Name:______Date:______

Lesson 2 – Rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm is a recognizable pulse, or "recurrence," which gives a distinct beat to a line and also gives it a shape. You know rhythm when you hear it in a song, and poetry—language itself—has its own music, cadences, and rhythms. This can be created either with syllables and stress, or sometimes with alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, repetition,and other sound devices:

Alliteration

Refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. A common example of alliteration is the tongue twister.(Beginning)

Examples:

Six Silly Socks / Dressydaffodils

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds to set the mood or add to the meaning of the word. Assonance poems are abundant in literature. It is one of the more difficult techniques to master when writing poetry. Assonance occurs when vowels are repeated in words that are close to each other. (Middle)

Examples:

"Hear the mellow wedding bells" by Edgar Allen Poe

"Try to light the fire"

Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese" by Pink Floyd

Consonance

Repeating the final consonant sounds of words. Writers usually focus on the accented syllables or the more important words to use in this technique.William Harmon notes that "most so-called eye rhymes (such as 'word' and 'lord’) are instances of consonance.(End)

'First and last,' 'odds and ends,' 'short and sweet,' 'a stroke of luck,' or Shakespeare's 'struts and frets'

Onomatopoeia

Words that sound like what they mean, such as "bang" or "buzz"Use of onomatopoeia usually is to create sound imagery.

Repetition

Using words, phrases, or sounds more than one time for special effect or emphasis

Anaphora—is the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successiveverses, clauses, or paragraphs. One of the devices of repetition, in which the same phrase is repeatedat the beginning of two or more lines.

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?—William Blake, “The Tyger”

Find it!

  1. Using different coloured highlighters, read the following poem with a partner. Find and highlight the: alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, and onomatopoeia.

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion,

kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

—G. M. Hopkins, “The Windhover”

  1. What effect does these sound devices have on the rhythm of the poem?

Meter (Foot & Feet)

Meter is the regular pattern of stressed (/) and unstressed (U) syllables that make up a line of poetry.

Meter gives rhythm and regularity to poetry.

However, the English language does not always fit exactly into metrical patterns so many poems employing meter will exhibit irregularities.

In English verse the most common meters are:

  • Iambicu /
  • Trochaic/ u
  • Anapesticu u /
  • Dactylic/ u u

Other meters are occasionally used, such as spondaic and pyrrhic

A foot is a basic unit of a meter. In English, a metrical foot normally contains either two or three syllables with varying patterns of stress.

Iambic meter

An end stressed two syllable foot e.g. from In Memoriam by Lord Tennyson

I DREAMED | there WOULD| be SPRING | no MORE

This example is an iambic tetrameter - i.e. it has four iambic feet and therefore the total number of syllables in the line is eight. Iambic is an example of rising meter.

Trochaic meter

A front stressed two syllable foot. e.g. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

BY the | SHORES of | GIT chee | GUMee,

This example is trochaic tetrameter - i.e. four two syllable feet. Therefore the total line has eight syllables. Trochaic meter is less commonly used than iambic meter. Trochaic is an example of falling meter.

Anapestic meter

An end stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Destruction of the Sennacherib by Byron:

And the SHEEN | of their SPEARS | was like STARS | on the SEA,

This line is an anapestic tetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each. Therefore the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.

Dactylic Meter

A front stressed three syllable foot e.g. The Lost Leader by Robert Browning

WE that had | LOVED him so, | FOLlowed him | HONoured him,

This line is an example of dactyllictetrameter i.e. it has four feet containing three syllables each. Therefore the total number of syllables in the line is twelve.

Each of the above meters can be used in lines with varying numbers of feet. The number of feet in a line is usually classified as follows: monometer (one foot), dimeter (two feet), trimeter (three feet), tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five feet), hexameter (six feet), heptameter (seven feet) and octameter (eight feet).

Lines are also described in terms of the number of feet in each line, such as:

1: Monometer: a line with one foot

Example: All things/ Must pass/ Away

2: Dimeter: a line with two feet

Example: When up aloft/ I fly and fly

3: Trimeter: three foot lines

Example: I know not whom I meet/ I know not where I go

4: Tetrameter: four foot lines

Example: Had we but World enough, and Time,/This coyness Lady were no crime.

