Poetry: Understanding Rhythm and Meter

Many people have a difficult time understanding and using rhythm and meter in poetry. I was certainly one of them.  For this reason, when I took a seminar in teaching writing for my master's degree, I included activities to tackle them in my lesson plans. If you find yourself needing extra help, or even a refresher, on rhythm and meter, check out the video below.

Do you try to work in rhythm and meter in your poetry? If you usually stick to free verse, give it a try sometime! It really helps to solidify an understanding of the concepts.

Lesser Known Literary Terms: Portmanteau

You can have a bromance.

Or enjoy a nice brunch.

Chillax after a long day...

...in your McMansion, of course.

Lesser Known Literary Terms: Polyptoton

Can you think of other famous examples?

Literary Devices: Anagram

Exercise: Personification of Kitchen Appliances

Next time you need some practice, try this exercise on for size! Look around your home and choose four appliances. Let your mind be your guide, but here's a list if you just want to randomly choose:

Blender
Microwave
Toaster
Stand Mixer
Hand Mixer
Coffee Pot
Food Processor
Refrigerator
Freezer
Dishwasher
Stove

Teapot
Rice Cooker
Waffle Maker
Pasta Maker
Bread Maker
Toaster Oven

George Foreman Grill

Crock Pot/Slow Cooker

Once you've made your selections, write a poem or short story where you bring these four appliances to life. Not literally, figuratively. Use personification (giving human qualities to animals, inanimate objects, or ideas) to make describe these objects in a new way. Does your teapot whistle? Maybe your toaster spits out a bagel. The fire of your gas stove could hug pots and pans. It doesn't have to be complicated, but I ask you to challenge yourself! One final tip: avoid usual descriptions (like a teapot whistling). Your imagination is your only limitation!

Lesser Known Literary Terms: Circumlocution

Sometimes you just wish someone would say what they mean. No frill, no dancing around the topic, no circumlocution. While this device can improve a story when used carefully and sparingly, too much circumlocution can lose your reader and make reading more tedious than fun. Use circumlocution to have your characters dance around a subject, avoid stating something, provide an important hint, persuade the audience, or amplify humor.

Lesser Known Literary Terms: Caesura

Yes, there is a term for that! You use caesura in your writing without even knowing it every time you place a colon, semicolon, dash, or ellipsis. These pauses are important. They offset, they interject, they emphasize.

"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe is an excellent example of caesura. Poe utilitzes this device to show his narrator's character, his train of thought, and his madness.

I WAS sick --sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears.

I had swooned; but still will not say that all of consciousness was lost. What of it there remained I will not attempt to define, or even to describe; yet all was not lost. In the deepest slumber -- no! In delirium -- no! In a swoon -- no! In death -- no! even in the grave all is not lost. 

These shadows of memory tell, indistinctly, of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down -- down -- still down -- till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the descent. 

Down -- steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right -- to the left -- far and wide -- with the shriek of a damned spirit; to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled as the one or the other idea grew predominant. 

By using caesura carefully and intentionally, you can help your reader paint a clearer picture of your intent and, as in Poe's story, of your characters. This device is more powerful than you might have thought.

10 Common Literary Devices (With Examples)

There are certain literary devices that I use often in my writing because they are simple and seem to make it flow. I never bothered to intentionally use them when I wrote in the past, but now I find that they just add that extra something. A literary device has to do with the sound, repetition, meaning, and description of words or phrases. Used wisely, these devices can really enhance your work and create a deeper level of meaning that readers will enjoy decoding. Try some of these in your next poem or story.

(Mini Magnum by hobvias sudoneighm via CC)

1. Alliteration. This is one of the easiest go-to devices to use. Alliteration involves the quick repetition of the first letters, and therefore the first sounds, of words. 
• The white witch wanted to write a new spell.
• New aunt Anita aimed to avoid annoying her tired sister.
2. Personification. Giving inanimate objects and other phenomena human traits.
• The leaves danced in the wind, twirling round and round before bowing out and resting on the cold ground.
3. Simile. Comparing two unrelated things to creating new understanding and meaning. They are marked by the use of "like," "as,"or "such as."
• She ran like the wind.
• His eyes were as blue as the sky.
4. Foreshadowing. Words, phrases, or events that hint or suggest to the reader what's going to happen in the story.
• In To Kill a Mockingbird, finding the presents in the oak tree foreshadows the truth about Boo Radley.
• Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" foreshadows the narrator's actions from the start of the story: I can't say how the idea first entered my brain, but once it was there, it haunted me day and night. There wasn't any reason for it. I liked the old man.
5.  Satire. Using humor, wit, or sarcasm to expose human vice or folly.
• In television, the creators of South Park have built their success on satire.
• My favorite example is Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal."
6. Symbolism. Using objects or action to mean something more than what appears on the surface.
• The dawn of a new day often is used to symbolize a new beginning.
• The albatross in in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" symbolizes a burden: Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks / Had I from old and young ! / Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung
• In daily life, people often associate colors with ideas. Black with death. Red with love. White with purity or peace.
7. Onomatopoeia. Words whose sound mimics natural sounds or sounds of an object. These words help bring the reader into the scene by working on the senses.
• Bang! Flutter. Buzzzzz! Hum.
• The birds tweet in chipper chatter outside the window.
• A loud bang jarred me from sleep.
8. Metaphor. A device that asserts that one object is another, bringing new meaning to the original subject for a fresh understanding.
• A common metaphor: it's raining cats and dogs.
• From Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet": But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
• Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. - George Orwell
9. Hyperbole. Exaggerating a statement or idea to emphasize a point or emotion.
• If I take another step, my feet will fall off.
• She's so thin she could thread a needle.
• If his teeth were any whiter, I'd be blind.
10.  Oxymoron. A device that puts two contradictory ideas together to create complex meaning. (See top photo)
• Their relationship was an open secret.
• The sight of the living dead shuffling below sent a blazing chill down her spine.
• It's hard to explain that comforting pain to those who don't understand.

