Poetic Rhythm and Rhyme

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Poetic Rhythm and Rhyme
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RHYTHM

• BEAT
• METER

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Syllables

• Angel AN-gel
• Complete com-PLETE
• Recommend re-com-MEND
• Entertainment ?

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Scansion

• The act of scanning or analyzing poetry in terms
  of rhythm (basically looking for syllable
  patterns)

Unstressed
Stressed
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Meter

• Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables
• The basic unit of meter is a foot.
• 5 patterns
• Iamb ? /
• Trochee / ?
• Anapest ? ? /
• Dactyl / ? ?
• Spondee / /

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? / Iambic feet

• ? / ? / ? ? / ? /
• I asked my mother for fifty cents
• ? / ? / ? / x / ? /
• To see the elephant jump the fence
• / ? / ? / ? /
  
• He jumped so high, he touched the sky
• ? / ? / ? / ? ? /
  ? ? /
• And he did not come back til the Fourth of July

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• Shakespeares SONNET 138
• When my love swears that she is made of truth
• I do believe her though I know she lies,
• That she might think me some untutord youth
• Unlearned in the worlds false subtleties.
• Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
• Although she knows my days are past the best,
• Simply I credit her false speaking tongue
• On both sides thus is simple truth suppressd.
• But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
• And wherefore say not I that I am old?
• O, loves best habit is in seeming trust,
• And age in love loves not to have years told
• Therefore, I lie with her and she with me
• And in our faults by lies we flatterd be.

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Trochaic feet / ?

• / ? / ? / ? / ? /
  ? / ? Peter Piper picked a peck of
  pickled peppers
• x / ? / ? / ? / ? /
  ? / ? If Peter Piper picked a peck of
  pickled peppers
• / ? / ? / ? /
  ? Wheres the peck of pickled peppers
• ? / ? / ? / (iambic)
• That Peter Piper picked?

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The Tyger by William BlakeTyger! Tyger! burning
bright, In the forests of the night, What
immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful
symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt
the fire in thine eyes? On what wings dare he
aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And
what shoulder, and what art? Could twist the
sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to
beat, What dread hand, and what dread
feet? What the hammer? What the chain? In what
furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What
dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 
When the stars threw down their spears, And
watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile
his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb, make
thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the
forests of the night, What immortal hand or
eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
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Anapestic feet ? ? /

• ? / ? ? / ? ? /
• There was an old man in a tree
• ? / ? ? / ? ?
  /
• Who was horribly bored by a bee
• ? ? / ? ? /
• When they said, "Does it buzz?
• ? ? / ? ? /
• He replied, "Yes, it does!
• ? ? / ? ? / ? ? /
• It's a regular brute of a bee!"

Edward Lear
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• A Limerick by by Edward Lear
• (limerics contain anapestic meter)
• There was an Old Man with a beard,
• Who said, Its just as I feared!
• Two Owls and a Hen
• Four Larks and a Wren
• Have all built their nests in my beard!

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/ ? ? Dactylic feet

• / ? ? / ? ? / ? ? / ? ?
  / ? ? / ? ?
• This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines
  and the hemlocks,
• / ? ? / ? ? / ? ? /
  ? ?
• Picture your self in a boat on a river with
• / ? ? / ? ? / ?
  ? / ? ?
• tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.

dactylic hexameter Longfellow, Evangeline
Dactylic tetrameter ¾ time The Beatles, Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds
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• Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord
  Tennyson
• Half a league, half a league,
• Half a league, onward,
• All in the valley of Death
• Rode the six hundred.
• Forward, the Light Brigade!
• Charge for the guns! he said
• Into the valley of Death
• Rode the six hundred.

