Chapter 5 of 10All chapters
Chapter 5 of 10
Poetry
Compression and form.
Metre and rhyme
Iambic pentameter dominates English verse because it sits close to natural speech. Rhyme schemes and stanza patterns define forms such as the sonnet, villanelle and ballad.
- Free verse abandons regular metre but not rhythm.
- Enjambment runs sense past the line ending, creating tension.
Reading a poem
Read it aloud, find the sentence structure under the lines, then look at where the poem turns. Most short poems pivot at least once.