Listen for stressed syllables after ones that have a softer sound. They will sound like “duh-DUH. ” For example, “What LIGHT from YON • der Window breaks?” includes an iambic pattern.
Listen for stressed syllables at the beginning of words when you read them out loud. The words will sound like “DUH-duh. ” For example, “TYger! TYger! BURN • ing bright,” features a trochaic pattern. [3] X Research source
Instead of a soft syllables coupled with a louder one, spondees sound like 2 loud bursts, such as “DUH-DUH. ”
This type of rhythm would sound like, “DUH-duh-duh. ”
The sound you are looking for is, “duh-duh-DUH. ”
Does the poem have a noticeable beat when you read it out loud? If so, what is it? Is there a musical quality to the poem? If so, what tune might go well with the poem? What syllables or words have the most and least emphasis when I read them out loud?
For example, in the word “today” the unstressed syllable is at the beginning of the word and the stressed syllable is at the end of the word, so the emphasis is on “day” and it sounds like “to • DAY. ”
For example, you could place an asterisk (*) above syllables that are stressed and a dash (-) above syllables that are unstressed.
For example, a line that reads, “The SUM • mer SUN was SHI • ning BRIGHT,” has a clear syllable pattern of unstressed/stressed/unstressed/stressed. On the other hand, a line that reads, “The SUN was BRIGHT that day,” does not have a distinctive pattern. You could adjust it to something like, “The RIS • ing SUN was BRIGHT that DAY,” so that the syllables have a definite pattern of unstressed/stressed/unstressed/stressed.
Read the poems out loud and listen for the rhythm. Mark the unstressed and stressed syllables in some of the poems to give yourself practice at identifying different forms of rhythm. Attempt to recreate a poem’s rhythm using your own writing. For example, you could take the syllable pattern of a poem and use it to help you add the same rhythm to one of your poems.
Bring your poetry with you to the group and let people know that you are hoping to improve the rhythm of your poetry. Try saying something like, “I want to work on creating rhythm in my poems, so any feedback you can provide along those lines would be especially helpful. ”
As an added bonus, by taking a class you will also be able to get feedback from someone who studies poetry—and possibly even publishes their own poetry—for a living.
