Term #11 - RHYTHM

definition

by reading poems with stressed and unstressed voice (rise, fall, longer duration...) on different syllables, we will create the beats of the poem through the regular, repeated patterns we make. it's like the music of language.

example

William Shakespeare - Sonnet #18

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

the poem flows in these beat: "di-dum di-dum dum-di di-dum di-dum"

significance

the interesting part of rhythm is it creates beat, music, it's attractive by its sounds, if a writer knows how to deliver the rhythm but not because of that the poem loses its meaning, the readers can read the poem without feeling bored. unlike lyrics of any songs, readers can make music by just reading the poem, they do not need the singer to give them the melody of the song. rhythm can excite and give readers interests to continue read the poems.