Rhyme and Rhythm
Senior 6 · Literature in English
Rhyme and Rhythm
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
Say the word Rwanda aloud. You put more force on one syllable than on the others. Now say literature, then tomorrow, then understand. Every English word of more than one syllable has a stressed syllable, and every English sentence has a pattern of stronger and weaker beats. Poets arrange those beats into patterns. That pattern is metre, and its basic unit is the foot.
Definition
| Foot | Pattern | Movement | Adjective (for the metre) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iamb | x / | rising: like a heartbeat | iambic |
| Trochee | / x | falling: strong, chant-like | trochaic |
| Spondee | / / | heavy, slow, emphatic (usually a single foot among others) | spondaic |
| Anapest | x x / | rising, quick: a gallop | anapestic |
| Dactyl | / x x | falling, rolling | dactylic |
| Feet per line | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | monometer | dimeter | trimeter | tetrameter | pentameter | hexameter | octameter |
Put the two names together: a line of five iambs is iambic pentameter; a line of four trochees is trochaic tetrameter.
Stressed syllables are in capitals; a vertical bar | divides the feet.
Iambic tetrameter: Lord Byron, "She Walks in Beauty" (1815)
She WALKS | in BEAU- | ty, LIKE | the NIGHT
Of CLOUD- | less CLIMES | and STAR- | ry SKIES;
The smooth, rising iambs suit a calm poem of admiration.
Trochaic tetrameter: William Blake, "The Tyger" (1794)
TY-ger | TY-ger, | BURN-ing | BRIGHT,
In the | FOR-ests | of the | NIGHT;
The first line opens on a hammer-blow stress, like the blacksmith imagery that runs through the poem. In the second line the metrical beats on "In" and "of" are light, as they would be in speech, so the line hurries towards NIGHT. Both lines lose their final unstressed syllable, so each ends on a strong beat.
Anapestic tetrameter: Lord Byron, "The Destruction of Sennacherib" (1815)
The As-SYR-ian came DOWN like the WOLF on the FOLD,
And his CO-horts were GLEAM-ing in PUR-ple and GOLD;
Here "Assyrian" is said in three syllables, as-SYR-ian. Divided into feet, the first line runs: the as-SYR | -ian came DOWN | like the WOLF | on the FOLD: four anapests. The two quick unstressed syllables before each beat sound like galloping hooves, which suits an army sweeping down on a city.
Dactylic dimeter: Alfred Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854)
HALF a league, | HALF a league,
HALF a league | ON-ward,
The falling, rolling dactyls drive the cavalry forward; the second line ends on a shorter foot, as if the rhythm stumbles.
Spondees: Alfred Tennyson, "Break, Break, Break" (1842)
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK,
On thy COLD GRAY STONES, O SEA!
Three equal heavy stresses, like waves striking rock, in a poem of grief for a dead friend.
Worked example: naming the metre of a line
Line: Of cloudless climes and starry skies
Tip
Rising or falling? Ask where the stress sits in each foot. Iambs and anapests end on the stress (rising, forward-moving); trochees and dactyls begin on it (falling, insistent). This one question helps you describe the feel of a metre in a single sentence.
Warning
"What is Meter in Poetry?", from the Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms. Note the difference it draws between rhythm and metre, and try marking the stresses of its example lines yourself.
Practice
Sources and credits
