Zoned Out on Poetry #2

Rhythm

Rhythm in poetry is like a beat in music. Poets make use of the natural stresses in language in order to create rhythm in poetry. Rhythms may be used to generate a mood or tone, which may copy or echo what the poem is about. Rhythm is apparent in many children’s nursery rhymes such as in “Humpty Dumpty” where the sound of horses galloping is clearly reflected in the stressed syllables. 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horse and all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Listen to the eerie incantation of the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth:

DOU-ble, / DOU-ble / TOIL and / TROU-ble;
FI-re / BURN, and / CAL-dron / BUB-ble.

In Sea Fever John Masefield describes his longing to go to sea. There is an undulating rhythm that reflects the motion of the waves.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking

And in Mother to Son Langston Hughes creates the laborious plod up the ladder of life:                Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.