Week 3: Rhyme, Rhythm, Meter, Cadence

Monday, August 28

  • In class:
    • Lecture on the sounds of poetry & rhyme
  • Assignment:
    • Read The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, “Rhyme,” “Rhythm” and “Meter,”
    • Share an excerpt from a song or poem that has a catchy rhythm or rhyme.
    • Bring 100 Best Loved Poems to class

Wednesday, August 30

  • In class:
    • Discussion of metrical feet and scansion.
    • “Scenario” A Tribe Called Quest
    • “The Corner” by Common
  •  Assignment:
    • In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, read “Accentual-Syllabic Verse,” “iamb,” “trochee,” “anapest,” “dactyl,” “phyrric,” “spondee”
    • Bring 100 Best Loved Poems to class.

Friday, September 1

  • In class:
    • In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, read “Scansion” “Trimeter” “Tetrameter” “Pentameter”
    • Scanning Exercise 3279
  • Assignment:
    • Perform a metrical analysis of 1-2 stanzas from a song or poem you like.
    • Post in our Facebook group, along with a link to the stanzas and a summary of your findings.

By Leonardo Flores

Professor Leonardo Flores is Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University. He taught at the English Department at University of Puerto Rico: Mayagüez Campus from 1994 to 2019. He is President of the Electronic Literature Organization. He was the 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. His research areas are electronic literature and its preservation via criticism, documentation, and digital archives. He is the creator of a scholarly blogging project titled I ♥ E-Poetry, co-editor of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3, and has a Spanish language e-lit column in 80 Grados. He is currently co-editing the first Anthology of Latin American Electronic Literature. For more information on his current work, visit leonardoflores.net.