Lesson Plans

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read “Chapter 12 – Rhythm and Meter,” 838-850. They should also have done exercise 1 on 849-850.

Objectives:

1. To define rhythm, accented/stressed, end-stopped line, caesura, meter, verse, prose, foot, scansion, iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, monosyllabic, syllable, line, monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, and octameter
2. To recognize these elements and measurements in poetry
3. To scan a poem correctly to enhance the reading aloud of the poem
4. To explain their effect on meaning

Activities:

• A. Review the concepts of rhythm and meter.

  • 1. Rhythm is an integrated aspect of our bodies and of the world around us.
  • 2. Rhythm appeals to us, and we impose it on patterns we detect within our environment.
  • 3. Meter is “regularized rhythm, language in which the accents are arranged to occur at apparently equal intervals of time.
    • a. Metrical language is called verse.
    • b. Nonmetrical language is called prose.

• B. Review the units of meter.

  • 1. Foot - the basic metrical unit, normally consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables, though occasionally there may be no unaccented syllables, and very rarely there may be three.
    • a. Iamb unstressed - stressed
    • b. Trochee stressed - unstressed
    • c. Anapest unstressed - unstressed - stressed
    • d. Dactyl stressed - unstressed - unstressed
    • e. Spondee stressed - stressed
    • f. Monosyllabic foot stressed
  • 2. Line - the secondary unit of measurement; it is measured by naming the number of feet in it
    • a. Monometer one foot
    • b. Dimeter two feet
    • c. Trimeter three feet
    • d. Tetrameter four feet
    • e. Pentameter five feet
    • f. Hexameter six feet
    • g. Heptameters seven feet
    • h. Octameter eight feet
  • 3. Stanza - the third unit of measurement, consists of a group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the poem
  • 4. Scansion - the process of measuring verse
    • a. Identify the prevailing foot
    • b. Name the number of feet in a line—if this length follows any regular pattern
    • c. Describe the stanza pattern—if there is one

• C. Discuss using scansion to determine how to read a poem.

  • 1. Read it normally according to its prose meaning, listening to where the accents fall, and perhaps beating time with the hand.
  • 2. If any doubt about how a line should be marked arises, skip it temporarily and go on to lines where you feel greater confidence.
  • 3. Remember that though normal reading of the sentences in a poem establishes its metrical pattern, the metrical pattern so established in turn influences the reading.

• D. Review the uses of rhythm and meter.

  • 1. Musical repetitions of accent can be pleasing for their own sake.
  • 2. Rhythm works as an emotional stimulus and serves, when used well, to heighten our attention to and awareness of what is going on in a poem.
  • 3. By choice of meter, and by skillful use of variation within the metrical framework, the poet can adapt the sound of verse to its content and thus make meter a powerful reinforcement of meaning.

• E. Have students turn to page 850 in Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Have them share their answers to Exercise 1 there. I have provided answers to help you evaluate and correct their responses.

  a. blank verse (with a high incidence of anapestic and trochaic substitutions and run-on lines contributing to the conversational rhythm)

  b. rhymed iambic couples: aabb’cc’ with a high incidence of metrical variation in the pentameter couplets

  c. free verse

  d. free verse

  e. blank verse, with numerous metrical substitutions, two trimeter lines (7, 15) and one tetrameter

  f. irregularly rhymed iambic, with varying line lengths (pentameter predominates, but trimeter and tetrameter are frequent)

  g. free verse, randomly rhymed (but with occasional metric lines–e.g. lines 4, 6, 9-11 are anapestic tetrameter)

  h. blank verse

  i. blank verse

  j. free verse

Assignment for next class meeting: Read “Break, break, break” by Tennyson pp. 859-860. Write out answers to the three questions that follow the poem.