What are some of your favorite literary devices? Do you have a favorite example of one of these? Please share in the comments!

Line Breaks, Syllables, Organization

Careful use of line breaks can alter a poem's rhythm, tone, and meaning.  The poem below is full of imagery that can be grouped and broken to change the entire feel of the poem.  You might have to pull out the old dictionary to find the meaning of some of the words.  As you read the poem, think about how you would change the line breaks or reorganize the words.  Read the original below and then my "rewrite" is after the jump.

"Silent Poem" by Robert Francis

backroad leafmold stonewall chipmunk
underbrush grapevine woodchuck shadblow

woodsmoke cowbarn honeysuckle woodpile
sawhorse bucksaw outhouse wellsweep

backdoor flagstone bulkhead buttermilk
candlestick ragrug firedog brownbread

hilltop outcrop cowbell buttercup
whetstone thunderstorm pitchfork steeplebush

gristmill millstone cornmeal waterwheel
watercress buckwheat firefly jewelweed

gravestone groundpine windbreak bedrock
weathercock snowfall starlight cockcrow

My Version of "Silent Poem"

Backroad leafmold
    stonewall

chipmunk underbrush
grapevine woodchuck
    shadblow

woodsmoke cowbarn
    honeysuckle

woodpile sawhorse bucksaw
outhouse wellsweep backdoor
flagstone bulkhead
  
buttermilk
   candlestick
      ragrug
         firedog
            brownbread

hilltop outcrop
cowbell
    buttercup

whetstone thunderstorm pitchfork
     steeplebush
gristmill millstone cornmeal waterwheel
    watercress buckwheat

firefly jewelweed
gravestone groundpine
windbreak bedrock

weathercock
    snowfall
        starlight

            cockcrow


In my reinvention, I intentionally looked at the items with a wide lense and then brought in the focus to certain elements by imaging the scene.  For instance, with the lines

buttermilk
   candlestick
      ragrug
         firedog
            brownbread

I imagined someone carrying a pitcher of buttermilk, passing by the candle light to sit on the ragrug in front of the fireplace (firedog: the metal supports for logs in a fireplace) and enjoy a snack of bread and milk.  The original author oriented it differently, painting the picture differently through his line breaks and organization.  At the end of the poem, I specifically utilized white space (the literal white, empty space around the poem), line breaks, and line spacing to reverse my wide to narrow focus and introduce the fading of starlight and dawning of a new day (cockrow: the time when cocks first crow, or early morning).  There are so many ways to "play" with this poem and each of them is unique and interesting.

As evidenced by this exercise, one of the beautiful aspects of poetry is its flexibility.  You can change the entire meaning and tone of a poem through use of line breaks, organization, and white space.  Don't be afraid to experiment.  Poetry gives you the freedom to throw normal sentence conventions out the window and create something all your own.  Take advantage of it!

A Beginning Poet's Assets

Poetry takes many different forms.  Meter, syllable count, rhythm, and literal shapes are combined in endless ways, or even avoided completely, to create poetic pieces.  Line breaks, organization, and white space can be used to change or create meaning in a poem.  Although my main goal is to write fiction, I find poetry writing a great exercise because it often heavily utilizes many literary devices that are beneficial to both forms.  During a recent poetry writing workshop with Southern New Hampshire University, I found the following resources most important to my writing process.


The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
A full spectrum of poetry information sorted alphabetically for easy navigation.  From poetic movements to terminology, the site a great first resource for poetry knowledge.

Shadow Poetry - A Poet's Writing Resource
Shadow Poetry explores poetic figures of speech, forms, mechanics, and terms.  The site provides definitions and examples, a poetry guide, a poetry handbook, and a word challenge poetry competition.  The numerous forms of poetry discussed and explained will prove a great resource to a poet looking to stretch out of their comfort zone, challenge their abilities, or simply learn new forms by which to express their poetic ability.

Rhymer by WriteExpress
A free rhyming dictionary that allows you to search for rhyming words by beginning rhyme, end rhyme, first syllable rhyme, last syllable rhyme, and double rhyme.  The free online version is limited, but very helpful.

Thesaurus
Find synonyms and antonyms for words.  The search breaks words down by definition, part of speech, and the directly related synonyms and antonyms for each one.  A simple click of one word will bring you to the same break down for the selected word.  Sometimes in poetry you need to express things differently from your initial wording and a thesaurus is necessary to really explore your options unless, of course, you're a walking dictionary and thesaurus.

VirtualSalt: A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
A list of 60 rhetorical devices to spice up your writing with definitions and examples for terms such as alliteration, anaphora, assonance, oxymoron, metaphor, personification, etc. 

How Many Syllables
Simple syllable counter for those words you aren't too sure about.