Vowel Movements and the Art of Feng Schwa - or- Syllables and Stresses in English Poetry

If you are going to write metered poetry (that is, poetry that is not in free verse style), a good rhythmical structure can make the difference between professional looking poetry that wins awards, and amateur looking poetry that never gets taken seriously. Funnily enough, a good sense of rhythm can also have a dramatic effect on the emotive power of a piece of free verse poetry as well. Being able to cause the reader to read with a specific rhythm, or intentionally breaking them out of it, can have a significant effect on what can be conveyed through the poetry. This is the reason we (that is creative writing lecturers) insist on students learning to at least master something like iambic pentameter and have a basic understanding of some other commonly used rhythms.

*Note - I am from South Australia and my pronunciation notes might not fit if you are from some other part of the world.

The key to good rhythmic poetry is recognising the natural stresses in the English language. Every native English speaker naturally knows (although often not consciously) the normal stresses in the words they use every day. This is easy to demonstrate verbally, but much harder to see in written text.

The English language breaks up fairly naturally into syllables. One simple way to find the syllables in a word is to put your hand on your chin while you speak the word. Each time your chin moves, count it as a syllable. Please take note, this will only work well if you speak slowly and clearly, articulating your words properly and opening your mouth when you speak. If you mumble or speak too quickly or unclearly, you may find it difficult to tell.

Try these words…

right                    1               right

alright                 2               al right
second                2               sec ond

secondly             3               sec ond ly
again                   2               a gain
in                         1              in

inward                 2              in ward
inwardly              3              in ward ly
expectation          4              ex pec ta tion

Most (but certainly not all) English words naturally have the stress on the first syllable, and most native English speakers have little trouble distinguishing a syllable. When a native English speaker pronounces a word with several syllables, they always put stress on certain syllables more than others. The stress usually occurs on every other syllable with the strongest stress usually being the first stressed syllable. Stresses in multi-syllabic (more than one syllable) words can vary in degree, but for the present we are interested primarily in stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.

Try listening to the way you say the following...
elder
imperial
altitude
terminal
Adelaide
banana
psychologist

You will, if you listen closely, hear that you naturally stress the words so that some syllables are stronger, or more important than the others. Here is the same list with the words broken into syllables and the natural stresses underlined.eld er
im per i al
al ti tude
term i nal
ad e laide
ba na na
psy chol o gist

If you were to pronounce these words with the stress on the wrong syllable, they would sound very wrong to you, you might not even recognise them as the same words. This is hard to distinguish without hearing them out loud.

Try reading these words from the “sounds like” list…

el der                    sounds like            ul- Derr
imp e ri al             sounds like            imp a real
al tit ude               sounds like            el- Tit yed
ter min al              sounds like           ter- Minnall
a del aide              sounds like           eDellid
ban a na                sounds like           barn a narr
psych o lo gist      sounds like           syke a low-jst

Consider the word photograph;photophotographphotographyphotographer

the stress changes in the last two

photographer       sounds like            fowta- grafer
photographer       sounds like            fe- togra fer

The first sounds like a person who is responsible for the specific picture in question, where the other sounds like a job a person can do where they take pictures for a living.

And also the word invalid; if you say invalid like this...invalid                sounds like             inver lid

Your listener might think you are talking about someone who can't walk because of a nasty injury. Whereas, if you say it like this...
invalid               sounds like              in-Vallerd

This sounds as though you mean a bus ticket that has expired.

Here we see two very different meanings for the same spelling; the only difference is the stress. One way to spot where the stress is, is to look for the syllable that is not pronounced correctly. This will sound strange to most native speakers until they actually try it.

Look at the word “doctor” do you pronounce it as “docta”? Is that different from “doctuh” or “docteh”? We do not pronounce the word as doc-tor. The first syllable is a stressed syllable, the second in unstressed. You could conceivably switch in any vowel into the place of the second “o” and it would sound much the same.

The unstressed vowel pronunciation is what we call a “schwa” (marked like this – ə) the word doctor in a dictionary’s phonetic pronunciation guide looks something like this – doktər. Notice that the bold face syllable is the stressed syllable, and the schwa is in the unstressed syllable. This makes a dictionary a good tool to use for poetry if you are struggling with stresses.

Let’s try another one. “Camelot” (Kaməlot) – the castle where King Arthur lived – usually sounds like “kam-a-lot”. How different does it sound if you read it spelled this way: Camalot, Camilot, Camulot or Camolot? They each sound much the same because the middle syllable is unstressed. If you try the same experiment with the other syllables, Cumelut, Comelit, Cemelat or Cimelet the word doesn’t sound anything like the original word.

The trick with rhythm in poetry is to arrange the natural stresses that occur in your words so that they fall into a pre-determined pattern. That way, the reader will find themself reading your poetry the way you want them to. The pattern of iambic rhythm is first unstressed and then stressed – like the word about; the “a” at the beginning is not stressed, and the rest of the word “bout” forms a single stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter has ten syllables arranged into five repetitions of this pattern, for example...

I dream about the sun and holidays.

