Rhythm and Meter Adapted from PPTs by Mrs
Rhythm and Meter Adapted from PPTs by Mrs. Ma, T. Miller, and other older ppts.
Rhythm – any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound I believe you. ´ syllable I believe you.
Pauses… // // because you’ve I don’t believe you // However, // never given me reason to. I might reconsider.
Caesuras – pauses that occur within lines of poetry 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, // out of itself, Ever unreeling them, // ever tirelessly speeding them. Sorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames // as it has flamed often before // but not with the cold fire that 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 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 ´ the sun ´ to-day, Trochee ´ went ´ to dai-ly, Anapest ´ in the dark ´ in-ter-vene, Dactyl ´ col-or ´ of mul-ti-ple,
Meter = Measure Kinds of Metrical Lines • • monometer dimeter trimeter tetrameter pentameter hexameter heptameter octometer = = = = one foot on a line two feet on a line three feet on a line four feet on a line five feet on a line six feet on a line seven feet on a line eight feet on a line
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
Words have natural rhythm • Read this: And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. This is a famous child’s prayer from the 1900’s.
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, 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, /
Scansion ´ in storm ´ and strife, ´ She lived ´ had such ´ desire ´ Her soul ´ proud death ´ may bring ´ For what ´ ´ ´ That it could not endure ´ ´ ´ The common good of life ´ as ‘twere ´ ´ a king But lived packed ´ his marriage ´ day ´ That banneret ´ ´ and pennon, ´ With ´ and kettledrum, ´ Trumpet ´ the outrageous ´ cannon, ´ And ´ time ´ away ´ To bundle ´ the ´ night ´ come. ´ That
Scansion ´ | in storm ´ | and strife, ´ She lived ´ | had such ´ | desire ´ Her soul ´ | proud death ´ | may bring ´ For what ´ ´ ´ That it | could not | endure ´ ´ ´ The com | mon good | of life ´ | as ‘twere ´ ´ | a king But lived packed ´ | his mar ´ | riage day ´ That ban ´ | neret ´ | and pen ´ | non, With ´ | and ket ´ | tledrum, Trumpet ´ the | outrag ´ | eous can ´ | non, And ´ | dle time ´ | away ´ To bun ´ the ´ | night ´ come. ´ That
Examples of Meter “You blocks! You stones! You worse than senseless things!” Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare ______________ The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day. _______________ from Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat Come live with me and be my love. from Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone. from Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle __________________
Umm! Yeah. So how does that relate to the sonnets? Fair question.
Look at the sonnet’s first line. ´ / thee to´ / a sum´ / mer’s day ´ Shall I´ / com-pare 1 2 3 4 Iambic Pentameter 5
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET FORM A fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme. The poem is written in three quatrains and ends with a couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
KINDS OF STANZAS Couplet Triplet (Tercet) Quatrain Quintet Sestet (Sextet) Septet Octave = = = = a two line stanza a three line stanza a four line stanza a five line stanza a six line stanza a seven line stanza an eight line stanza
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.
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