Thank you thank you thank you! This is exactly what I needed. I was trying to revise a poem last night and getting in such a tangle. Now it is all so clear!
Your explanation at 1:14 was truly the short answer I was looking for. :-) So glad you made this video. I was utilizing Merriam Webster online dictionary and noticed that words such as: 'I', 'the', 'who', 'a', 'to', 'if', 'get', 'so', and 'whose' are all labeled as one-syllable stressed words in terms of their stand-alone definition. However (as you taught us in this video), if we utilize these same words in the context of a poem or lyric line they can (in fact) be used as single-syllable NON-STRESSED words depending on where these words are LOCATED or PLACED in the poem or lyric line. Therefore, how Merriam Webster identifies a syllable as being 'stressed or unstressed' is totally DIFFERENT in regards to when that same word is grouped together with other words as well as its specific location within the poem or lyric line. In other words, single syllable words can either be stressed or NOT stressed depending upon the context in which they are used (placement location). Some of these single syllable words are naturally used at the beginning of a poetic or lyrical line such as the word, 'The'. I initially thought that dictionary defined stressed single syllables and stressed-single syllable words had to be placed where a stress is located in a line of metrical verse or lyrical meter (u/, /u, /uu, uu/, //). Lots of great information in this video! This video helped me to understand that placement/location of single-syllable stressed words (as per Merriam Webster dictionary) are important in determining if they are stressed or not. I understand this comment is a bit wordy but writing it out helped me to understand better. Thank you Renee! Extremely helpful video lesson!
Haha! I LOVE the extinct do-DO!! And what a wonderful why to understand meter, seeing the same words in different ways; you always blow me away with the new things you teach me😍
I do have another question. If you know the rhythm is Iambic for example, then you know the pattern is "u/" and can stress the single syllable words as required. But what if you are trying to determine the rhythm pattern of a poem you never read or heard before, and that poem has many one syllable words on each line with only maybe one or two multi-syllable words?
So glad you found it helpful! And yes, it's so easy to trick our brains. Sometimes we get so deeply ensconced in our own words that we can't even really hear them anymore. :)
Kindly tell me dear mam Is it part of the course that you Conduct in which you just say Of the poems that we write? Or is it that anyone could Simply write a verse and then Send you as to know how much Good and sound it has turned?
Hi, Hari! Anyone can send in writing for consideration for use in a video (though there is no guarantee that I will use it). The submission form is here: www.reneelatulippe.com/peek-critique-2/
Gary, the "little words" should generally fall on unstressed beats because we wouldn't normally stress them in real life, right? I wouldn't normally say: i SHOV-eled THE snow -- that would be forcing syllables into unnatural stresses to force an iambic rhythm. The natural rhythm in that phrase is anapestic: i SHOV-eled the SNOW... Even with these words, it's all about placement. When you are writing in any meter, read it out loud and make sure you aren't forcing stress on a word or syllable that wouldn't normally be stressed.
I watched this a couple times and I am still not sure I understand all four kinds. But since sick-ish and I'm awaiting my test results and quarantined away from civilization :) I thought I'd give your challenge a shot. (with my related attempts) I'd welcome critiques, corrections! Obviously my word is "sneeze" Also I LOVE your videos! So helpful, and Thanks! you!......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................TROCHAIC (or is this one also Anapestic??? Oh the Covid, lurking near me, poised to bring me doom and gloom. I sneeze, I cough, I shake and shiver, as I’m holed up in my room. I've quarantined for oh how long now, so confused -I just don’t know. Binging, watching Netlix series, Hulu’s got a brand new show. IAMBIC/(unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). I know I have to wear my mask and and now I just can’t find it. For heavens knows that if I sneeze, that sneeze must stay behind it. And in these times, we do our best to keep all others healthy. For this pandemic, as you know, is real and very stealthy. DACTYLIC: (a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables) Covid flu, covid flu just made me sneeze. Messed with my tummy, and caused me to wheeze. ANAPESTIC (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable). I am coughing and sneezing -my head starts to pound. As I try to remember who I’ve been around.
