Poetry

[Ben Kenobi]

UR:

Read mine and Laz's first one again.

The rhyme scheme is abcabcbc in two stanzas.

He does a better job with the meter, which should be iambic, but I deviate in my lines. He's also got 4 feet, so it would be iambic tetrameter.

An Iamb has a weak stress followed be a strong stress.

For example,

weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG

shall I comPARE thee WITH a SUMmer's DAY?
thou ART more LOVEly AND more TEMPerRATE
rough WINDS do SHAKE the DARLing BUDS of MAY
and SUMmer's LEASE hath FAR to SHORT a DATE.

Can you hear the metre at all?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
The rhyme scheme is abcabcbc in two stanzas.

He does a better job with the meter, which should be iambic, but I deviate in my lines. He's also got 4 feet, so it would be iambic tetrameter.

Could you explain the terms first?

[Ben Kenobi]

Figured that might be the case.

Rhyme scheme just means which lines rhyme.

abcabcbc means that the first, and fourth lines rhyme, the second, fifth and seventh lines rhyme, and finally, the third, sixth and eighth lines rhyme.

Each line gets assigned an arbitrary number to correspond with all the other lines with the same rhyme.

In my previous example of metre, they have a different rhyme scheme, abab.

Stanza means the groups of lines before the same pattern of rhymes repeat again. In Laz's example, you have 8 lines in a stanza, but this will vary depending on the poem.

Metre is the 'beat' of the poem. It helps if you read the poem out loud, to hear the beat.

There are many different types of metre, but the one with weak syllables and strong syllables, poets call 'iambic'. It's a technical term that helps to distiguish the other forms of metre.

A foot in this case is the two syllables that repeat each other, the pattern of weak, STRONG. There are eight syllables in each line, and with two syllables in a foot, you have 4 feet in a line.

Hence the term for the metre, Iambic Tetrameter.

Any clearer?

[FrustratedPoet]

I find poetry a little .... I dunno .....

[Ben Kenobi]

Frusterating?

[FrustratedPoet]

Almost.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Rhyme scheme just means which lines rhyme.

abcabcbc means that the first, and fourth lines rhyme, the second, fifth and seventh lines rhyme, and finally, the third, sixth and eighth lines rhyme.

Each line gets assigned an arbitrary number to correspond with all the other lines with the same rhyme.

In my previous example of metre, they have a different rhyme scheme, abab.

Stanza means the groups of lines before the same pattern of rhymes repeat again. In Laz's example, you have 8 lines in a stanza, but this will vary depending on the poem.

Metre is the 'beat' of the poem. It helps if you read the poem out loud, to hear the beat.

There are many different types of metre, but the one with weak syllables and strong syllables, poets call 'iambic'. It's a technical term that helps to distiguish the other forms of metre.

A foot in this case is the two syllables that repeat each other, the pattern of weak, STRONG. There are eight syllables in each line, and with two syllables in a foot, you have 4 feet in a line.

Hence the term for the metre, Iambic Tetrameter.

Any clearer?

To elaborate on Ben's points, the way I deal with metre when writing verse with more formal structure, I do so by writing to a drumbeat in my head.