RHYTHM AND METER

*RHYME SCHEME
 a pattern or sequence where the rhyme occurs
 (“Two Tramps in Mud Time” : abab cdcd)

 LABEL RHYME SCHEME:

A
A
A
A
B
B
C
C
C
C
D
D
LABEL RHYME SCHEME
 *RHYTHM
 The pattern or musical quality produced by the
repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.
 Rhythm occurs in all forms of language, both written and
spoken, but is particularly important in poetry

 In poetry
 Rhythm in writing is like the beat in music. In poetry, rhythm
implies that certain words are produced more force- fully
than others, and may be held for longer duration.
 The repetition of a pattern of such emphasis is what produces
a "rhythmic effect." The word rhythm comes from the Greek,
meaning "measured motion."
 RHYTHM:
 In speech, we use rhythm without consciously creating
recognizable patterns.
 For example, think about the phone—
 Almost every telephone conversation ends rhythmically, with the
conversants understanding as much by rhythm as by the meaning of
the words, that it is time to hang up.
 Frequently such conversations end with Conversant A uttering a five-

or six-syllable line, followed by Conversant B's five to six syllables,

followed by A's two- to four-syllable line, followed by B's two to
four syllables, and so on until the receivers are cradled.
 Don’t believe me?

Welp I gotta go now.

Allright, c-ya later.
Yup nice chattin’
See ya. Take care.
Till tomorrow
Bubye
IN POEMS, AS IN SONGS, A RHYTHM
MAY BE OBVIOUS OR MUTED.
 Vachel Lindsay's "The Congo" consciously recreates the rhythms of
tribal dance:
Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room
Barrel-housekings, with feet unstable,
Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,
Pounded on the table,
Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,
Hard as they were able
Boom, boom, BOOM,
With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
 WHEN ASKED THE QUESTION- WHAT’S THE RHYTHM?
YOU MIGHT ANSWER REGARDING—
RHYME SCHEME, METER
(BOTH TYPE AND PATTERN)
METER

 *Meter: Pattern of stressed and

unstressed syllables established in a line
Stressed syllable (‘) is the accented or long
syllable
Unstressed (u) is unaccented or short syllable
Meter signifies both TYPE of pattern and
NUMBER OF PATTERN
RHYTHM
 RHYTHM:
 the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.
 *POETIC FOOT
 unit of meter (two or three syllables)

 METER:
 the number and pattern of feet in a line.
*SCANSION
 Describing the rhythms of poetry by dividing the lines
into feet, marking the locations of stressed and
unstressed syllables, and counting the syllables.

 Thus, when we describe the rhythm of a poem, we

“scan” the poem and mark the stresses (/) and absences
of stress (^) and count the number of feet.
 *Iambic- two syllable foot with stress on
second syllable
Below; delight; a muse
 A/ book /of /over/ seas/ un/ der/ neath /the/ bough

 A /jug / of /wine/ a /loaf/ of /bread /–and /though/

 *Trochee- a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
syllable
 Dou/ ble, / dou / ble/ toil /and/ trou/ble
 Fire/ burn/ and /caul /dron /bub/ble
REVIEW/ PREQUEL
 In English, the major feet are:

 iamb (^/)                 ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
 The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love            
   
  *trochee (/^)                 / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^          
 Double, double toil and trouble                              
 *anapest (^^/)                 ^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ /      
I am monarch of all I survey    
 *dactyl (/ ^^)
 *Anapest- three syllables with the stress on the last
syllable

 Cav a lier
 In ter twine

 With the sheep in the fold and the cows in their stalls
 *Dactyl: foot contains three syllables with the stress on
the first syllable

 hap pi ness, mer ri ly, mur mur ing

 Love a gain
 Iambic and anapestic meters are called rising meters
because their movement rises from unstressed syllable to
stressed;

 trochaic and dactylic meters are called falling.

 The scansion of this quatrain from Shakespeare’s Sonnet
73 shows the following accents and divisions into feet
(note the following words were split: behold, yellow,
upon, against, ruin'd):
 A frequently heard metrical description is iambic pentameter: a
line of five iambs. This is a meter especially familiar because it
occurs in all blank verse (such as Shakespeare’s plays), heroic
couplets, and sonnets.
 Pentameter is one name for the number of feet in a line. The
commonly used names for line lengths are:

 *Monometer     one foot        

 *Dimeter     two feet          
 *Trimeter     three feet          
 *Tetrameter     four feet          

 *Pentameter    five feet

 *Hexameter     six feet

 *Heptameter   seven feet

 *Octameter     eight feet

THE WHY BEHIND THIS SEEMINGLY
INTIMIDATING STUFF:
 Yes, that’s all very lovely, but why do we study rhythm? People have a basic need for rhythm, or for the effect
produced by it, as laboratory experiments in psychology have demonstrated, and as you can see by watching a
crew of workers digging or hammering, or by listening to chants and work songs, rhythm gives pleasure and a
more emotional response to the listener or reader because it establishes a pattern of expectations, and rewards
the listener or reader with the pleasure that comes from having those expectations fulfilled, or the noted change
in a rhythm.

 (see Dark Knight’s postulate: if everything is according to the plan, everybody feels
 An argument might be raised against scanning: isn’t it too simple to expect that all language can be divided into
neat stressed and unstressed syllables? Of course it is. There are infinite levels of stress, from the loudest scream
to the faintest whisper. But, the idea in scanning a poem is not to reproduce the sound of a human voice. To scan
a poem is to make a diagram of the stresses and absence of stress we find in it. Studying rhythms, “scanning,” is
not just a way of pointing to syllables; it is also a matter of listening to a poem and making sense of it. To scan a
poem is one way to indicate how to read it aloud; in order to see where stresses fall, you have to see the places
where the poet wishes to put emphasis. That is why when scanning a poem you may find yourself suddenly
understanding it.

 In everyday life, nobody speaks or writes in perfect iambic rhythm, except at moments: “a HAM on RYE and
HIT the MUStard HARD!” Poets don’t even write in iambic very long, although when they do, they have
chosen iambic because it is the rhythm that most closely resemble everyday speech.