Rhyme & Meter Scansion With Nursery Rhymes

And Jill came tumbling after. Jack and Jill Went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down And broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after. Have them read the nursery rhyme aloud like a robot and here the ‘bounce’ of it.

Scan the Syllables first: How many feet per line? - a foot is 2 syllables (heal, toe) Count the vowel sounds to determine # of syllables - ‘Trebert’ is 2 syllables - ‘fantasy’ is 3 syllables (those sneaky ‘y’s) - ‘beautiful is 3 syllables (‘eau’ is one sound) Try counting syllables out on the names of a few students in the class.

And Jill came tum bling af ter. | Jack and Jill Went up the hill To fetch a pail of wa ter. Jack fell down And broke his crown And Jill came tum bling af ter. | | | | | | | 1 foot w/truncation 2 feet (dimeter) 3 feet (trimeter) w/truncation Have them count the feet first before you click up the answers on the right.

Three Basic Rhyme Schemes A, B, A, B = Alternating Represents conflict A, A = Couplet Represents romance (a couple) 3. A, B, B, A = Envelope Represents sexual (one rhyme inside the other) Try and make the last one a surprise if you can, . Explain that the ‘figurative meaning’ of these rhyme schemes is universal to ALL poems.

And Jill came tumbling after. A Jack and Jill Went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down And broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after. A B Couplet > C B Envelope > Have them mark the rhyme scheme before you click up the answers on the right. Now ask them to interpret the ‘meaning’ of this rhyme scheme.

That’s right – Jack and Jill is about SEX! The nice couple (a couplet) is going up the hill (representative of their virtue and ‘high’ morals and standing). Then Jack fell down and broke his crown (his virtue, or something more vulgar…), and Jill came ‘tumbling’ after (her virtue also ‘broken’). The envelope rhyme and metaphorical meanings suggest an adolescent tale of lost virginity. Perhaps have them come to this conclusion themselves BEFORE you click up the ‘sophisticated’ version on the slide above.

What about that weird word ‘Iambic’ I keep hearing? When measuring meter, we NOT ONLY count the number of syllables; we also measure the stressed and unstressed syllables to determine a pattern. Iambic is the most common pattern: - ‘ (unstressed, stressed) Trochaic is the opposite: ‘ – (stressed, unstressed) Spondee is a double hit for emphasis: ‘ ‘ (both stressed) Pyrrhic is a double down, very emo: - - (both unstressed) Explain that Iambic is the most common form of metrical rhythm because it imitates the way we speak. Then say, “We speak in downs and ups,” to prove that we do indeed speak in iambic – “We (down) speak (up) in (down) downs (up) and (down) ups (up).” Again try marking the meter of some student names, emphasizing how ‘silly’ it sounds when you emphasize the wrong syllable (for example, we say TREbert in America, but the French would say treBERT; we say JONathon, not jonAthon, or jonaTHON)

‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - Jack and Jill ‘ - ‘ Jack and Jill Went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down And broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after. - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ Have them mark it first before you click up the answers. Then have them identify and perhaps even analyze the dominant patterns. - ‘ - ‘ - ‘ -

So what does all this mean? The dominate stress patter is iambic (lines 2 and 5). The pattern is trochaic (‘ - ) in lines 1 and 4 to emphasize the character ‘Jack’. Lines 3 and 6 end in an extra unstressed syllable, or falling pattern, to emphasize Jack and Jill’s fall.

Nursery Rhymes will never be the same again!