Rhythm refers to the pattern of sounds in speech or writing, created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. A poem may have rhymed or unrhymed lines; it may be composed in strict metrical form or in free verse; but it always has rhythm.

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is called meter The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is called meter. Meter is measured by feet. A foot is a group of syllables usually consisting of one accented syllable and one or more unaccented syllables. Lines of poetry can be scanned- divided into feet- by indicating the stressed and unstressed syllables. – Scansion.

iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic The arrangement of accented and unaccented syllables in a foot results in four basic meters: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic Iamb – an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable ˘ ΄ And all / should cry, / Beware! / Beware! His flash- / ing eyes, / his float- / ing hair!

Trochee – an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable ΄ ˘ Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Anapest – two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable ˘ ˘ ΄ Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb

Dactyl – one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables ΄ ˘ ˘ Loosing his arms from her waist he flew upward, awaiting the sea beast.

Poetry varies not only in meter, but in the number of feet in a line Poetry varies not only in meter, but in the number of feet in a line. The following terms represent the number of feet in a line of poetry. 1 foot - monometer 2 feet - dimeter 3 feet - trimeter 4 feet - tetrameter 5 feet - pentameter 6 feet - hexameter

unstressed feet per line 7 feet - heptameter 8 feet - octameter Most common – pentameter, tetrameter, and trimeter. Scansions Iambic pentameter - five unstressed/ stressed feet per line Trochaic tetrameter – four stressed/ unstressed feet per line

Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter. (Shakespeare wrote his plays in blank verse)

Rhyme – the repetition of sounds at the ends of words. End rhyme – rhyming words at the ends of lines. Internal rhyme – rhyming words within lines. Rhyme Scheme – a regular pattern of rhyming words at the end of a line in a poem. It is indicated by using lowercase letters. Each rhyme is assigned a different letter. The way a crow a Shook down on me b The dust of snow a From a hemlock tree b