This is not a particularly clever verse, but simple enough to follow. Most of the less important single syllable words in the line, (I / the / and) are generally not stressed, and the important ones (dream / sun) are stressed. The other words have natural stresses that I have underlined to show the pattern.

In the case of single syllable words, usually nouns and verbs are most likely to require stresses, where as conjunctions and prepositions are more likely to be unstressed. If the established pattern of syllables causes a conjunction or a preposition to be placed on a stressed syllable, its significance in the sentence is enhanced by the placement in much the same way as it would be if you verbally enhanced it with a more emphatic statement.
Here’s an example…

“This time Carlos took his keys and his wallet,” Kelly told them.

In this sentence, the emphasis placed on the word “and” suggests that previously, Carlos, the person Kelly is talking about, had taken his keys and forgotten his wallet. The conjunction’s emphasis makes it more important in the sentence.

Back to the previous example of iambic pentameter…

I dream about the sun and holidays.

Sometimes we draw the pattern like this: . _ . _ . _ . _ . _

Each set of two (an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable) is called a "foot" and iambic pentameter has five feet. I’ll number them for you...

I dream  (1) about (2) the sun (3) and hol (4) idays. (5)

The point of this is that the reader finds themself reading with a song-ish rhythm without realising it. By carefully arranging the verbs and nouns along with the prepositions and conjunctions, the poet is able to make their reader read the words with a rhythm that makes them feel a bit like singing. Well written verse actually makes the reader feel an emotion they may not be aware of.

Think about lines from Dr Seuss, his poetry is so delightful to read because he has such a strong rhythm and rhyme scheme.

I would not eat them on a boat,
I would not eat them with a goat,
I do not like green eggs and ham,
I do not like them, Sam I am.

(Geisel [AKA Dr Seuss]1960)

This is iambic tetrameter (four feet per line).

The exact rhymes at the end of each line make it sound childish and playful, and are further strengthened because the rhyme falls on the stressed syllable at the end of the lines. Reading them becomes repetitive, and the reader feels the need to almost sing the lines. The words are predictable, so a child can guess them before they are said, and there is a sense of fulfilment as the expected word arrives at the end of the line where it should.

This is brilliant poetry for children, but the best adult poetry is much more discreet with rhyme and rhythm. For the sake of the learning experience, we like to start people on the easy and obvious rhyme and rhythms first, and then move toward the less obvious, as skills develop.

Here’s another example verse of my own devising…

And as I trudged about the town, lopsided, in my dusty gown, I saw a shoe, and looking down I knew that now at last I’d found the second of the pair.

The first verb in this very long sentence is “trudged”. The three words before it “and as I” are all words that will naturally fall into whatever pattern exists nearby. The word “about” is a very strongly stressed word, where the “a” at the beginning is unstressed, and the “bout” is a strong stress. The words “the town” follow the same pattern as “about” because “the” is naturally unstressed and “town” is a noun, and therefore naturally more likely to need a stress. This means that the first three words will fit into the pattern that is set up by the words that follow.

The pattern created is this…

And as I trudged a bout the town…

This is an iambic rhythm, and is carried on through the rest of the lines so that the reader finds themselves reading with that rhythm even if they are unaware of it. The rhyming words of town, gown, down and found occur on every eighth syllable, which suggests to the reader that the lines should be broken up like this…

And as / I trudged / about / the town,

Lopsid / ed, in / my dus / ty gown,

I saw / a shoe, / and look / ing down

I knew / that now / at last / I’d found

The sec / ond of / the pair.

This is another example of iambic tetrameter, but I have intentionally shortened the last line of the stanza and not used a rhyme, in order to draw attention to it because it is like the punch line of a joke. I want my reader to notice that the person in the story is walking lopsided because they are wearing one shoe, and have only now found the second. I chose iambic tetrameter because the rhythm reminds me of a person walking around with only one shoe on.

The next stanza of the poem is written in a different rhythm because the person is dancing for joy now that they finally have the completed pair of shoes.

Triumphantly waltzing along the old street,

With joy in my heart and two shoes on my feet,

And what should I care if I’ve nothing to eat?

At least I have time for a dance.

The first word, “triumphantly” could be read with a stress on the second syllable only (umph), or on the second and fourth syllable. The next word, “waltzing” is a very strongly stressed word, where the “ing” at the end is unstressed, and the “waltz” is a strong stress. This means that the first two words set up a pattern called amphibrachic tetrameter which is continued by the words that follow. Amphibrachic rhythm has three syllables in each foot with the stress in the middle between two unstressed syllables.

The pattern created is this…

Tri umph ant ly waltz ing a long the old street,

We draw it like like this: ._ . ._ . ._ . ._ .

Tri umph ant (1) ly waltz ing (2) a long the (3) old street, (4*)

With joy in / my heart and / two shoes on / my feet,

*You will notice that there is an unstressed syllable missing from the end of each line. This is an intentional change I have made to allow the single stress at the end of the line to make the rhymes as simple and clear as the first stanza.

Geisel T S, 1960, Green Eggs and Ham. Beginner Books, New York.