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1.6 Poetic meter; diagramming common rhymes

Understanding the basics of poetic meter can provide another avenue to help students

predict groupings of rhythms and metric accents in simple and compound division. While

teaching an ear training class several years ago, I remember spontaneously coming up with a

system of short-hand for students to use while attempting their rhythmic dictation drills. I set up

a line in 4/4 time containing four empty measures and very lightly drew slashes and dashes

above the measures. Forward slashes were placed on numbered beats with hyphens between

them representing the division of the beat. It looked something like this:

4 /- /-/- /- / -/- /-/- / -/ -/-/- /- /- /- /-

4 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 //

I performed rhythmic dictation drills and had students mark where they heard sounds

within the meter, always counting along with the time signature as they listened to the examples.

They were instructed to mark the original dashes and hyphens in light pencil, and then mark

heavily with a pen or highlighter over the pencil marks, in the exact places they heard notes, as

they listened to the rhythm example. So, if they heard a note on beat “one,” beat “two – and,”

and then beat “three,” (and not beat four), those slashes and dashes would be marked in a

different color and then translated into the following notation:

Soon after the class period in which I first suggested the improvised short-hand markings,

I had a flashback to English classes during high school. Our instructor trained us to be very

proficient at diagramming poetry: labeling accented and unaccented syllables with slashes and

dashes representing stronger and weaker sounds, finding the poetic feet (small, repeated