Iambic, anapestic, trochaic, dactylic, HUH?

[jentancalann]

Can someone familiar w/ poetry help me figure out what the four basic feet in poetry means? I just am not getting the gist of this idea. The only info I've been given in LLATL Green is this:

 

"When listening to poetry we usually hear the syllables of a line in groups of two's or three's. For example, if we stress the first syllable of a word but not the next, the rhythm sounds like DUMM-de DUMM-de, etc. We can mark it like this to show a stressed syllable: ('); and an unstressed syllable: (U). Each of these rhythmic units is called a foot. " I'm stuck at the first sentence- hear the syllables of a line in groups of two's or three's.

 

iambic - de-DUMM (U')

anapestic- de-de-DUMM (UU')

trochaic- DUMM-de ('U)

dactylic- DUMM-de-de ('UU)

 

The following is excerpt is in the iambic foot.

 

The Wind by RLStevenson

 

I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies' skirts across the grass-

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

 

Help me figure this out, I just don't get it. I am no poet, and DEFINITELY know it! :-)

[Matryoshka]

.

 

The Wind by RLStevenson

 

I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies' skirts across the grass-

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

 

Help me figure this out, I just don't get it. I am no poet, and DEFINITELY know it! :-)

 

Maybe it would help to clap out the rhythm of the words? Remember it's syllables, not words - stresses are bolded..

 

I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies' skirts across the grass-

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

 

Since an iambic foot is unstress/stress, you can count the iambs in each line - there are four, so the poem is in iambic tetrameter.

 

Does that help?

[kokotg]

It's tricky...you kind of have to train your ear to hear it. Try reading the poem in a really exaggerated, sing-song way, clapping on the emphasized syllables:

 

I SAW you TOSS the KITES on HIGH

And BLOW the BIRDS aBOUT the SKY;

 

...it's also not an exact science--it's not like doing a math problem. The meter in this poem is really regular, but more often you'll come across a lot of irregularities--at least in contemporary poetry.

[Jean in Newcastle]

If you exaggerate the way you would read it aloud, then you start to hear the rhythm of the lines

 

I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies' skirts across the grass-

O wind, a-blowing all day long,

O wind, that sings so loud a song!

 

The underlined parts are the stressed syllables. And notice that since many of these words are one syllable words, that it is often every other word. But also notice that when there are words of more than one syllable that only part of the word is stressed.

[tearose]

Mary Oliver's Rules for the Dance is an excellent poetry guide. She goes through meter, feet, scansion, etc. very clearly. It's a really good guide to have if you'll be teaching poetry but consider yourself somewhat weak in the area.

[hsmom3tn]

I wish someone could explain it to me, too. :tongue_smilie:

 

I can hear the iambic pentameter when it's as clear as mud like that, but otherwise I don't get it.... and don't get any of the others either. :confused:

[abbeyej]

Well, when you read the first lines of that poem, you naturally sound like this, right?:

"I SAW // you TOSS // the KITES // on HIGH

And BLOW // the BIRDS // aBOUT // the SKY"

You get an unstressed, then a stressed syllable. Each set ("you TOSS" or "the KITES") is a single iambic foot. This poem is written in "iambic tetrameter" because each line consists of four iambic feet.

duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM

 

Anapest sounds more like:

For the DOG // and the CAT // go on FIGHT // ing like THAT.

 

Trochaic would be a line more like:

YOU who // ARE not // WELcome // HERE.

 

Dactylic is like:

HICKory // DICKory // DOCK.

 

Notice, it's not the *words*, but the *syllables* that matter.

[hsmom3tn]

Well, when you read the first lines of that poem, you naturally sound like this, right?:

"I SAW // you TOSS // the KITES // on HIGH

And BLOW // the BIRDS // aBOUT // the SKY"

You get an unstressed, then a stressed syllable. Each set ("you TOSS" or "the KITES") is a single iambic foot. This poem is written in "iambic tetrameter" because each line consists of four iambic feet.

duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM

 

Anapest sounds more like:

For the DOG // and the CAT // go on FIGHT // ing like THAT.

 

Trochaic would be a line more like:

YOU who // ARE not // WELcome // HERE.

 

Dactylic is like:

HICKory // DICKory // DOCK.

 

Notice, it's not the *words*, but the *syllables* that matter.

 

 

:hurray: I think I get it!

[jentancalann]

its becoming much clearer, i think i get it. thank you!

 

i don't think i understood that i just take each syllable as it come to find the pattern.

[Sara R]

I learned this one in school:

 

“Metrical Feet†– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

Trochee trips from long to short.

From long to long in solemn sort

Slow spondee stalks; strong foot! Yet ill able

Ever to keep up with Dactyl trisyllable.

Iambics march from short to long;

With a leap and a bound the swift anapests throng.

 

Here's an online quiz I found while searching for this poem: http://unix.cc.wmich.edu/~cooneys/tchg/quiz/meter/q2/quiz.html

[StephanieZ]

If it gives you any hope, I was *completely* unable to hear meter (or stress at all) 6 months ago. . . I googled it, read examples, slogged through Building Poems (MCT level 2) with the kids. . . and, finally, after that time/exposure, I am finally beginning to hear it.

 

I think just trying, over and over, over time, helps it sink in somehow. It will get easier. I promise. :)