Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014

Prosody, rhythm, and rhyme
The arresting poem
Short-form genres

The preceding “Density and Intensity” section constituted a way of being mindful of reader reactions to a poem, this final section gets you back into the realm of tools you can use.

Poetry is about sound effects at least as much as (and actually, probably more than) it is about meaning, and one of the ways sound effects are created in poetry is through rhythm.

DEFINITION

Rhythm is the natural rise and fall of voice when something is being spoken or read aloud.

The rhythmic patterns in poetry are more intense and conspicuous than are the rhythms of prose, although truly effective prose writers are very much aware of the rhythmic dynamics their sentences produce. In fact, you’ve probably heard praise of a prose writer couched in terms of poetry—as when an admiring critic says that this or that writer’s style is so exquisite, it’s more like poetry than prose. (By the way, when we want to criticize someone’s work as pedestrian and dull, you might call it prosaic.)

All poems have rhythm, although some do a better job of using rhythm for poetic effect than others. The word meter, which comes from the Greek word for “measure,” is used to describe a regular rhythmic pattern that operates throughout a given poem. In English poetry, that regular pattern is usually defined in terms of the recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables at regular intervals.

To “scan a poem” has a very specific technical meaning. It doesn’t mean to glance over a poem. In fact, the word scansion is used for the act of determining the meter of a poem by marking the stressed and unstressed syllables in its lines. Accents (stressed syllables) are marked by a slant line (/) above the syllable. Slack (unstressed) syllables are marked in one of two ways—either with an x above the syllable, or with a mark that looks like a somewhat flattened u.

As noted, not all poems are metrical. Free verse (vers libre) poetry does not have an identifiable rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. That doesn’t mean there’s no rhythm in free verse, or even that the rhythm isn’t important and carefully patterned. In a good free verse poem, rhythm is precisely manipulated for effect.

However, if you were to mark the stressed and unstressed syllables in a free verse poem, you wouldn’t be able to ascertain a regular pattern. Similarly, a free verse poem might make heavy use of rhymed or partially rhymed words (as well as alliteration, which is akin to rhyme), but you wouldn’t be able to mark a rhyme scheme, and the rhymed words might not even occur at the ends of lines. It’s the regularity of the pattern of end rhymes (rhymes that occur at the ends of lines) that allow you to label a rhyme scheme, and it’s the regularity of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that allows you to identify a metrical pattern in a poem.

Free verse must not be confused with blank verse. Although blank verse is unrhymed, it has a very specific metrical pattern—iambic pentameter. In fact, another way to refer to it is “unrhymed iambic pentameter.”

DEFINITION

Poetry written in blank verse is similar to free verse. Blank verse poetry does not rhyme but does follow a regular rhythm—iambic pentameter.

Formal verse, on the other hand, makes use of regular metrical patterns and rhyme schemes. Remember that the word formal refers to the fact that the rules of relevant forms are strictly followed. Yet the word formal as applied to poetry has nothing to do with the level of seriousness, sophistication, or erudition manifested in the poem. Rather, it refers only to the poet’s strict adherence to the rules of form he or she has selected for that particular poem.

Just as the word formal can be misleading in its meaning, prosody does not refer to prose, but rather to the analysis of the technical elements of poetry. Think of the major technical components of poetry as roughly equivalent to the way music is represented on the page, turning something you hear into something you can see. Because it deals with interpretation, it seems worth being mindful of poetic prosody (the technical components of poetry) here at the end of the chapter.

Poetry comes naturally to the human mind. The basic elements of poetry intrigue and delight almost anyone, regardless of age or level of education, and regardless of whether the listener/reader even understands what’s being said in the poem. Many people delight in the sounds of poetry in languages they don’t comprehend, and oftentimes even infants will quiet when you begin to read or recite poetry to them.

The least you need to know

·  Free verse is open in its patterns, while formal verse stringently follows rules.

·  Imagery describes using the five senses, and metaphor relies on comparisons.

·  Density and intensity are unreliable terms nevertheless used in interpreting poems.

·  Prosody, rhythm, and rhyme are aspects of sound used to construct poems.