Download - Rhythm and Meter
Rhythmand Meter
T. Miller – AP Literature
Rhythm – any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound
syllable´ I believe you.
I believe you.
Pauses…
I don’t believe you because you’venever given me reason to. However,
I might reconsider.
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Caesuras – pauses that occur within lines of poetry
Sorrow is my own yardwhere the new grassflames // as it has flamedoften before // but notwith the cold firethat closes round me this year.
A noiseless patient spider,I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launched forth filament, // filament, // filament, // out of itself,Ever unreeling them, // ever tirelessly speeding them.
End-stopped line
A noiseless patient spider,I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated,Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
Run-on line(enjambment)
Sorrow is my own yardwhere the new grassflames as it has flamedoften before but notwith the cold firethat closes round me this year.
Introduction
• meter – comes from the Greek term for measure
• poetry written in a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
• the recognition and naming of broad wave patterns in lines of verse (like waves on the shore or the wave patterns of sounds in physics)
Meter – the identifying characteristic of rhythmic language that we can tap
our feet to
Meter continued• there are a succession of lines or sentences that have
the same metrical pattern, but is not necessarily exactly rhythmically identical
• lines are repeated again and again in the same broad rhythmical patterns, creating a rhythmical unit
• eg: “To this I witness call the fools of Time• Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.”
Poetry has Feet
• the technical meaning – has one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables or has one unstressed syllable and one or more stressed syllables
• is a measurable, patterned, conventional unit of poetic rhythm
• the non-technical meaning – connected to how we walk
• pattern and rhythm of steps equal to pattern and rhythm of poems
• rhythm of music connected to movement of body and rhythmical pattern of movement
Meter = Measure
Metrical Feet
Iamb
Trochee
Anapest
Dactyl
to-day, the sun
dai-ly, went to
in-ter-vene, in the dark
mul-ti-ple, col-or of
´ ´
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Meter = Measure
Metrical LinesMonometer
Dimeter
TrimeterTetrameter
One foot
Two feet
Three feetFour feet
Pentameter Five feetHexameter Six feet
Whoa!Did you get that?
OK. Let’s review, shall we?
Scansion
• the system of using symbols to represent stressed and unstressed patterns in a poem in order to be able to “read” the poem
• gives the broad wave pattern, but doesn’t define the individual wave or pattern
Kinds of patterns
iamb(ic) – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
• * ‘ * ‘• The way a crow • * ‘ * ‘• Shook down on me.
Trochee(trochaic)
• stressed followed by unstressed • ‘ * ‘ * ‘ * ‘ *• Once upon a midnight dreary
Anapest (anapestic)
• has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one
• * * ‘ * * ‘ * * The Assyr/ ian came down/ like a
• ‘ * * ‘• wolf/ on the fold,
Dactyl
• one stressed followed by two unstressed• ‘ * * ‘ * * ‘ **• Hickory, dickory, dock
Spondee (spondaic)
• is a foot composed of stressed syllables
• ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘• We, real, cool. We left school.
Pyrrhic
• three unstressed followed by a stressed
• * * * ‘ * * * ‘• At their/return,/up the/high strand,/
Iambic Pentameter
Shall I / com-pare / thee to / a sum- / mer’s day ´� ´ ´ ´ ´� � � �1 2 3 4 5
Scansion´�She lived in storm and strife,
Her soul had such desire
For what proud death may bring
That it could not endure
The common good of life
But lived as ‘twere a king
That packed his marriage day
With banneret and pennon,
Trumpet and kettledrum,
And the outrageous cannon,
To bundle time away
That the night come.
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Scansion´�She lived | in storm | and strife,
Her soul | had such | desire
For what | proud death | may bring
That it | could not | endure
The com | mon good | of life
But lived | as ‘twere | a king
That packed | his mar | riage day
With ban | neret | and pen | non,
Trumpet | and ket | tledrum,
And the | outrag | eous can | non,
To bun | dle time | away
That the | night come.
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Bibliography
Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. Eleventh ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.
Meyer, Michael. Poetry: An Introduction. Fourth ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.
PPT from Worldofteaching. G. Wotherspoon.