Rhythm

When we speak in English we utter a series of syllables, some of which are stressed and some are not. Poets can take advantage of these stressed or unstressed syllables to create rhythm.

Introduction

Rhythm can be thought of as the beat or flow of a poem. It is quite a binary concept with only two options available to the poet: stressed syllables or unstressed syllables. 

To utter a stressed syllable means to simply place more emphasis on a particular part of a speech, while the opposite is true of unstressed syllables. In other words, stressed syllables are loud, and unstressed syllables are quiet. 

Where it gets interesting for poets is through the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables to communicate meaning in interesting and evocative ways.

Understanding Rhythm

We are surrounded by rhythm. It is the tapping of your pen on your desk when you're bored; the beating of the drum in the song you're listening to; and the pulsing of your heart as it pumps the blood within you. 

Let's consider that example of a beating heart for a moment (we're going to keep coming back to it throughout this guide). 

There are two pulses in a heartbeat—a softer one and a stronger one.

Let's see if we can consider language in the same way.

Spoken English consists of stressed and unstressed syllables. When speaking, we place more emphasis on the stressed syllables, and less on the unstressed ones. 

Try saying the following 3-syllable words out loud, placing stress on the bolded syllables. 

Poets carefully select language to create a desired rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables. 

Try saying the following line from Shakespeare's Hamlet out loud, again placing stress on the bolded syllables:

Can you hear the rhythm? 

But hang on, doesn't question have two syllables? (ques tion).

It does—well spotted.

Here's the thing: poets cheat—including Shakespeare (actually, especially Shakespeare). If a word doesn't quite fit the rhythm a poet is going for, they simply stretch it out to add syllables, or cut bits out to remove them—whatever it takes to make the rhythm sound the way they want. 

In the example above, the two-syllable word question needs to be squished into one syllable when we say it out loud to keep the rhythm, so that's what actors will do when reading the line out loud. 

Let's consider another line, this time from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. 

Now, why not just say comfort instead of … whatever that word is. 

Well, let's read it out loud to see how the rhythm sounds:

Nope, it doesn't work. 

Note how like sunshine after rain has a nice rhythm to it, but it doesn't work when you put Love comfort before it. 

Let's try it again the original way, placing stress on the bolded syllables as we read out loud:

There we go—sounds much better. 

Note that the word after, which has two syllables, is effectively considered one syllable here to keep the rhythm. 

Whatever works.

Natural Rhythm

Just because rhythm is about the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables, doesn't mean a piece of poetry should be read recited like a metronome. 

Poets—and actors who perform poetry—deliberately speed up or slow down while speaking depending on the desired effect. Rhythm, as Edward Hirsch observes, "...creates a pattern of yearning and expectation, of recurrence and difference.” 

Poets can also include pauses in their compositions for dramatic effect. This can be done to build tension, to give the audience a moment to reflect on something, or simply to allow a composition to breathe a little more. 

Such a pause is known as a caesura.

In writing, a caesura is represented by two upright lines (||), as seen in the opening of Homer's The Iliad:

Note that there is no comma or full stop alongside this caesura—it simply occurs mid sentence. 

This is not always the case, and a caesura can just as easily be placed alongside regular punctuation marks, as in Robert Frost's The Gift Outright:

Ending Lines

It seems natural to pause at the end of a line of poetry, but should we?

Well, sometimes—it depends on the rhythm and flow the poet is going for. 

If a line ends with a strong piece of punctuation like a full stop or a comma, we should definitely pause there. This is known as an end-stopped line. 

If a line ends at a point in a sentence where we would naturally pause, such as the end of a grammatically complete clause, it is also safe to pause. This is known as a parsed line. 

But sometimes a line ends in a weird spot. In these cases, such lines feel incomplete, as in the opening of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland:

These lines end in enjambment, and we should not pause while reading them out loud. Rather, enjambment is an invitation to quickly move on to the next line. 

Note how the use of enjambment makes the opening to The Wasteland more engaging, as if the speaker is encouraging the reader to dive into the next line to maintain the energy of the reading. 

While this could be exhausting if used for an entire poem, the strategic use of enjambment is an effective way to energise both the speaker and the audience.

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Meter