Rhythmic acoustic dimensions in Poetry

Acoustic rhythms are pervasive in speech, music and environmental sounds. The acoustic
elements can enhance the meaning of a poem. By choosing certain words in a line or stanza, aa
poet can produce a sound or tone that is directly related to the content of the statement.

Devices in Acoustic Dimension of Poetry

Two main devices; i.e. Meter & Rhyme of acoustic dimension in poetry that hold a dominant
position in analysis of poems that easy to objectify and measure.

 Meter
 A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that defines the rhythm of
some poetry. The study and use of meter in poetry is known as “prosody”.
 A poem can use a single meter throughout or it can have different meters in
different places.
 Meter can be analyzed on the level of a whole poem, a stanza, a line or even a
single foot.
 Smallest element of meter are “syllables” that are the units of sound that
construct words which provides basic framework for poetry.
 Syllables can either be stressed or unstressed. Stressed syllables are typically
longer than unstressed syllables.
 The technical term for the process of analysis of meter is known as “scansion”. In
literature, it means to divide the poetry or poetic form into feet by pointing out
different syllables based on their lengths and is also known as scanning.
 Example:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep”
 According to the sequence of stressed and unstressed, a line can be divided into
feet – a basic unit of measurement of accentual syllabic meter. Feet usually
contain one stressed and at least one unstressed syllable. Four important feet are:
1) Iambus, or iambic foot: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable (˘′)
Thĕ cúr | fĕw tolls | thĕ knell | ŏf pár | tĭng dáy.

2) Anapest, or anapestic foot: two unstressed syllables followed by one

stressed syllable (˘˘′)
Ănd thĕ sheen | ŏf theĭr spears | wăs lĭke stars | ŏn thĕ seá.

3) Trochee, or trochaic foot: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed

syllable ('˘)
 Thére thĕy | áre, mў | fíftў | mén ănd | wómĕn.

4) Dactyl,or dactylic foot: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed

syllables (′˘˘)
Júst fŏr ă | hand fŭl ŏf | sílvĕr hě | left ŭs.

 According to the number of feet, it is possible to distinguish:

I. Monometer (one foot)
II. Dimeter (two feet)
III. Trimeter (three feet)
IV. Tetrameter (four feet)
V. Pentameter (five feet)
VI. Hexameter (six feet)
In the description of the meter of a line, the name of the foot and the number of
feet are mentioned. The first line of Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard” (1751) (“Thĕ cúr| fĕw tólls|thĕ knéll|ŏf pár|tĭng dáy”), which consists
of five iambic feet, is termed iambic pentameter . This meter, which is close to the
rhythm of natural speech and therefore popular in poetry and drama, is
also referred to as blank verse.

Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in

iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables
in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed
ones, five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. It is also known as “un-
rhymed iambic pentameter.”

Another popular meter in English is iambic hexameter, which is also called

Alexandrine.

 Rhyme
 A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounding words, occurring at the end of lines in
poems or songs.
 A rhyme is a tool utilizing repeating patterns that bring rhythm or musicality to
poems.
 This differentiates them from prose, which is plain.
 A rhyme is employed for the specific purpose of rendering a pleasing effect to
a poem, which makes its recital an enjoyable experience.
 It offers itself as a mnemonic device, smoothing the progress of memorization.
 Alongside meter, rhyme adds to the dimension of sound and rhythm in a poem. It
is possible to distinguish internal, end, and eye rhymes.
I. Internal rhyme: a poetic device that can be defined as metrical
lines in which its middle words and its end words rhyme with one
 another. It is also called “middle rhyme,” since it comes in the
middle of lines.

Internal rhymes are:

 Alliteration: a stylistic device in which a number of words,

having the same first consonant sound, occur close together
in a series. E.g. From Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.”

In the above lines we see alliteration (“b”, “f” and “s”) in

the phrases “breeze blew”, “foam flew”, “furrow
followed”, and “silent sea”.

 Assonance takes place when two or more words, close to

one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start with
different consonant sounds. E.g. “Men sell the wedding
bells.”

II. End rhyme: The most common rhyming scheme in modern poems
is end rhyme, which is based on identical syllables at the end of
certain lines. To describe rhyme schemes, letters of the alphabet
are used to represent identical syllables at the end of a line.
Example: A poem by Emily Bronte (1818–48), “Remembrance”
(1846):
Cold in the earth - and in the deep snow piled above thee, a
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave! b
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee, a
Served at last by Time’s all-severing wave? b
III. Eye rhyme: stand between the visual and the acoustic dimension
of a poem, playing with the spelling and the pronunciation of
words. Example: Lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla
Khan”(1816):
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
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