Sound: Metre, Rhythm and Rhyme

Metre:

  • pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, smallest unit: foot

  • number of stressed syllables and sequence

  • can be specified according to type of foot and number of feet in a line

Most common types of feet:

  • Iamb (iambic): xX,

  • Trochee (trochaic): Xx

  • Dactyl (dactylic): Xxx

  • Anapest (anapestic): xxX

  • Spondee (spondaic): XX

  • Free verse: no regualr metre

Number of stresses syllables per line:

  • 1 = monometer

  • 2 = dimeter

  • 3 = trimeter

  • 4 = tetrameter

  • 5 = pentameter

  • 6 = hexameter

  • 7 = heptameter

  • 8 = octameter

Relationship between metre and rhythm

  • Metre: abstract organising principles or grid

  • Rhythm: concrete manner in which grid is filled

Rhyme and sound patterns

Rhyme = consonance of words from last stressed vowel

Basic distinction according to position:

  • End-rhyme (at the end of sentence)

  • Internal rhyme (anywhere else)

Rhyme forms:

  • Rhyming couplet aa bb

  • Alternate rhyme abab cdcd

  • Envelope rhyme abba cddc

  • Tail rhyme aab ccb

  • Masculine rhyme (two stressed syllables like man, fan)

  • Feminine rhyme (stressed syllables→unstressed like gender, bender)

  • Triple rhyme (parallels three syllables)

  • Identical rhyme (book rhymed with book)

  • Eye-rhyme (words look like they rhyme but they don't)

  • Half-rhyme (not perfect rhymes)