This paper analyzed the rhythms of English metrical and free verse, introducing some basic terms necessary to understand the significant rhythmic features in poetry. Rhythm is liable to a wide variety of interpretations Rhythm is not a specific proper...
This paper analyzed the rhythms of English metrical and free verse, introducing some basic terms necessary to understand the significant rhythmic features in poetry. Rhythm is liable to a wide variety of interpretations Rhythm is not a specific property of verse. It is a general phenomenon present in any periodically recurring phenomena Rhythm is the production and perception of patterned energy. Meter is a way of organizing rhythm that gives it special regularity and strength.
Beat is the most fundamental feature of any rhythm that is organized as a meter. It may be an actual beat or a virtual beat. Offbeat is a weak pulse between, before, or after the beats of a meter. A stressed syllable is demoted when it occurs in an offbeat. Conversely, an unstressed syllable is promoted when it functions as a beat. The main components of stress verse are stresed beats, unstressed beats, virtual offbeats, demotion, promotion, etc. Much syllable-stress four-beat verse is based on the number of beats and syllables, in relation to the line and the syntax.
The history of English metrical practice is often thought of as a series of waves in a rising tide. Free verse, which became common in the twenties century, is, in one sense, the simplest kind of verse. It relies more heavily than metrical verse on visual layout. The rhythm and movement of free verse can be analyzed in three ways metrically, rhythmically, and phrasally. These all interrelate Metrical analysis can reveal the way in which some free verse poems maintain a relation to metrical verse, approaching and deviating from regular metrical patterns.
?? syllables when they do not produce a regular meter. The phrasal movement of a poem is the experience the reader has of moving toward points of arrival or away from points of departure. Phrasing plays a significant role in both metrical and free verse. In free verse, where there is no continuous metrical scheme, the movement of the poem is largely dependent on its phrasing.