Rhythm and sound patterning

POETRY

differs from fiction mainly in the fact that the words of the former are arranged upon a definite principle of order. The fusion of sound and sense means that we as readers enjoy both sound and sense simultaneously. In English poetry the principle or arrangement has traditionally been the regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables. The stress of the voice in uttering the accented ones occurs as regularly as the beats of the pulse.

RHYTHM (in Greek: rhythmos = flow, flowing)

- the undulation of sound produced by this continuous flow of accents and non-accents

- it constituted the essential difference between poetry and fiction. 42214vdj25kog2y

- In verse or prose, the movement or sense of movement communicated by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables and by the duration of the syllables. In verse the rhythm depends on the metrical pattern. In verse the rhythm is regular: in prose it may or may not be regular.

- perception of differences

Sound rhythm: differences like: long x short or loud x silent

Speech rhythm: stressed x unstressed do214v2425koog

- regular repetition of a sound element or of complex of sounds elements with opposition tendencies, which break this regularity

- the rhythm of classical verse is based upon quantity which in Latin and Greek poetry is governed by much more rigid laws than the metrical rules of English verse.

Types of rhythm:

Duple rhythm - occurs in lines composed in two-syllable feet

Triple rhythm - in metrical schemes based on three-syllable feet

Rising rhythm - the stress pattern is thrown forward in a line of verse, so that it falls on the last syllable of each foot in a line. Iambic and anapaestic feet are basic to rising rhythm.

Falling rhythm - last syllable of the feet is unstressed. Trochee and dactyl.

Running rhythm - occurs in metres in which stressed and unstressed syllables alternate (duple, rising or falling rhythm)

Sprung rhythm - in verse wherein the line is measured by the number of speech-stressed syllables, the number of unstressed syllables being indeterminate

Feet

- the smallest unit of measurement in verse is a foot and not a syllable.

- a group of two or three syllables, hence the division into dissyllabic and trisyllabic verse.

VERSE

- a line of metrical writing

- the elements of verse are syllables, which grouped together in twos or threes form feet, and these in combination form verses or lines. These are arranged in stanzas, which are distinct parts of poems in which the kind of foot, the number of feet in a line, the number of lines, and the rhyme pattern are the same.

- a single line of metrical composition, more broadly, the metrical composition itself or the poetic technique of a particular poem (enc. brit.)

- as verses are made for articulate utterance, their effect on the ear is of prime importance

Measures of verse

- feet may be combined in varying numbers according to the taste of the poet.

- the same foot is repeated the fix number of times

- the number of feet in each verse may vary from one to eight and they are generally known as

1. Monometer - verse of one foot

2. Dimeter

3. Trimeter

4. Tetrameter

5. Pentameter

6. Hexameter

7. Heptameter

8. Octameter

Iamb

- one unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed

- the commonest feet in English verse

e.g.: re/port

Trochee

- the rhythm of trochaic verse has a distinctive flow from that of iambic.

- one stressed syllable is followed by one unstressed

- it is livelier and therefore suited for cheerful themes and for description of quick-moving action

eg: dai/ly

Pyrrhic

- two unstressed syllables

Spondee

- two stressed syllables in a foot

- can be used only as an occasional variation

- in English verse usually two monosyllables

e.g.: He who

Anapest

- two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed

e.g.: ser/e/nade

Dactyl

- one stressed syllable - two unstressed

- suitable for light lyrics

e.g.: mer/ri/ly

The meter of a poem is the kind plus the number of feet in each line (eg. iambic pentameter or dactylic hexameter)

SOUND PATTERNING

- kind of echo, repetition of sounds

alliteration

- repetition of sounds made by initial consonants

- figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed syllables, are repeated.

- very old device indeed in English verse, older than rhyme

- usually repeated three or more times

eg in tongue-twisters: Betty Botter bought some butter,

but, she said, the butter´s bitter;

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

assonance

- repetition of the same vowel sound

- sometimes called „vocalic rhyme“, it consists of the repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together

eg. light - wide - sine

grow - home

consonance

- repetion of similar final consonants or consonantal croups, also called half-rhyme

eg. bad - good

treat - float

best - least

pararhyme

- consonants are repeated in the beginning and at the end

eg: slip - slop

black - block

beat - bite

reverse rhyme

- similar sounds at the beginning of words

e.g. cash and carry

stand - stamp

rhyme

- echoes sounds and is thus a source of aesthetic satisfaction. there is a pleasure in the sound itself and this pleasure must be associated with the sense of music, of rhythm and beat; the pulse sense which is common to all human beings.

- it helps to organize the verse

- occurs when two or more words with similarly sounding final syllables are so placed as to echo one another (enc. brit.)

- rhythmical device for intensifying the meaning as well as for binding the verse together.

- also helps to make verse easier to remember.

- seems to have developed in western poetry as a combination of earlier techniques of end consonance, end assonance and alliteration. It is found only occasionally in classical Greek and Latin poetry but more frequently in medieval religious Latin verse and in songs.

A) Head rhyme

B) Internal, interior rhyme - in the middle of the verse

- frequently used as an occasional embellishment in a poem

C) End rhyme - rhyme used at the end of a line to echo the end of another line, most frequent

- masculine rhyme - rhyme ends with a stressed syllable

- feminine rhyme - unstressed syllable at the end

D) Eye rhyme - syllables are identical in spelling, but are pronounced differently (e.g. cough - slough)

Rhyme schemes

- used to denote the pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem. It is usually represented by small letters