Class

Catch the Beat: Reading and Writing in Meter

Music and poetry are some of the oldest human art forms, even predating written language. This relationship still exists, and our class will focus on rhythm. Meter is an expression of music in poetry that tracks the rhythm of lines and stanzas. We will review and practice the rules to best read (and potentially write) poems in meter.

You may remember that Shakespeare wrote plays and poems in iambic pentameter. Many poets still write in and experiment with iambic pentameter and meter today. Learning to write in meter or to scan (scansion is counting the rhythm of a line of poetry) is like learning to read music. The problem is that the rules are opaque and often confusing. Let’s make it simple.

During our single session class, we will read selections of poems from different eras of poetry in the English language. By discussing the origins of English poetic tradition, we can track how meter has evolved: from someone like Chaucer to Emily Dickinson to Richard Wilbur. We will explore the reasons why iambic pentameter is the dominant rhythm for poetry in English. We will conclude the class with a writing exercise to try writing in meter first hand.