Find Your Rhythm

I’m never one to impose rigid patterning into or onto a poem, but if a rhythmic pattern exists, the poet may want to take advantage of it.

Scan several poems you wrote in April and determine if they have a natural rhythm and/or meter.

Did you serendipitously write a poem in iambic pentameter or some other meter?

Do your lines seem to consistently contain a certain number of syllables?

Whatever you discover about your poems’ rhythms, lean into those rhythms and make them more intentional, more deliberate.

Once you identify a poem’s pattern, interrupt it once or twice to create interest and tension.

For example, if your poem contain 8 syllables per line, revise or write a line or two that contains 7 or 9 syllables.

If your poems seems to utilize anapestic hexameter, throw a dactyl or a heptameter into the mix.

Remember to keep the rhythm as natural as possible to avoid slipping into sing-songi-ness or Yoda speak.

Below is a quick review of feet and meters for reference.

See what arises for you, but don’t feel compelled to force anything.

Feet in Poetry

          Iamb: a metrical foot containing two syllables, the first of which is unstressed and the latter of which is stressed (e.g., “today”).

          Trochee: a metrical foot containing two syllables, the first of which is stressed and the second of which is unstressed (e.g., “matter”).

          Spondee: a less common metrical foot in which two consecutive syllables are stressed (e.g., “A.I.”).

          Anapest: a metrical foot containing three syllables, the first two of which are unstressed and the last of which is stressed (e.g., “unaware”).

          Dactyl: a metrical foot containing three syllables, the first stressed and the following two unstressed (e.g., “Waverly”).

Meter in Poetry

The length of poetic meter is described using Greek suffixes:

          Monometer – one foot, one beat per line

          Dimeter – two feet, two beats per line

          Trimeter – three feet, three beats per line

          Tetrameter – four feet, four beats per line

          Pentameter – five feet, five beats per line

          Hexameter – six feet, six beats per line

          Heptameter – seven feet, seven beats per line

          Octameter – eight feet, eight beats per line