How Poetry Works

Rhyme, metre and structure

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Aims
To look at the basic mechanics of poetry
or how it works so not at what the poem
is about
To understand that poetry has rules, and
poets know about these rules (sometimes
they deliberately break them!)

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Activity 1
Read aloud these lines from the poem by
Robert Graves called Familiar Letter to
Siegfried Sassoon written in July, 1916
(this is just the beginning part)

MS 141, Box 85:

University of Buffalo

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Activity 1
S.S. = Siegfried
Sassoon
Mametz Wood =
part of the Battle of
the Somme
Fricourt = near
Mametz Wood
Apres la guerre =
French after the
war

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MS 141, Box 85: University of Buffalo

Activity 1
When you read the
poem did you
notice any words
that rhymed?
Did it feel like
music? Were
there beats in the
line?

MS 141, Box 85: University of Buffalo

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Rhyme
Rhyme is important to poetry, but not all
poetry rhymes.
In the Graves poem we had day rhyming
with way and there with guerre
When we find rhyme in a poem we tend to
describe it like abab or ababcc etc.
What does this mean?
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Rhyme scheme
A
A
B
B

Here we can see what we mean

We have noted at the end of the first line the letter A (so this stands for
the sound day) the next line ends with way, which rhymes so we also
label that A
Line 3 starts a new rhyme (there does not rhyme with way or day) so
we label this B
Line 4 rhymes with there but not day or way so we also label this B
And so on
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Rhyming Scheme

How would we note the rhyme in this poem?

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Was rhyme important to the

poets?

Yes! Here we can see Wilfred Owen writing an early version

of his poem Disabled - this is his actual handwriting!
See how he starts to note the rhyme scheme on the right
abacbcb and so on
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Beats
When we read out the poem by Robert Graves
we asked about beats, as if it was music
Read it again below and see if you can hear
something like
da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum
Can you hear the dum part is more stressed
than the da?
DA

DUM

DA

DUM DA

DUM

DA

DUM

So this poem (throughout) has four beats (four

dums) to each line, or as we would say four
stresses
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Four/Five/Six stresses?
Not all poems have four stresses to the
line. Some have five, some have more,
some mix them up.

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 Read out the lines from Vera Brittains poem.

How many beats or stresses are there?
DA

DUM

DA DUM DA

DUM

DA

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DUM

DA DUM

 Not all poets keep to regular stresses!

Here we can see a few lines from David Joness poem In Parenthesis
(part 7)
Jones is describing a soldier (72 Morgan) who has had his head cut off
by a shell, and the head sits there like the cat in Alice in Wonderland
However the stresses (da dums) are different for the lines
So, stress is important, and we should know how to find it, but
- NOT ALL poets keep to stress patterns
- WHEN YOU READ a poem try to read it naturally (dont just look for the
da-dums!)

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Was stress important to the poets?

The fact that they use it suggests so

This is part of a letter written by Robert Graves to Wilfred Owen written in early
1918, discussing Owens poem Disabled (which Graves liked). He says:
For instance you have a foot too much in
In the old days before he gave away his knees
The poem is about a soldier being disabled (losing his legs) so is Graves just
making a sick joke about having too many feet?
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A foot
A foot is just another word for the beat or
measure weve been looking at up to now
So da dum is a foot, but so is dum da or
da da dum (and so on)
So what Graves is saying to Owen is that
in this line of the poem there are too many
beats, stresses, and so on

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Was Graves Right? Here we have

two versions by Owen

In the old times, before he threw away his legs

How many stresses are there here? Five or six?

In the old times, before he smashed his knees

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What about here? Five or six stresses?

Structure
It is often important how poems are
structured
For example, how many lines are there in
the poem, how are the lines grouped, etc

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Look at this version of Anthem

for Doomed Youth by Wilfred
Owen.
Even when writing the poem
he made sure it was broken
into two chunks.
We call each chunk a stanza.
Now count the lines. How
many are there in the top
stanza? How many are there in
the second stanza?
Why?

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Summary
So we now know about:
Rhyme schemes (abab etc)
Beats/stresses/foot (which we put together
and call metre)
The structure of poems
We also know the poets knew about all of
this!
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Owens Disabled
Subject: what is the poem about?
Action: what happens in the poem?
Theme : What themes or ideas does the poem explore?
Why might it have been written?
Imagery: what descriptive, sensory detail can you find?
Figurative language: what roles do similes, metaphor
and symbolism play?
Structure: how has the poem been structured? What
does the layout contribute to the meaning of the poem?
Tone: what feelings are evoked by the poem?
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Rhythm and rhyme

What can rhythm in a poem do?

What is syllable stress?
What is emphatic stress?
Define metre
What is a foot?
Name two possible effects of rhyme in a
poem
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