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Understanding Poetry Meter & Rhythm

Learn how to scan poetry and understand different metrical systems, metrical feet, and rhythmic patterns in poetry.

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Understanding Poetry Meter & Rhythm

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  1. Poetry How Meter & Rhythm Work

  2. Why are we talking about this this? • We are going to learn how to SCAN poetry. • Scansion (noun): the act of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical character of a line verse. (verb: to scan) • These patterns are based on the different levels of stress placed on each syllable and the number of syllables in each metrical foot.

  3. To figure how to use scansion (or to scan), we need to know a few things first…such as basic metrical systems used in poetry.

  4. Metrical Systems • The four major types of metrical systems in English: • Accentual verse: This focuses on the number of stresses in a line, while ignoring the number of off beats and syllables. (The alliterative verse of Old English is a special type of accentual verse.) • Accentual-syllabic verse: This regulates both the number of stresses and the total number of syllables • Syllabic verse: This only counts the number of syllables in a line. • Quantitative verse: This more Classical form is considered alien to English poetry.

  5. Accentual Meter Counts the number of accents per line. From JUNK by Richard Wilbur / / An axe angles / / from my neighbor’s ashcan; It is hell’s handiwork, the woodnot hickory, The flow of the grain not faithfully followed. The shivered shaft

  6. Syllabic Meter • Counts the number of syllables per line An old silent pond… 5 A frog jumps into the pond, 7 splash! Silence again. 5

  7. Accentual-Syllabic Meter • Counts both syllables and accents u / u / u / u / u / Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  8. OK. Now to break it all down…

  9. Greek Prefixes indicating line length • Mono + meter = monometer  1 foot • Di  dimeter  2 feet • Tri  trimeter  3 feet • Tetra  tetrameter  4 feet • Penta pentameter  5 feet • Hexa hexameter  6 feet • Hepta heptmeter  7 feet • Octa octameter  8 feet

  10. Metrical Feet Iamb - u / (1 unaccented syllable & 1 accented syllable) Trochee - / u (1 accented syllable & 1 unaccented syllable) Pyrrhus - uu(2 unaccented syllables) Spondee- / / (2 accented syllables) Anapest- u u / (2 unaccented syllables followed by a 3rd accented syllable) Dactyl- / u u (1 accented syllable followed by 2 accented syllable)

  11. It’s Simple Arithmetic! Metrical Foot + Greek Prefix = Metrical Line (tells how many) (stress pattern) (line of poetry) These rhythms provide the base line of the poem – they are the rhythm section of the poems “band,” if you will. 

  12. The Iamb An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as: u / u / u / da DUM a-bout the cat The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is the most common example of this rhythm. • A standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: • da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM u / u / u / u / u / I have of late but wherefore I know not The Iamb is the most common base in English poetry.

  13. The Trochee The trochaic foot is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. We could write the rhythm like this: / u / u / u DUM da ne-ver peo-ple A line of trochaic tetrameter is four trochaic feet in a row: DUMdaDUMdaDUMdaDUMda / u / u / u / u By the shores of GitcheGumee, / u / u / u / u By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Trochees , like iambs, can form the base of a poem.

  14. The Spondee A spondaic foot is two stressed syllables. / / / DUM DUM Bang! Bang! u u / / u u / / Like a badthought from a cracked brain The spondee does not typically provide the basis for a metrical line. Instead, spondees are found as irregular feet in meter based on another type of foot. / / / / u / u / u / Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go.

  15. The Pyrrhus The pyrrhic foot is one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. This foot is unique in that it cannot appear in a single dissyllabic English word. Therefore, it crosses word boundaries, like so: / u u/ u / u / u / Sea-son ofmists and mel-low fruit-ful-ness • Pyrrhics, like spondees, are not used to form the basis of a metrical line.

  16. The Anapest An anapestic foot consists of two short syllables followed by a long one. very common in prepositional phrases: u u / u u / u u / Da da DUM in-ter-vene  on the hill • Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable and so allows for strong rhymes, anapest can produce a very rolling, galloping feeling verse, and allows for long lines with a great deal of internal complexity. u u / u u / u u / u u / The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold u u / u u / u u / u u / And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold

  17. The Dactyl A dactylic foot is a long syllable followed by two short syllables. / u u / u u / u u Dumda da mer-ri-lypo-e-try / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlock • The dactyl does not typically provide the basis for a metrical line.

  18. I iambs Why So Many Iambs? The iamb is the most common pattern in English poetry and the closest to the normal pattern of spoken English. • Three reasons: • The analytic nature of Modern English • Our tendency to space accents at roughly equal intervals, and to distinguish, for purposes of clear articulation, between stress levels of adjacent syllables. • The “shape” of English words (morphology). Most English words of more than one syllable have alternating stress

  19. The Principle of Relative Accent • Syllables are stressed relative to the syllables immediately adjacent to them: u / u / u / u / Ithink that I shall never see The same word can be either unstressed or stressed depending on the syllables on either side if it.

  20. More Relativity • Our tendency to “smooth out” rhythm by promoting or demoting stress. Not: / / / Rather: / U / Not: U U U Rather: U / U

  21. Metrically Conferred Accentuation u / u / u u u / u / Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?  u / u / u / u / u / Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  22. Extra-Syllable Endings u / u / u / u / u / Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot u / u / u / u / u / u The armless ambidextrian was lighting U / u / u / u / u / A match between his great and second toe, u / u / u / u / u / u And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting • Don’t count extra-syllables if they are unstressed

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