RHYTHM AND METER IN ENGLISH POETRY

 Poetry:
Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in
the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, which was defined by
its musical accompaniment, usually on a stringed instrument known as a lyre. The term owes its importance
in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle between three broad categories of poetry: lyrical,
dramatic and epic.

In Europe, the lyric emerged as the principal poetic form of the 19 th century and came to be seen as
synonymous with poetry. Romantic lyric poetry consisted of first-person accounts of the thoughts and
feelings of a specific moment; the feelings were extreme but personal Lyrical voice: the narrative voice of a
poem that speaks of his or her situation or feelings. It is a convention in poetry that the speaker is not the
same individual as the historical author of the poem.

 Lyrical Verse:
Appropriately the name "lyrical" originates from "lyre" (a musical instrument). Most poetry began by being
sung or chanted around campfires, in Greek theatre or later by the troubadours, but lyrical poetry took a
turn in the 15th and 16th centuries when it began to be composed to be read from the written word and it
took on a whole new genre.

The musical qualities of lyrical poetry do not mean that the poetry is written always to be sung, nor does it
mean that the poetry possesses musical characteristics. However it does mean the poetry "employs specific
themes, meters, attitudes, images and myths".

 Verse:
In the countable sense, a verse is formally a single metrical line in a poetic composition. However, verse has
come to represent any division or grouping of words in a poetic composition, with groupings traditionally
having been referred to as stanzas.

In the uncountable (mass noun) sense, verse refers to "poetry" as contrasted to prose.

 Stanza:
Lines that form a division or unit of a poem. Poetry’s version of a paragraph, a stanza is an arrangement of
lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem. Typically, each stanza has a fixed number
of verses or lines and a consistent rhyme scheme.

 Couplet /ˈkʌplət/ – a two line stanza.

 Quatrain /ˈkwɒtreɪn/– a four line stanza.

 Sestet – a six line stanza.

 Octave /ˈɒktɪv/ – an eight line stanza.

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 Rhythm:
It is the pattern of stresses within a line of verse. All spoken word has a rhythm formed by stressed
and unstressed syllables.

In poetry, pre-measured patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables are called meters.

Rhythm in poetry is not the same as metre.

Metre is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, whereas rhythm is less formalised.
It means the irregular sway and flow of the verse, its ripplings and undulations as it follows the
flexing of the speaking voice.

 Metre:
Metres are the pattern of feet within a sentence.

Feet are individual units of rhythm made up of patterns of syllables. A sentence is made up of one or more
feet. English poetry employs five basic rhythms of varying stressed and unstressed syllables. The meters are
iambs, trochees, spondees, anapests and dactyls.

1) IAMB: An iamb is a unit of meter with two syllables, where the first syllable is unstressed and the
second syllable is stressed. Words such as “attain,” “portray,” and “describe” are all examples of
the iambic pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables. There is a view that suggests that much
poetry is iambic because language is iambic—may be bolstered by the recognition that iambic
rhythm is, more simply, an alternating pattern and that, given any system of two values (on-off ,
long-short, stressed-unstressed), alternation is the simplest pattern capable of being generated.

Example: The bird has flown away.

2) TROCHEE: A trochee is a unit of meter with two syllables, where the first syllable is stressed and the
second syllable is unstressed. Words such as “tiger,” “colour” and “mother” are all examples of the
trochaic patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Example:
TIger, TIger,BURning BRIGHT
IN the FOrests OF the NIGHT,
WHAT imMORtal HAND or EYE
Could FRAME thy FEARful SYmmeTRY?

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3) SPONDEE: A spondee is a unit of meter with two syllables, where both syllables are stressed (or
DUM-DUM stress pattern). The spondee is an irregular metrical foot, unlike the trochee or iamb,
and is not used to compose full lines of poetry. Instead, spondee examples can be found
occasionally substituting in for other prosodic feet in a metrical poem. However, sometimes it is
hard to tell whether a pair of syllables in English is a spondee, a trochee, or an iamb because stress
can be a bit subjective.

Commands often are examples of spondees because they are short, staccato, and forceful, e.g.: Sit
down! Shut up! Usually, in the contemporary definition of spondee that applies to English poetry,
the presence of a spondee signals that the author or character in question is crying out or feeling a
strong emotion.

Example:
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

Break, break, break

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

4) ANAPEST: An anapest is a metrical foot that consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a
stressed syllable. Words such as “understand” and “contradict” are examples of anapest, because
both of them have three syllables where the accent is on the final syllable.

Anapestic words are less common than other meters in English, such as words with three syllables
where the stress is on the first syllable (dactyl), or words that have alternating stressed and
unstressed syllables (trochee and iamb).

Anapestic meter has a particular sing-song, rolling feel to it, similar to the sound of horses trotting.
Due to the fact that it sounds song-like, anapest therefore is popular in rhymes for children and
comic poetry, while not as popular in more formal poetry.

Example:

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

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 5) DACTYL: A dactyl is a metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
For example, the words “typical” and “elephant” both demonstrate the dactylic stress pattern.
Dactyl meter is rare in English poetry.
Example:

“Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking

Out of the mockingbird’s throat, the musical shuttle
Out of the Ninth-month midnight …”

FOOT TYPE PATTERN EXAMPLE RHYTHM

IAMB Unstressed + stressed Today buh BUH

TROCHEE Stressed + unstressed Cupboard BUH buh

SPONDEE Stressed + stressed Hip-hop BUH BUH

ANAPEST Unstressed + unstressed + stressed In the blink of an eye. buh buh BUH

DACTYL Stressed + unstressed + unstressed Syllable BUH BUH buh

Each line of a poem contains a certain number of feet of iambs, trochees, spondees, dactyls or anapests. A
line of 1 foot is a monometer, 2 feet is a dimeter, 3 feet is a trimeter, 4 feet is a tetrameter, 5 feet is a
pentameter, 6 feet is a hexameter, 7 feet is a heptameter, and 8 feet is an octameter. The number of
syllables in a line varies therefore according to the meter.
Here are some more serious examples of the various meters:

 Iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables.)

That  time  | of  year  | thou  mayst  | in  me  | behold.

 Trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables.)

Tell  me |  not  in |  mournful  | numbers.

 Anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables.)

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 And the  sound  | of a  voice  | that is  still.

 Dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a trochee replaces the last dactyl.)

This  is the |  forest pri |  meval, the |  murmuring |  pine  and the |  hemlocks.