Sensations of Syllables

Understanding meter and analyzing images

Rhythm in Music

• What songs did you bring in that is, “about a person becoming who he or she wants to be”?

• What type of music do you listen to?

• How is it different than the music your parents listen to?

• Tap out the rhythm of your favorite song

KEY VOCABULARY

• Feet/ foot: a foot is one unit of measurement • /car/ = one foot /boyfriend/ = two feet• Meter: pattern of stressed and unstressed

syllables that sets the rhythm for the poem• Rhythm: pattern of sound created by the

arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables

• Free verse: poetry which does not have a regular meter

Beat = Rhythm = Measurement

• In music the rhythm is based on the time signature, how long each measure is – 4/4 3/4 6/8

• In poetry rhythm is based on how long each line is

• Line length is measured by syllables

Two syllable meters

• The meters with two-syllable feet are

• IAMBIC (x /) : That time of year thou mayst in me behold

• TROCHAIC (/ x): Tell me not in mournful numbers

• SPONDAIC (/ /): Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

Three syllable meters

• Meters with three-syllable feet are

• ANAPESTIC (x x /): And the sound of a voice that is still

• DACTYLIC (/ x x): This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock (a trochee replaces the final dactyl)

Metrical Names

• A line of one foot is a monometer (1),

• 2 feet is a dimeter, • 3 feet trimeter • 4 feet tetrameter (4), • 5 feet pentameter (5),

• 6 feet hexameter (6), • 7 feet heptameter (7),• 8 feet octameter (8).

•The number of syllables in a line varies according to the meter

Name that meter!

• Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred."Forward, the Light Brigade!"Charge for the guns!" he said:Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

Do all poems have to have meter?

• No! Think of “When I Was a Young Tomboy” • This is an example of a free verse poem• We like those too!

• Why does all of this matter?• Look at the TPCASTT handout. You will be

doing one of these for every two poems you read.

• The structure of the poem adds to its readability and message