Rhythm and Rhyme Adapted from Dana Mitchell,

 Many poems, like prose, have a specific structure. In prose, essays and stories are often organized into paragraphs. The lyrics and music to “Over There” are recognized still as one of the most powerful patriotic songs of all time. Songwriter George M. Cohan later recalled that the words and music to the song came to him while travelling by train from New Rochelle to New York shortly after the U.S. had declared war against Germany in April From

 Stanza: the division of lines within a poem into groups related around a topic, theme or rhyme scheme (much like paragraphs for prose). Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought – So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Notice that poetry stanzas are not indented, but they are separated from each other by double spacing.

 Do ALL poems rhyme? Some poems “break the rules” of poetry on purpose.

 Free Verse: poem without rhyme or rhythm. I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars. I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. -Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass” WORD CHOICE is very important to free verse. Notice that free verse can still have stanzas, too.

 Blank verse: unrhymed poetry with meter (rhythm). Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. -William Shakespeare, Macbeth Many playwrights, like Shakespeare, used blank verse. What do you think this character’s mood might be?

 Besides rhyme and rhythm (meter), poets use a tool box of strategies to help get across the deeper meaning of the lines they write.

 Symbol: an object which stands for something other than itself. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; -Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken What do you think the two roads represent for the narrator in the poem?

 Repetition: repeating a word or phrase to add rhythm or emphasis to the poet’s message. What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. -Edgar Allen Poe, The Bells How does the use of repetition imitate the sound of bells in the poem? Is the sound pleasant…or irritating and disturbing ? (Look at the author!)

 Assonance: repetition of internal vowel sounds to emphasize the connection between certain words (examples of vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y). "Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Do you hear the similar vowel sounds in “dying” and “light”? Why did Dylan Thomas draw your attention to those two words?

 Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds throughout the words themselves (examples of consonants: b,c,d,f,g,m,l,p,r,s,t...) Belinda lived in a little white house, With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse, And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon, And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon. Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink, And the little gray mouse, she called hum Blink, And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard, But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard. -Ogden Nash, “The Tale of Custard the Dragon” Circle the repeating consonants “L” and “T.” Do they only repeat at the beginnings of words? See the repeating “C”? If the consonant repeats at the beginning of a word only, it’s called “alliteration.”

 The basic tools of a poet are rhyme (words that sound alike) and rhythm (the beat of the poem).

 Rhyme: repetition of like sounds. Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. -Dr. Seuss, “Oh, The Places You Will Go!”

 Rhyme Scheme: organized pattern of rhyme. Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth, And spikes on top of him and scales underneath, Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose, And realio, trulio daggers on his toes. -Ogden Nash, “The Tale of Custard the Dragon”

 Where you put the rhyme in your poem is up to you; you can rhyme at the end of your sentences or inside of them.

 End Rhyme: rhymes that occur at the end of a line of poetry. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose. - Dr. Seuss, “Oh, The Places You Will Go!”

 End Rhyme does not necessarily need to follow the preceding line; rhymes can occur in alternate lines. It started off so innocent when someone threw a bun, but all the other kids decided they should join the fun. -Kenn Nesbitt, “The Food Fight” What is the rhyme scheme?

 Internal Rhyme: a rhyme within a line of poetry. Reciting a little exciting writing I measure and treasure the pleasure Of certain hues I choose to use To enrage this page like a stage, Find my mind in a place so kind Dancing, prancing free of glancing Eyes to my surprise which otherwise Slow the flow of its inner glow. Can you find other examples of internal rhyme in this stanza?

 The Internal Rhyme, when used by a skilled poet, can build an eerie kind of suspense:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. " 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door; Only this, and nothing more.“ Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven”

 Not all rhymes are words that sound the same. But when they do, it is called an exact rhyme. The exact rhyme occurs when you use the words "honey/funny" or "mine/fine.“  Exact rhyme (perfect rhyme): when the latter part of the word is identical in sound to another word.

 Approximate Rhyme. An approximate rhyme is when you have words put together in your rhyme scheme that sound nearly the same, but not exactly the same. Examples: words like remark, impart; low, law; years, yours; diving, lightning; feed, blade

 Meter: is the name we give to the rhythm of poetry. It is defined as the pattern of rhythm, or unaccented and accented syllables. The ostrich roams the great Sahara. Its mouth is wide, its neck is narra. It has such long and lofty legs, \ I'm glad it sits to lay its eggs

 An author will choose a pattern, or meter, and repeat it throughout the poem. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. Each stanza of the poem will repeat the rhythm, only breaking when the author chooses to draw the reader’s attention to words or sections.

Scanning a poem means marking the rhyme scheme and the meter of a poem. Here is an example of a scanned poem: Celery, raw Develops the jaw, But celery, stewed, Is more quietly chewed. -Ogden Nash, “Celery”

 Foot: a unit of meter, made up of unstressed and stressed syllables. There are four different kind of feet: Iamb: a weak (or unstressed) syllable followed by a strongly accented one. a bove Trochee: one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. lit tle Dactyl: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. ten der ly Anapest: two unstressed syllables, followed by a stressed syllable. un der stand Spondee: two stressed syllables. heart break

 Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds. star-tossed sunlit shores  Onomatopoeia: the use of words with sounds that imitate or suggest their meaning—such as rustle. "buzz," "crash," "whirr," "clang" "hiss," "purr”  Simile: comparing two different things using “like” or “as” “She was as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof.”  Metaphor: comparing two unlike things without using “like” or “as.” “His smile was a summer day to her cold heart.”

 Personification: giving an inanimate object human qualities or characteristics. The walls shivered with the weight of the shelves.  Hyperbole: exaggeration or overstatement used for emphasis. “Her head exploded with pain.”

 Ballad: songlike poem that tells a story, often a sad story of betrayal, death, or loss. Ballads usually have a regular, steady rhythm, a simple rhyme pattern, and a refrain (repeated lines) all of which make them easy to memorize.  Epic: long narrative poem about the many deeds of a great hero  Narrative Poem: poem that tells a story – a series of related events  Lyric Poem: poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feeling of the speaker.  Ode: long lyric poem, usually praising some subject, and written in dignified language.  Sonnet: fourteen-line lyric poem that follows strict rules of structure, meter and rhyme