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Literature vocabulary · Poetry

Rhythm

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈrɪðəm/nounCore term

In literature, rhythm means: The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, pauses and speed in a line of poetry or prose, which gives it a sense of movement.

In Turkish: ritim, ahenk, tartım

How it is used

Used for poems, prose and speeches. Critics say a line has a fast, slow, regular or broken rhythm, and that the rhythm speeds up, slows down or mirrors the meaning. Meter is a regular, measurable kind of rhythm.

Example sentences

  1. The short words and heavy stresses give the line the rhythm of marching feet.

  2. Read the poem aloud and listen to how the rhythm changes in the last stanza.

Common collocations

  • regular rhythm
  • the rhythm of a line
  • rhythm and rhyme
  • break the rhythm
  • meterA regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry, measured in units called feet, such as the iamb (da-DUM) or the trochee (DUM-da).
  • rhymeThe repetition of the same or similar sounds at the ends of words, especially at the ends of lines in a poem, as in 'night' and 'light'.
  • iambic pentameterA line of poetry made of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
  • free versePoetry that does not follow a regular meter or rhyme scheme, relying instead on natural speech rhythms, line breaks and imagery.
  • poetryLiterary writing arranged in lines that uses rhythm, sound, imagery and often rhyme to express feelings and ideas in a concentrated way.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Poetry

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