RHYTHM

Good poetry is like music which is spoken. It has a beat to carried it along. As with music, this beat can have syncopations (stressing an off beat), rests (periods of quiet), and any other type of variation.

In this lesson I will discuss some of the more common beat "foot"s and give you an example of each. I encourage you to find other examples or play with these beats yourself.

The most common American foot is called the IAMBIC beat. It goes like this:

dum-DA-dum-DA-dum-DA...

Example: "first TIME he KISSED me, HE only KISS'D . . ."
[Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet from the Portuguese"]

The reverse of this foot is called TRACHEE:

DA-dum-DA-dum-DA-dum...

Example: "LISTen MY chilDREN and YOU will HEAR . . ."
[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"]

ANAPEST is a three beat foot:

dum-dum-DA-dum-dum-DA...

Example: hal-lo-WEEN (sorry people-I couldn't easily find a poem for this)

The reverse is known as DACTYL:

DA-dum-dum-DA-dum-dum...

Example: "AWOKE one night FROM a deep DREAM of peace . . ." [James Henry Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem"]

The final beat foot I will discuss, is the SPONDEE:

DA-DA...

Example: YOU CREEP! (to no one in particular)

You will find that many poems will be made up of a combination of these. It all depends on the mood the poet wants to create.

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