Making Meter

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In a previous lesson, I discussed the nature of meter. However, knowing what meter is and knowing why using it in poetry is important, and writing meter are hardly the same thing. Since these lessons are intended to help you write poetry, theory has to meet practice. 

There's a degree to which the English language follows a simple iambic pattern, which results in many people writing mostly iambic verse unconsciously. But art is supposed to be purposeful--at least, to a great degree. As an artist, I want to make sure that I am using the words I want to use, the rhythm I want to create, and so on. To this end, we need to try to understand how the English language naturally falls into certain rhythmic patterns. 

Most people have difficulty learning to write in rhythm. Many fall into writing free verse because of this difficulty. However, nobody should be writing free verse because they cannot write in iambic pentameter, trochaics, or whatever rhythmic patterns you can imagine. That is like becoming an abstract expressionist artist because you cannot draw. You're not making a choice in the matter--the lack of skill is what's directing what you do--and if you're not making a choice, you're not an artist. That's why getting all the fundamentals down is important. 

There are many words and syllables which are naturally stressed or unstressed. However, there is variability of how stressed a given syllable may be, and context can certainly matter. A weakly unstressed syllable or word can be pressed into becoming stressed by being surrounded by more strongly unstressed syllables/words. The same is true of stressed words and syllables--if a weakly-stressed syllable is surrounded by more strongly stressed syllables/words, it will become unstressed. To practice, though, it's probably good to try to stick with simple, clear stressed-unstressed syllables.

There are several shortcuts to getting a rhythm down in your poem.

The first thing to note is that the articles--a, an, the--are all unstressed words. 

   ˘ /

The rock

It's hard to push an article into being stressed, but hardly impossible. 

A word like "of" is typically going to be unstressed, but it can be easily pushed into being stressed. For example:

   ˘ / ˘ /

The Book of Forms

   ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘

The Making of a Poem

In the above book titles, the rhythm of the word "of" is different because of the words which surround it. In the first, "book" and "forms" are both strongly stressed, so there's no question about whether or not "of" should be unstressed. In the second, "making" is stressed-unstressed, and "a" is unstressed. "Of" is thus surrounded by strongly unstressed syllables, pushing it into being slightly stressed. 

This can also happen within words. For example, the word "able" is stressed-unstressed. However, notice what happens when you make it a suffix of "believe":

 ˘ / ˘ /

believable

The strong stress of the second syllable of "believe" pushes the "a" of "able" into becoming unstressed, and the "ble" into becoming stressed. You'll note that this is very common in words with the suffix "able."

Indeed, the stresses in "believe" are strong enough that they will even turn a prefix such as "un," which is typically unstressed, into being stressed:

/ ˘ / ˘ /

unbelievable

Here, we have another example of a natural unstressed syllable, which is the suffix. Much of the time, both prefixes and suffixes are unstressed. (Ironically, the words "prefix" and "suffix" violate this general pattern.)

As just noted, prefixes are typically unstressed.

  ˘ / ˘ / ˘ /

unkempt        unloved       unfair

  ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘

before            behind          befuddled

Notice that, though the "b" sound is a strong sound and might typically be part of a stressed syllable, the "be" prefix is nevertheless unstressed.

In "befuddled," we also see that the "ed" ending, when fully pronounced, is unstressed. This is typical of suffixes. If we take the stressed word "love," and add the "ly" suffix, we get

  / ˘

lovely

Suffixes added to a stressed word will thus be unstressed:

  / ˘.  / ˘    / ˘

granted          truly         walking

Again, the presence of an unstressed syllable at the end of the root word can press the suffix into being stressed:

/ ˘ / / ˘ /

fidgeted          nervously

As you can see, then, this is more an art than a science (it is poetry, after all). However, the general rule that articles, prefixes, and suffixes are unstressed will generally help you create regular meters. As you practice using very strongly stressed and unstressed words, you will eventually hear the rhythm and internalize it more and more. Once that happens, you can then play around with less clearly stressed and unstressed words and syllables, and play around with metrical patterns to create meaning in violations of a regular meter. 

The greatest art, including the greatest poetry, is balanced between regularity and irregularity. The variations within stressed and unstressed syllables themselves help to create additional music/rhythms on top of the regular rhythms of iambic, anapestic, trochaic, etc. meters. As you learn to hear the regularities, you'll start to write good, solid meter. Once you hear the regularities, you'll then be more able to hear the irregularities as well. And then, you'll start to write more complex, more beautiful meter--and do so more intentionally as well.