Rhythm in Writing

What is rhythm?

• The way stressed and unstressed syllables are

arranged in poetry or prose

• Measured in feet - a unit of one heavily stressed and

one less stressed syllable (sometimes there are three

syllables)

• The beat or pulse

• Used widely in poetry and music

What does rhythm do?

• Produce a musical quality through the use of:

– Repetition

– Line length

– Meter

• Goes hand in hand with rhythm

• the length of a line in syllables

– Pauses in lines

What does rhythm create?

• A steady beat

• A pattern of sounds

• Expectations from the reader and listener

Rhythm and meter

• Iambs – two syllable feet; unstressed/stressed• Trochees – two syllable feet;

stressed/unstressed• Spondees – two syllable feet;

stressed/stressed• Anapests – three syllable feet;

unstressed/unstressed/stressed• Dactyls – three syllable feet;

stressed/unstressed/unstressed

Identifying the rhythm

• The stressed syllables are marked with / and the unstressed syllables with ^.

• This example is iambic because it has a metrical foot of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long or stressed syllable.

from Richard Edwardes’s “Amantium Irae”

^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love

Identifying the rhythm

• This is an example of iambic pentameter or five beats in each line.

That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | be hold |When yel | low leaves, | or none, | or few, | do hang |

from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73

Sources

• http://www.ehow.com/info_8698247_rhythm-literature.html• http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/81-rhythm.htm• http://www.brighthubeducation.com/english-homework-

help/48906-rhythm-in-poetry/• http://server.riverdale.k12.or.us/~bblack/meter.html