1. Rhyme and Meter in Poetry
Another Note Taking Adventure

2. Rhyme Scheme
Some poems and poem types follow a rhythmic pattern called a rhyme scheme. Often, this occurs in the last word in each line of a stanza.

3. Rhyme Scheme example #1 Simple Rhyme Scheme A
From Dream-Land
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night
On a black throne reign upright.
~Poe, Edgar Allen
Rhyme Scheme A B

4. Rhyme Scheme Example #2 More Complex Rhyme Scheme
From The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
~Lazarus, Emma
Rhyme Scheme A B

5. Do Now
Read I Wandered As Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth and In Between by P. Lord. Map out the rhyme schemes for each poem. Write the rhyme scheme in your journals.

6. Types of Rhyme
Common Rhyme: (bat, hat) (Hair, Flair) (Portray, Convey)
Internal Rhyme: These are rhymes within a line of poetry.

7. Internal Rhyme Example
From The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary AA
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore B
While I nodded, nearly napping, Suddenly there came a tapping, CC
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door CCB
~Poe, Edgar Allen

8. Types of Rhyme
Slant Rhyme: These are near rhymes used liberally or when no common rhyme can be formed.

9. Slant Rhyme Examples What is a slant rhyme for Orange … Door Hinge
Vacuum …
Ginger Bread…
Finish these Typhoid…
Hurricane…
Garbage…

10. Slant Rhyme Examples #2
We were camped on the plains at the head of the Cimarron  When along came a stranger who stopped to arger some.  He looked so very foolish that we began to look around,  We thought he was a greenhorn that had just ’scaped from town.
Spanish is the lovin’ tongue,           Soft as music, light as spray.           ’Twas a girl I learnt it from           Livin’ down Sonora way.           I don’t look much like a lover,           Yet I say her love words over           Often when I’m all alone—           “Mi amor, mi corazon.”  

11. Homework
Create a rhyme scheme with at least four sets of rhymes. Write a poem using that rhyme scheme. This may be on any subject.
Extra challenge: Try to incorporate all three types of rhyme in this poem.

12. Meter
Meter in poetry is like a drumbeat in a song. It is the up and down rhythm created by syllables in a line of poetry.

13. Example of Meter Ex: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers
Question: Do you hear the up and down rhythm?

14. Do Now
Write “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.” Draw an up arrow over where the meter/stress goes up and a down arrow below where it goes down.

15. Finished Example.

16. Finished Example
Each arrow represents a syllable. There are 12 syllables altogether.
The up arrow represents a “stressed” syllable and the down arrow an “unstressed syllable. Together they are called a “trochee”.
The opposite of a trochee is an “iamb”

17. Example of what a trochee look like.
Stress
Unstress
Poets represent stressed and unstressed syllables like this.

18. Shakespeare and Iambs
Shakespeare is famous for using Iambs in his poetry.
He used Iambic Pentameter almost exclusively.
So what is Iambic pentameter?
Lets break it down.

19. Iambic pentameter
An iamb is an unstressed and a stressed syllable. Penta (like Pentagon) means five and meter is the rhythm. So Iambic pentameter means there will be five iambs per line of poetry (or 10 syllables).

20. Example of Iambic Pentameter
From Sonnet 18

21. Syllabic Rhyme
Some poets use meter as a form of rhyme. This helps trick the mind into anticipating the length of the next line of poetry.

22. Example of Syllabic rhyme
MY SOUL IS DARK
My soul is dark – Oh! quickly string And ach’d in sleepless silence long;
The harp I yet can brook to hear; And now ‘tis doom’d to know the worst,
And let thy gentle fingers fling And break at once – or yield to song.
Its melting murmurs o’er mine ear.
If in this heart a hope be dear, ~Lord Byron (1815)
That sound shall charm it forth again:
If in these eyes there lurk a tear, (All 8 Syllable Lines)
‘Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain.
But bid the strains be wild and deep,
Nor let thy notes of joy be first:
I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep,
Or else this heavy heart will burst;
For it hath been by sorrow nursed,

23. Do Now
Read I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud and In Between again, and find out what type of syllabic rhyme is used.

24. Homework
Create a rhyming poem that has a working rhyme scheme, that also uses syllabic rhyme.
Use one of these two patterns
Meter (8,6) Rhyme Scheme(aabbccdd) OR
Meter (Iambic Pentameter) Rhyme Scheme (ababcdcd)