1. You have the answers, all you have to do is LISTen!
Poetry is Music
You have the answers, all you have to do is LISTen!

2. Score = Poem
In music, your written music is called a score. This is the sheet that contains notes, time signatures, clefs, dynamics, and other musical markings and places them in a readable format.
In poetry, your score is your poem. It contains words, rhythm, meter, lines, feet, and other poetic language, and places them in a readable format.

3. System = Line
In music, each score is broken up into systems, or rather, lines within the score.
System 1
System 2
System 3
A poem can be broken down into one or more lines.
How many lines are in this poem? 12

4. Verse = Stanza
Just like in music, poetry has different verses, but we call them stanzas.
The Flower
Once in a golden hour I cast to earth a seed. Up there came a flower, The people said, a weed. To and fro they went Thro' my garden bower, And muttering discontent Cursed me and my flower. Then it grew so tall It wore a crown of light, But thieves from o'er the wall Stole the seed by night.
A Question
A voice said, Look me in the stars And tell me truly, men of earth, If all the soul-and-body scars Were not too much to pay for birth.
Robert Frost
Sow'd it far and wide By every town and tower, Till all the people cried, "Splendid is the flower!" Read my little fable: He that runs may read. Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed. And some are pretty enough, And some are poor indeed; And now again the people Call it but a weed.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
How many stanzas are in this poem?
How many stanzas are in this poem? 1 6

5. Measure = Foot Twinkle twinkle little star
In music, your staff is broken down into measures.
Measure 1
Measure 2
Measure 3
Measure 4
The time signature tells you how many beats there are in each measure.
In poetry, your line is broken down into feet.
Foot 1
Foot 2
Foot 3
Foot 4
Twinkle twinkle little star
Each foot can have two beats (or syllables). Sometimes, a poet will place three beats in a single foot.

6. Measure = Feet (continued)
Monometer – one foot
Dimeter – two feet
Trimeter – three feet
Tetrameter – four feet
Pentameter – five feet
Hexameter – six feet
Heptameter – seven feet
Octameter – eight feet

7. Can you break these lines into feet?
*Remember, each foot should have two syllables. It is rare for there to be three syllables in a single foot.
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater Double, double, toil and trouble My love is as a fever, longing still
4 feet=Tetrameter
4 feet=Tetrameter
5 feet=Pentameter

8. Rhythm = Rhythm (The type of foot)
Example
Iamb (iambic) /
unstressed, stressed
alone
Trochee (trochaic)
stressed, unstressed
hunger
Anapest (anapestic)
unstressed, unstressed, stressed
understand
Dachtyl (dachtylic)
stressed, unstressed, unstressed
emphasis
Spondee (spondaic)
/ /
stressed, stressed
well-loved
Pyrrhic (pyrrhic)
unstressed, unstressed
when the, and the ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

9. Syllables written in musical form
Can you discern the rhythm?
Iambic
In Musical Terms:
Iamb – a pair of eighth notes in simple time (4/4); the second is accented
How about this one?
Dactylic
In Musical Terms:
Dactyl – three eighth notes in compound time (6/8); the first is accented

10. Can you scan this poem? / ( / ( / ( /
Trochee trips from long to short, From long to long in solemn sort Slow spondee stalks; strong foot, yet ill able Ever to run with the dactyl trisyllable, Iambics march from short to long; With a leap and a bound the swift anapests throng. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( / ( / ( / ( / / / / / / / / / ( / ( ( / ( ( / ( ( / ( ( ( / ( / ( / ( / ( ( / ( ( / ( ( / ( ( /
“Metrical Feet”

11. Let’s Practice! First, break the line up into metrical feet.
What is the meter?
What kind of rhythm does it have? / / / / ) ) ) )
What light through yonder window breaks!
Iambic Tetrameter / / / / / ) ) ) ) )
Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
Iambic Pentameter / / / / ) ) )
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Trochaic Tetrameter
With an incomplete ending foot

12. Now for a challenge…
Can you brake identify the meter and rhythm of this whole stanza?
Love me Sweet, with all thou art, Feeling, thinking, seeing; Love me in the lightest part, Love me in full being. A B A B
Is each line different?
How so?
The A lines are…
Trochaic Tetrameter
BUT…the last foot is in complete
The B lines are…
Trochaic Trimeter

13. Perhaps you need further proof?
Here is a quick etymology lesson:
One of the most famous types of metered poems is the sonnet.
They were composed by poets such as…
Petrarch, Dante, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Syndey, William Shakespeare, John Donne, John Milton, Lady Mary Wroth, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and William Butler Yeats.
The word “sonnet” comes from the Italian word “sonnetto.”
Guess what “sonnetto” means?
Little Song

15. Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.
- Dennis Gabor

16. Want to practice on your own?
Here is a great website that will allow you to pick a poem and determine the rhythm and meter. It will even check your answers!