Well done, Eileen! I love the first two lines of your iambic sample -- very funny! All of your meter is excellent. The first one starts trochaic then reverts to iambic and then back to trochaic, but it's clear you get the idea and know how to handle your rhythm. :D One thing though -- I know this was just a quick exercise, but in your "real" writing do try to avoid using "so" and "oh" and "oh so" since those are filler words. Always strive for SPECIFIC words and images!
@@LyricalLanguageLab Thank you very much! Yes I SO have a habit of doing that in my "real" writing". My critique group calls me out on that OH SO much! :) I appreciate your comments! I love writing in rhyme, and your videos are so well done and helpful. I did take out the "so's" above. Maybe if you have a moment you'll see if they work better. I think you may have made a video about "mixing different meters" and I'll watch that one to see what you say say about it. Thanks again! (BTW I got my test results back yesterday- negative!)
Okay, here is what I came up with: (Iambic) "The robot shot at me today; (Anapestic) So I sneezed in the breeze, and he ran away.... (Trochaic) Still in my head I thought I heard banging; (Dactylic) That robot came from behind my back; (Iambic) But I sneezed, sneezed, sneezed into that blessed breeze, (Iambic) And I saw that robot taken in the leaves." If you happen to see this, I could use feedback on (well, all of it) my trochaic and dactylic lines. Not sure they flow. Thanks!
Nice job, Gary! Here's some feedback: ANAPESTIC: good, with a variation at the end (missing beat) in: and he RAN a-WAY IAMBIC SNEEZE line: too much variation. I read it as: but i SNEEZED SNEEZED SNEEZED INto that BLESS-ed BREEZE TROCHAIC: Not quite there yet. Read it out loud in a trochaic beat and ask yourself if it sounds natural: STILL in MY head I thought I heard BANG-ing. Not really, right? Because we wouldn't stress MY. You need to start with a strong, unmistakably stressed beat in both trochaic and dactylic meter, as in: BANG-ing RO-bots IN my HEAD DACTYLIC: This one also needs work. Again, you need a strong first stressed beat and then two unstressed beats that are minor words and syllables that the reader does not want to naturally stress, like: RO-bots are SNEAK-y and TER-ri-ble FOLK. It takes lots of practice -- keep up the good work!
Dear mam you taught me how Writing verse could easily be Apt for fun and leisure too I do owe you all of it. Now do kindly add me to Group of Facebook poets where You do teach to excel at What you taught and moulded once. It would be of real worth What and how you teach us all Of the worthy tips you give To the poem lovers here.
Hello Hari! I'm so glad you've found the videos helpful. The Facebook group, however, is only for students who have taken my Lyrical Language Lab course, which you can find more about here: www.reneelatulippe.com/writing-courses/ Happy writing!
What about a word with a second stress? Can the stress be placed on the second stress? Instead of the primary stress? avalanche | av·a·lanche | \ ˈa-və-ˌlanch I've seen avalanche rhymed with ranch in a picture book. Is this ok to do?
Hello! Yes, absolutely -- if a secondary stress falls on the last syllable of a multisyllable word, you can make a rhyme on it, so ranch/avalanche is an excellent rhyme indeed.
@@LyricalLanguageLab Thank you so much for clarifying my confusion on this. I have a few lines that rhyme on the second stress of a word, and I was worried about them. In one line I am stressing rainBOW, so this should still work correct?
@@nexuswon No, you can’t rhyme on rain-BOW because that is messing with the stress. The word is pronounced RAIN-bow and you can’t change that to make a rhyme.
Thank you for the nice lesson. I know I am very late here. I hope you will see this and have the time to respond. I am from India and I have no idea about stressed syllables in English. My language doesn't have that concept. I have a little confusion about one thing in the video. You showed examples of how the word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to make the meter work. You also showed how the word "Never" can be used so that it has no stressed syllables. Then you said "Don't mess with the stress" and said that one can never make the word "Never" a word with the second syllable stressed. This confuses me. If it is okay to make the word "baked" stressed or unstressed, and it is okay to make the word "Never" a word with no syllables stressed, then why is it forbidden to make it sound "ne-VEr?" I am unable to follow the rules here. Also, in another video, you gave as an example the sentence "But her mom had something else planned." Then you said, that sentence has no meter at all. You didn't explain it in more detail. If the single syllable word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to form a desired meter, why that sentence with all but one single syllable words can not have some words stressed to form a meter pattern? May be you explained the rules in more detail in another video. I am sorry if that is the case. Thank you.
