Sound and Sense Chapter 12

• Rhythm in language = natural rise and fall of inflection and syllable accents
• Rhetorical stresses clarify intentions (e.g. I don’t believe you vs. I don’t believe you, etc.)
• Understanding the intention of the line sometimes helps the reader understand the meter
• Poets can vary the way a line ends (run-on, end stop, etc.) to create pauses
• They can also end a phrase/create a pause within a line (called a caesura)
• Free verse has no necessary rhythmic differences from prose → important to understand that the poetic line is free verse’s basic rhythmic unit – create rhythmic contrast from line to line
• Prose poem – line is not a unit of rhythm
• Meter – deliberate arrangement of accents of language at certain intervals
• Foot – unit of meter
• Rhythm = actual flow of sound, meter = arranged patterns of sound
• Iamb (Iambic) – accent on 2^nd of 2 syllables
• Trochee (Trochaic) – accent on 1^st of 2 syllables
• Anapest (Anapestic) – accent on 3^rd of 3 syllables
• Dactyl (Dactylic) – accent on 1^st of 3 syllables
• Spondee (Spondaic) – accent on both of 2 syllables
• Mono, di, tri, tetra, penta, hexa = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 feet per line
• Stanza – group of lines whose metrical verse is repeated throughout the poem
• Metrical Variations – calling attention to certain sounds by deviating from metrical pattern. Usually obvious and striking
• Substitution – replacing regular foot with a different one
• Extrametrical syllables – added at beginnings/endings of lines
• Truncation – omission of unaccented syllables
• Meter can be diagrammed, but rhythm cannot because it includes pitch, duration, juncture, etc.
• Scansion – taxonomy of poetic meter
• Scan through a poem and determine meter, then look at deviations (e.g. spondee in iambic meter)
• Keep in mind: extrametrical syllables to not change the classification of the meter
• It is not necessary to mark up the meter of a poem, but take note as you read
• The unaccented syllable in one foot can be more stressed than the accent in the one before, to create a crescendo effect
• Note that foot divisions help identify meter but do not organize thoughts
• Perfect regularity of meter is by no means necessary or “better”
• It can be powerful, but it can also be monotonous, and deviations from meter can be effective
• Expected Rhythm – framework set up in the mind of the reader for what “should” come next
• Actual Rhythm – what actually does come next – can confirm the expected rhythm or not
• Ways to introduce rhythmic variation
• Substitute different feet
• Rhetorical stressing → crescendo effect
• Grammatical and rhetorical pauses – punctuation, etc.
• Rhetorical pauses can be used as a tool to emphasize foot substitution
• Note: Meters do not convey emotions
• What is probably more important than which meter is used is how the meter is handled
• Meter is just one tool – like any other, it is not necessary for “good” poetry