Shakespeare and Eminem: Meter, Rhyming and more

 

While I do like writing poetry, what I enjoy even more is reading good poetry.
There is tremendous fun in reading your kids' favourite stories and poetry in different ways, and singing them out to different tunes. There is beauty in unforced rhyme, in economy of words and most of all in the rhythm with which well-written poetry rolls off the tongue.

We may be able to sense when the rhythm of one poem 'feels' better than the rhythm of another, but is there a theory behind this feeling?

Well, there is. 
And the rhythm of a poem is dictated by what is known as its Meter.

So,
What is a Meter? How does one identify the meter of a poem? and, Why does that identification help?

The process of identifying or determining the meter of a poem or any written verse, known as 'scansion', involves identifying the pattern of stressed and un-stressed syllables in a line of the verse.

Taking an example of Shakespeare's Sonnet 2:

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tatter’d weed, of small worth held

So, reading through the lines slowly, you may realize that the lines are meant to be read this way...

when FOR-ty WIN-ters SHALL-beSIEGE-thy BROW
and DIG-deep TREN-ches IN-thy BEAU-ty's FIELD,
thy YOUTH'S-proud LIV-erY-so GAZED-on NOW,
will BE-a TATT-er'd WEED-of SMALL-worth HELD.

The syllables in CAPS represent where the stress is made and those in 'small' represent a un-stressed syllable and the pattern appears to be 'unstressed stressed', with the hyphen separating the patterns and with the pattern repeating 5 times per line. The pattern of stresses is known as a foot and the grouping of feet in a line is the meter.

This pattern of unstressed-stressed is known as an IAMB and given than there are 5 of these in a line, this sonnet is said to be written in Iambic Pentameter.

But this entire concept of meter isn't restricted to poets and playwrights long-dead. One could argue that the rap artists of today have carried forward the tradition of Shakespeare and Wordsworth.

Here's another example:

his PALMS are SWEATy; KNEES week, ARMS are HEAVy
there's VOmit ON his SWEAter alREADy, MOM'S spaGHETti
he's NERvous BUT on the SURface he looks CALM and READy
to drop BOMBS, but HE keeps ON forGETting
what he WROTE DOWN, the WHOLE crowd GOES so LOUD
he OPens his MOUTH but the words WON'T come OUT
he's CHOKing HOW, everybody's JOKing NOW
the CLOCK'S run OUT; TIME'S up OVer BLAOH!

That is from 'Lose Yourself', by Eminem but it is clear to see that the first stanza of the song is filled with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. There are clearly IAMBs at work and though the meter is a little harder to pin down, the identification of the 'foot' helps a great deal.

Here's another video, with tons more research done about Eminem's use of rhyme and rhyming scheme (more about that later) in this song, proving that it is stunningly well-written.

An example a little more recent:

VERsace, VERsace, MEDusa HEAD on me LIKE I'm 'luMINati
THIS is a GAted comMUnity, PLEASE get the F*** off the PROperty
RAP must be CHANging cause I'M at the TOP and ain't NO one on TOP of me
N***** be WANTing a VERSE for a VERSE, but man THAT'S not a SWAP to me
DROWNing in COMPliments, POOL in the BACKyard that LOOK like metROPolis

That's 'Versace' by Migos and Drake, using the scheme of stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables, which is a 'foot' called Dactyl. The 'foot' is also clearly audible from how the song is rapped.
There are six of these per line, making this meter a Dactylic Hexameter.

From just a casual listen to rap music, it seems very obvious that the genre is very dependent on beats and rhythms. Especially when rap doesn't have the typical melody of other musical genres, it is the feet and meter of the verses that give us instructions on how to sing and give the song its rhythm and its sing-along-ability.

Having dived headlong into meters, what is the meter followed by 'The Elephant and The Peanut'? The meter is, for an amateur poet, perhaps harder to achieve and so I set out towards the simpler goal of rhyming schemes i.e. how the lines rhyme with each other. I settled for AA-BB-CC-DD (1st line rhymes with the 2nd, 3rd with the 4th, 5th with the 6th, etc.).

To bring in the rhythm and pretense of meter, I just picked a song to which the poem could be sung.

Here's presenting 'The Elephant and The Peanut', sung to 'Another One Bites the Dust'. (Note: audio doesn't play on mobile).

Listen to "Another peanut bites the dust" on Spreaker.

NOTE:

Just like IAMBs, and DACTYLs, there are other 'feet' and stress sequences in poetry.

The 'Trochee' is the exact opposite of an 'Iamb', meaning that its sequence is stressed-unstressed.

We have 'Spondee', which is stressed-stressed and 'Pyrrhic', which is unstressed-unstressed.

We have the 'Anapest', which is the opposite of the 'Dactyl', which is unstressed-unstressed-stressed.

Sources:

https://penandthepad.com/determine-meter-poetry-6763947.html
https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-poetic-meter
https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/2/