University of Idaho Interpritation of Poetry Forms of Lit Rhythm Essay – Description
1. All music has rhythm–defined as the recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds–even if we don’t describe it the same way we talk about the rhythm of poetry. For this exercise, first choose a song from popular music and describe its rhythm. (Don’t choose “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore.) Name the song and artist and link to it in your first sentence. Discuss such things as whether the rhythm is regular or irregular; what instrument or sounds create the beat; whether the beats are fast or slow; whether stressed sounds are separated by many or few unstressed sounds; and how the stress of the beat relates to the words of the lyrics.
Next, convert the verses of the song into either iambic pentameter (like the example below) or trochaic tetrameter (the meter of “The Song of Hiawatha”). You can leave out the chorus and the “Ooh, ahh, baby”‘s.
In the example below, Tumblr blogger Kevin Bingham converted Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” into a formal sonnet, in iambic pentameter. Bingham used Shakespearean diction and a regular rhyme scheme, but you don’t need to do that unless you want to. All that’s required is the correct rhythm.
“I shalt pop some tags, only possess 20 shilling within my pocket.”
These tags I’ll pop, and boast in rhyming verse
that what I wear puts swagger in my gait;
though twenty shillings have I in my purse,
my self-esteem and manhood both inflate
when lofty furs I purchase for a cent.
Thy grandpa’s clothes are worthy salvage, though
they smell a trifle musty. Still, I spent
much less to dress myself from head to toe.
To save or not to save? The question’s moot.
I’ll never give my coin to high-street crooks.
These dusty shelves will yield their hidden loot
to those, like me, more frugal in their looks.
Like ancient coins washed up on distant shores,
I’ll find my treasures in these thrifty stores.
– Macklemore, “Thrift Shoppe”
2. Reflect on the exercise you completed in #1. What did you learn about the song, about rhythm and meter, about poetry, and about your own writing?
3. Choose any poem by William Blake, Joy Harjo (the US Poet Laureate), or Naomi Shihab Nye (the Poetry Foundation’s “Young People’s Poet Laureate”). Read the poem aloud several times, or listen to it several times if audio is available. Next, analyze the poem in approximately 300 words, quoting from the poem throughout your discussion and using course vocabulary. Name the poem and poet in your first sentence. Then give your overall sense of the poem: what is about? What is it like? How do you know? You may want to describe the poem’s speaker, tone, lineation, diction, imagery, and figures of speech–whichever seem most important to understanding the poem (or whichever seem most puzzling, if you struggle to understand the poem). Next, describe the poem’s rhythm. If the poem uses a regular metrical pattern, what is it? Does the poet break from it at any point? How does the rhythm relate to the meanings of words and lines and the experience of the poem as a whole? If the poem is written in free verse (meaning there is not a regular meter), look for spots where rhythmic patterns are repeated or where the rhythm shifts. Does the rhythm create gentle, flowing sounds or sharp, syncopated sounds? (Quote them!) How does rhythm contribute to the meaning or experience of the poem?
4. Ask one or two questions you’d like your classmates to discuss.
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