1. Rhythm
and
Meter
Adapted from PPTs by Mrs. Ma, T. Miller, and other older ppts.

2. Rhythm – any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound
I believe you.
syl la
ble
I believe you.

3. never given me reason to.//
Pauses… //
I don’t believe you
because you’ve //
never given me reason to.
However, //
I might reconsider.

4. 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, // filament, // 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.

5. 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)

6. Meter – the identifying characteristic of rhythmic language that we can tap our feet to

7. 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.”

8. 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

9. Meter = Measure Metrical Feet ̆ ´ ̆ ´ ´ ̆ ´ ̆ ̆ ̆ ´ ̆ ̆ ´ ´ ̆ ̆ ´ ̆ ̆
Iamb
to-day, the sun ̆ ̆
Trochee
dai-ly, went to ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆
Anapest
in-ter-vene, in the dark ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆
Dactyl
mul-ti-ple, col-or of

10. Meter = Measure Kinds of Metrical Lines monometer = one foot on a line
dimeter = two feet on a line
trimeter = three feet on a line
tetrameter = four feet on a line
pentameter = five feet on a line
hexameter = six feet on a line
heptameter = seven feet on a line
octometer = eight feet on a line

11. OK. Let’s review, shall we?
Whoa! Did you get that?
OK.
Let’s review, shall we?

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Kinds of patterns
iamb(ic) – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
* ‘ * ‘
The way a crow
* ‘ * ‘
Shook down on me.

15. Trochee(trochaic) stressed followed by unstressed ‘ * ‘ * ‘ * ‘ *
‘ * ‘ * ‘ * ‘ *
Once upon a midnight dreary

16. Anapest (anapestic)
has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one
* * ‘ * * ‘ * * The Assyr/ ian came down/ like a
‘ * * ‘
wolf/ on the fold,

17. Dactyl one stressed followed by two unstressed ‘ * * ‘ * * ‘ **
‘ * * ‘ * * ‘ **
Hickory, dickory, dock

18. Spondee (spondaic) is a foot composed of stressed syllables
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
We, real, cool. We left school.

19. Pyrrhic three unstressed followed by a stressed * * * ‘ * * * ‘
* * * ‘ * * * ‘
At their/return,/up the/high strand,/

20. 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. ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆

21. 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. ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆

22. Examples of Meter Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
“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
____________________________________
Iambic pentameter
Anapestic Tetrameter (lines are condensed together)
Iambic Pentameter
Anapestic tetrameter 22

23. Umm! Yeah. So how does that relate to the sonnets?
Fair question.

24. Shall I / com-pare / thee to / a sum- / mer’s day
Look at the sonnet’s first line. ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆ ̆
Shall I / com-pare / thee to / a sum- / mer’s day 1 2 3 4 5
Iambic Pentameter

25. 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.

26. KINDS OF STANZAS Couplet = a two line stanza
Triplet (Tercet) = a three line stanza
Quatrain = a four line stanza
Quintet = a five line stanza
Sestet (Sextet) = a six line stanza
Septet = a seven line stanza
Octave = an eight line stanza

27. 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.