Rhythmic Engineering
Some poems when read aloud, sound more like a song. A seducing melody, with no instruments or background. This can be completely achieved with just your words. Well, the brilliance lies there. How well your poem is worded and how well your words are placed. If these two are performed with care, you can find feet beat to the music of your poem.
No nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
- William Wordsworth
Before trying to achieve such heights, there are a few things to be understood. We might have heard of them or come across them over and o'er again, but still to make it clearer and to elaborate, here are a few hints which might help.
'syllable' - the smallest of these metrical units. English syllables are two kinds: accented or stressed, and unaccented or unstressed. An "accented syllable" requires more wind and push behind it than an unaccented; it also maybe pitched slightly higher or held for a slightly longer time.
After the syllable, the next largest metrical unit is the 'foot', which is group of two or more syllables. The six common kinds of feet in English metrics have been names derived from Greek.
1. IAMBIC foot consists of unaccented syllable followed by an accented. It can be heard in such words as "because, hello, Elaine".
2. TROCHAIC foot consists of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented. These are trochaic words: answer, Tuesday, Albert.
3. DACTYLIC foot consists of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. You can hear the dactylic beat in these words: beautiful, silently, Saturday.
4. ANAPESTIC foot consists of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable. These words are anapestic: cavalier, tambourine, Marianne.
5. SPONDAIC foot consists of two accented syllables.
6. PYRRHIC foot consists of two unaccented syllables.
Though some might argue that it is not always essential to follow such metrical patterns while attempting to write a poem, it is always better to know what they are.
Following meters are of course not compulsory. It is more like adding the 'icing' to a 'dessert'. The better you add, the better it looks. Same here, following meters results in better sounds.
Poems can be still written to a certain rhythm without following the traditional meters. such poems are called 'free verse'. Free verse must not be confused with "blank verse', which is the customary label for iambic pentameter without rhyme. Unlike the free verse, blank verse still has a regular metrical pattern.
The next largest metrical unit is the 'line'. A line is the regular succession of feet, and, though it is not necessarily a sentence, it customarily begins with a capital letter. The number of feet in a line of verse determines the measure or meter. Most poems are not built on a fixed meter, but rather on a combination of meters , like a line containing only one foot is called a 'monometer', two feet, a 'dimeter', and so on ... 'tetrameter', 'pentameter', 'hexameter', 'hectameter' and "octameter".
Next add the required beat to your poem. A few rises and pauses, here and there would spare some beat.
Once you have done all this, mark the beat of your poem, i.e, indicate the beat of a line in a verse. This can be done by scanning your entire poem.
Here are the steps to take in scanning a poem,
- Mark the syllables
- Mark the feet.
- Mark the caesuras (noticeable pause in a line of poetry that have a peculiar effect on the total beat of the line).
- Expect to encounter variations, but do not consider them in naming the bad meter.
And here you go, with a melody rich poem in your hand, feasting the world with precious music.
Three years she grew in sun and shower,
Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower
On earth was never sown;
This Child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.
- William Wordsworth
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Comments
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Thank you for sharing ...
of these lessons! It is most generous of you to take the time to add to the education of those who would like to learn. I enjoyed all. joy
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