I thought it would be useful to post an explanation of rhythm online. We were working today to ensure that the lines in the students’ songs all had similar rhythms.

Rhythm in poetry happens when the stressed syllables of a verse form a pattern.

TWINkle, TWINkle, LITtle STAR,
HOW I WONder WHAT you ARE.

In this verse, the stresses fall every second syllable. In addition, the lines of the poem all have seven syllables. Rhythm is even more important than counting syllables, because that’s what will help keep a flow in the verses and will make it easy to set to music.

Back to Twinkle Twinkle:

If we say the rhythm of these first two lines without the actual words, it goes something like this:

TEE-tee TEE-tee TEE-tee TA,
TEE-tee, TEE-tee, TEE-tee, TA

There are also times when the stress can fall every third word, and the rhythm can be different:

my NAME is John JOHNson I
COME from WisCONson I
WORK in the LUMbermill THERE...etc.

This would result in a song in 3 or 6, rather than 2 or 4.

My best advice as the students finish working on the songs is for them to really chant their lyrics in rhythm, as they work them out.

Happy Writing!