Junction Books

Have you ever read a poem, http://www.poets.org that sounded so beautiful and so musical at the same time. You may be wondering how a poem can sound so melodious without a musical accompaniment. The trick here is that the poet used what is called ‘poetic rhythm.’

When a poet uses ‘poetic rhythm,’ the poet is carefully choosing both the correct word and the correct usage of said word in a poem. This is similar to a musician writing music. A musician will place proper sounding notes and tones next to other notes and tones that will complement each other.

What a poet does is looks at the iambic pentameter of a particular sonnet that is being worked on and arranges the words accordingly. To help us understand what an iambic pentameter is, let’s break it down. Iambic carries the meaning of having a specific pattern, or a beat. Pentameter means five feet or, in poetic terms, ten syllables long.

In order to find the meter when you write poetry, read the poem out loud. Once you have read it out loud once, read it again slowly. Pay close attention to the proper pronunciation of the syllables. Find out which syllables are stressed.

Once you find the stressed syllables, find the unstressed syllables and alternate.