Rather than being metronome-like, the rhythm in a poem changes to show a change in the poem. Explaining why a poet used a particular meter and shifted that meter is an important part of metrical analysis.
Explain in your essay what the theme of the poem is; explain how effective the meter is in forwarding that theme, and show how the tone is conveyed by the diction and meter. For instance, a poem might shift from an intellectual to an emotional emphasis:. My friend, to be your friend I do pretend that stocks and bonds and all the dividend can stain my skull like fragrant lavender, missing your current, your cooing purr, tearing my eyes with diamonds.
The first three lines are almost regular iambic pentameter, and the thought of those lines is not personal. A bantering tone is initiated in the first line, sustained in the second, yet begins to shift because of the connotations of "lavender" at the end of the third. But the last two lines pull emotion from the author. Therefore, switching the first foot of each of these final lines from iambs to trochees appropriately reflects a change in mood.
Changing the syllable count also mirrors the mood change. Closely related to metrical analysis are pause, rhyme, stanza structure, assonance, and consonance. Your instructor may ask that you write about these poetic devices as well as about metrical analysis. Pauses, which occur after commas, periods, semicolons, exclamation marks, and some phrases, are part of the structure of all language.
A pause inside a line of poetry is called a caesura. If the end of the line has a pause, it is called an end-stopped line. If the line does not have a natural pause at its conclusion, begin reading the next line without a noticeable pause. This lack of a pause at the end of a line is called enjambment. Enjambment can give a hurried or breathless feel to a section of verse which is sometimes appropriate. In Breughel's great picture, The Kermess, the dancers go round, they go round and around, the squeal and the blare and the tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles.
The poem opens in amphibrachic trimeter, which gives syncopation and a majestic feel. This is an apt opening for discussing a "great" picture. A kermess was a medieval fair. The second line sustains the amphibrachic meter, reinforcing the established rhythm, but the enjambment at the line end creates a tension between the syntactical unit which ends with the comma on line 3 and line two's end. Line two ends before the listener expects it to end, thus creating an expectant mood in the listener; the tension and unfinished feeling mimics the effect of watching dancers swirl around in a country dance-a dizzifying scpectacle.
The enjambment of line three continues this off-balancedness. Because the poem is representing off-balance, slightly drunken revelry, it is apt that the poet makes the reader feel out of kilter while reading. One could also talk about the onomatopoeic words "squeal," "blare," and "tweedle," and the echoes of those words in "bugle" and "fiddles. Another device related to rhythm is rhyme.
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