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Spondaic feet / /Rarely an entire line of poetry

• / / / ? ? /
• See Saw, Margery Daw
• / / / /
• I scream. You scream.
• / ? / ? / ?
• We all scream for ice cream
• From the bells, bells, bells, bells,Bells,
  bells, bells - From the jingling and the
  tinkling of the bells. -- E.A. Poe

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Metrical Lines

• One foot monometer
• Two feet dimeter
• Three feet trimeter
• Four feet tetrameter
• Five feet pentameter
• Six feet hexameter

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Type of poetic feet number of feet per line

• Iambic
• Trochaic
• Anapestic
• Dactylic
• Spondaic

• Monometer
• Dimeter
• Trimeter
• Tetrameter
• Pentameter
• Hexameter

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Meters and Feet

• Q if a poem had 1 foot per line, and the foot
  was Iambic (1 stressed 1 unstressed), what type
  of poem would it be?

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Meter and Feet

• A Iambic monometer

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Meters and Feet

• Q if a poem had 2 feet per line, and the foot
  was iambic, what type of poem would it be?

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Meters and Feet

• A Iambic trimeter

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Meters and Feet

• Q If a poem had 4 feet per line, and the foot
  was iambic, what type of poem would it be?

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Meters and Feet

• A Iambic tetrameter

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Meters and Feet

• If a poem had 3 feet per line, and the foot was
  trochaic, what type of poem would it be?

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Meters and Feet

• A Trochaic tetrameter

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Now, try it on your own!

• Lines from The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow
• By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
• By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
• Stood the wigwam of No komis,
• Daughter of the Moon, No komis

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Answer

• Trochaic pentameter

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Now try this

• Behold and watch the sun destroy and grow

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End of meter and feet!

• And now / I bid / you all / adieu

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Stanza Forms

• 2 line stanzas couplets
• 3 line stanzas
• tercets
• triplets aaa bbb ccc ddd
• terza rima aba bcb cdc ded

• 4 line stanzas quatrains
• 5 line stanzas quintets
• 6 line stanzas sestets
• 7 line stanzas septets
• 8 line stanzas octaves

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Rhyme Scheme

• The ends of lines repeat the same sounds.

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• Shakespeares SONNET 138
• When my love swears that she is made of truth
  a
• I do believe her though I know she lies,
  b
• That she might think me some untutord youth
  a
• Unlearned in the worlds false subtleties.
  b
• Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
  c
• Although she knows my days are past the best,
  d
• Simply I credit her false speaking tongue
  c
• On both sides thus is simple truth suppressd.
  d
• But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
  e
• And wherefore say not I that I am old?
  f
• O, loves best habit is in seeming trust,
  e
• And age in love loves not to have years told
  f
• Therefore, I lie with her and she with me
  g
• And in our faults by lies we flatterd be.
  g

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Kinds of Rhyme

• Exact eye/sky/pie sing/ding/ring
• Near or Half sing/dung/rang
• Eye tough/through/dough
• Internal "Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in
  the bleak December"
• / /
• Masculine rang/sang
• / ? /
  ?
• Feminine ringing/singing

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Rhyme Patterns
Onomatopoeia words that sound like what they
represent Buzz Hiss Roar Woof Tick-tock
Alliteration repetition of
sounds Initial The wild and woolly walrus waits
and wonders when well walk by.Internal
baobab purple potpourriFinal Knox in box.
Fox in socks. Knox on fox in socks in box.
Dr. Suess
Assonance same vowel sounds Fleet feet sweep by
sleeping geese Three free throws.
Repeated words and Sky was chasing chasing
chasingwith his feet going every which wayand
his tailwag-wag-wagging
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BELLS by Edgar Allen Poe I.Hear the sledges
with the bells - Silver bells!What a world of
merriment their melody foretells!How they
tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,In the icy air of
night!While the stars that oversprinkleAll the
heavens seem to twinkleWith a crystalline
delightKeeping time, time, time,In a sort of
Runic rhyme,To the tintinnabulation that so
musically wellsFrom the bells, bells, bells,
bells,Bells, bells, bells - From the jingling
and the tinkling of the bells.
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