5: Pentameter: five foot lines

Example: But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

6: Hexameter: six foot lines

Example: To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails

7: Heptameter: seven foot lines

Example:O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,

8: Octometer: eight foot lines

Example: Once upon a midnight dreary,while I pondered, weak and weary

Before Reading

  1. Consider why fairy tales remain so popular through the ages, even though the settings and plots are often outdated. What enduring qualities do they contain?

Read

“Coup de Grace” by A. D. Hope

(pg. 32 in Sightlines 9 Textbook)

Just at that moment the Wolf,

Shag jaws and slavering grin,

Steps from the property wood,

Oh, what a gorge, what a gulf

Opens to gobble her in,

Little Red Riding Hood!

O, what a face full of fangs!

Eyes like saucers at least

Roll to seduce and beguile.

Miss, with her dimples and bangs,

Thinks him a handsome beast;

Flashes the Riding Hood Smile;

Stands her ground like a queen,

Velvet red of rose

Framing each little milk tooth

Pink tongue peeping between.

Then, wider than anyone knows,

Open her manikin mouth

Swallows up Wolf in a trice;

Tail going down gives a flick,

Caught as she closes her jaws.

Bows, all sugar and spice.

O, what a ladylike trick!

O, what a round of applause!

After Reading

  1. What fairy tale is this poem referring to?______
  2. Write a 1-2 sentence synopsis explaining what this poem is about.
  1. With three different colours, highlight the alliteration, assonance, and consonance in the poem.

Alliteration colour:______

Assonance colour:______

Consonance colour:______

  1. Find an example of each of the following:
  2. Simile:
  1. Repetition:
  1. Onomatopoeia:
  1. Explain the meaning of the title, and evaluate its significance in relation to the poem. (*Hint: use a dictionary)
  1. How is this poem ironic? Which form of irony is it?
  1. Write your own alliteration poem. (minimum 8 lines)

WRITING AN ALLITERATION POEM IN FIVE EASY STEPS

Step 1: To write an alliteration poem, first pick a consonant. It can be any letter of the alphabet except for the vowels a, e, i, o, or u. For example, let’s say you choose the letter “B.”

Step 2: Think of as many words as you can that start with your letter and write them down. You’re going to need nouns, verbs, and adjectives, like this:

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Name:______Date:______

Nouns

Banana

Bee

Bat

Baseball

Boat

Verbs

Buy

Be

Bust

Beat

Adjectives

Black

Bad

Big

Brilliant

Broken

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Name:______Date:______

Step 3: Form a sentence or two with some of your words, like this:

I bought a black banana,

And a broken baseball bat.

Step 4: See if you can add another sentence or two and a rhyme.

I bought a black banana,

And a broken baseball bat.

A burst balloon, a busted boat,

A beat-up bowler hat.

Step 5: Finally, see if you can come up with a reason for all of these things as a way to end your poems. Here’ an example:

I bought a black banana,

And a broken baseball bat.

A burst balloon, a busted boat,

A beat-up bowler hat.

I wasn’t being brainy, bright,

or brilliant, but you see,

My brain was boggled after

Being bitten by a bee.

Here’s another example of an alliteration poem using the letter “Z.”

Zzzzz

I see zebras from Zimbabwe

zipping all around the zoo.

I see Zeus up in the zodiac,

a zillion zithers too.

There are zephyrs blowing zeppelins

that are zooming near and far.

There are zealots counting zeroes

in a zone near Zanzibar.

There are Zulus wearing zoot suits

eating zwieback and zucchini

plus a zombie with a zipper

on his zinnia bikini.

Yes, I always have the zaniest

most zonked-out dreams like these,

because every time I go to sleep

I try to catch some Z’s.

– Kenn Nesbitt

From the book The Aliens Have Landed at Our School!

(Source: Poetry for Kids.com -

Step 1:Pick your consonant:______

Step 2: Use this chart to help you brainstorm words:

Nouns / Verbs / Adjectives

Step 3-5: Start writing! Try to use onomatopoeia and repetition along with alliteration.

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