Rhythm and Meter Group 9

1. Rhythm Rhythm The recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse. In the following lines from "Same in Blues" by Langston Hughes, the accented words and syllables are underlined: I said to my baby, Baby take it slow.... Lulu said to Leonard I want a diamond ring

- A movement with uniform or pattern that has a beat.

2. Foot- a unit composed of stressed (U) and unstressed syllables (/). There are many types of feet. ex of an iambic: U/ Dreams by Langston Hughes Hold fast/ to dreams For if /dreams die Life is/ a bro/ken-winged bird That can/not fly. old fast /to dreams For when/ dreams go Life is /a bar/ren field Frozen /with snow. 3. Meter The arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented (or stressed) syllables. Meter determined by number of feet in line:The meter can be depicted as a chain of feet, each foot being a sequence of syllable types — such as unstressed/stressed or long/short. Iambic Pentameter is the most famous But soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?” (U / ǀ U / ǀ U / ǀ U / ǀ U / ) “A horse!/ A horse!/ My king/dom for/ a horse!” (U / ǀ U / ǀ U / ǀ U / ǀ U / )

(The stressed syllables are in bold.) 4. iamb- one syllable unstressed and the other is stressed. ex: “I Know the Lake” Stephen Pickering I know/ the lake. There’s noth/ing more. What is /at stake Is be/hind the door. Up in /the sky Your hair /flew wild. Your sun/glassed eyes They hid /the child. I thought /you said To meet /down there. We’d find /the bed Without /a care. It’s ov/er now. It died /somehow.

5. Pyrrhic footA foot used for formal poetry. Consists of 2 unaccented, short syllables. (UU) Unaccented means not stressed syllables. / (Accented) means stressed syllables.

Example: "To a | green thought | in a | green shade." More about Pyrrhic Foots: Notice how soft the highlighted words sound and how the words ahead of them make more of an impression on you.