mar | riage day

With ban | neret | and pen | non,

Trumpet | and ket | tledrum,

And the | outrag | eous can | non,

To bun | dle time | away

That the | night come.

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Bibliography

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. Eleventh ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.

Meyer, Michael. Poetry: An Introduction. Fourth ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.

PPT from Worldofteaching. G. Wotherspoon.