Poetry Rhythm

1
Poetry Rhythm

• Meter Foot

2
Scansion

• is the art of scanning a line or poem for meter
  and foot.
• In a structured poem, each line has a specific
  number of feet in a specific meter.

3
Meter

• A stressed syllable is a syllable that is
  emphasised in speech.
• It is represented, in scansion, by a forward
  slash ( / ).
• An unstressed syllable is spoken with less
  emphasis and it represented, in scansion, by a
  curved line ( u ).

4
Which syllable is emphasized?

• Meter (say, MEE-ter) /U
• Nathan (say NA-than) /U
• Natasha (say na-TA-sha) U/U
• Carolyn (say CA-ro-lyn) /UU
• Emphasis (say, EM-fa-sis) /UU

5
You try

• Identify the emphasis in your full name with
  capitals and Us and slashes.
• For example
• MS pat-TER-son
• / U / U

6
(Metric) Feet

• A foot is a pair or group of syllables that
  repeats itself.
• like a pair of feet walkin along

7
Some standard feet

• An iamb is a classic syllable combination.
• Its suppose to best mimic natural speech.
• Shakespeare used it throughout his plays.
• One unstressed, followed by one stressed
  syllable.

8
The iamb

• U/

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The anapest

• UU/

10
The trochee TRO-kee

• /U

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The dactyl

• /UU

12
Put foot and meter together
13
A line with a dominant foot can be described by
modifying the foot name into an adjective

• Iambic
• Anapestic
• Trochaic
• Dactylic

14
Now count the number of feet in a line.

• The number of feet defines the meter.
• Octameter would be the correct adjective to
  describe a line with 8 feet

15
Naming the meter

1. Monometer
2. Dimeter
3. Trimeter
4. Tetrameter
5. Pentameter
6. Hexameter
7. Heptameter
8. Octameter

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Here are the first two lines of Romeo Juliet

• Two households, both alike in dignity
• In fair Verona, where we lay our scene.
• 1. Copy them in your notes (double spaced).
• 2. Identify which syllables of these words are
  stressed/ naturally emphasized.

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What is the recurring foot?

• Iambic!

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How many iambs are there?

• Five!

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So five feet of iamb

• is called
• IAMBIC PENTAMETER
• YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Limerick

• A limerick is a short comical poem with an aabba
  rhyme scheme.
• Limericks traditionally have 5 lines
• Lines 1,2 and 5 are anapestic trimeter.
• Lines 3 4 are anapestic dimeter.

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Limerick

• How would it look if you scanned it?
• Write it out in symbols in your notes.
• UU/UU/UU/
• UU/UU/UU/
• UU/UU/
• UU/UU/
• UU/UU/UU/

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Thats all for now.

• Try to write a couple limericks.
• Theyre fun.