Hi John! Those are all very good questions -- and equally difficult to answer! I think some of your confusion comes from how you understood my explanation because you say "You showed examples of how the word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to make the meter work." But that is not the case -- we can't "decide" to stress or unstress a one-syllable word to make the meter work; rather, the PLACEMENT of the word within our chosen (and consistent) meter will determine whether it will be stressed or unstressed. In the case of the "mom had something else planned" line, there is no discernible meter because not only do we have to think about the patterns we set up, we also have to think about the cadences of natural speech. If I am writing in iambic meter, for example, I could not use that line because it would sound like this: her MOM had SOME-thing ELSE planned. And that is simply not natural at all! Yes, it is very confusing and there is a lot to consider. As for never saying nev-ER: we can't do that because it is definitely messing with the natural stress of that word, which is NEV-er. What I mean about both syllables being "unstressed" is again about PLACEMENT: my FRIEND ne-ver CAME to my HOUSE. That line is anapestic and is based on the natural cadence of speech. Does the word NEVER completely lose its stress on the first syllable? No, because that's not possible. But in the context of the meter, the NEV simply takes a backseat to the stressed words around it (FRIEND and CAME), which are simply stronger beats in the context of the meter. It's all about placement and rhythm it takes a lot of practice! I hope this was a little bit helpful. 🙂
I can’t think of an example, but I feel like cheeky poems or raps do “mess with the stress.” It’s jarring, yes, but in moderation it can be fun or at least get your attention. Can you think of any exceptions to your rule? Or am I alone in this theory? Haha
Rap/music lyrics in general are a different thing and have their own rules. Still, I would cringe if I heard a misplaced stress no matter the source -- poem or lyrics!
I am giving out a try. I mean this to be Iambic, but I am not sure if it is right. Most probably it might not be. Anyway here it goes: What a picnic did we have? It is how a picnic sounds! Picnics come for leisure always, And not for writing notes!
You achieved a good rhythm here! Note that iambs begin with an unstressed beat, but your first three lines start on a stressed beat. This can still work, but it begins to sound trochaic if you start too many lines on a stressed beat. Well done, though!
(Iambic) Don’t SNEEZE on me! (Trochaic) SNEEZE that way instead. (Anapestic) If you SNEEZE in your arm, it is best. (Dactylic) Why did you SNEEZE on your shoe?
Thank you for making this series, I had a mini-meltdown when I had to write in meter and these videos were a huge help.
Ha! So glad the videos helped save you from a meltdown! :D
Thank you thank you thank you! This is exactly what I needed. I was trying to revise a poem last night and getting in such a tangle. Now it is all so clear!
Oh yay! I'm so happy the video helped you get untangled -- and that's a great way to describe it! Haha, I know exactly what you mean. :)
Your explanation at 1:14 was truly the short answer I was looking for. :-) So glad you made this video. I was utilizing Merriam Webster online dictionary and noticed that words such as: 'I', 'the', 'who', 'a', 'to', 'if', 'get', 'so', and 'whose' are all labeled as one-syllable stressed words in terms of their stand-alone definition. However (as you taught us in this video), if we utilize these same words in the context of a poem or lyric line they can (in fact) be used as single-syllable NON-STRESSED words depending on where these words are LOCATED or PLACED in the poem or lyric line. Therefore, how Merriam Webster identifies a syllable as being 'stressed or unstressed' is totally DIFFERENT in regards to when that same word is grouped together with other words as well as its specific location within the poem or lyric line.
In other words, single syllable words can either be stressed or NOT stressed depending upon the context in which they are used (placement location). Some of these single syllable words are naturally used at the beginning of a poetic or lyrical line such as the word, 'The'. I initially thought that dictionary defined stressed single syllables and stressed-single syllable words had to be placed where a stress is located in a line of metrical verse or lyrical meter (u/, /u, /uu, uu/, //).
Lots of great information in this video! This video helped me to understand that placement/location of single-syllable stressed words (as per Merriam Webster dictionary) are important in determining if they are stressed or not. I understand this comment is a bit wordy but writing it out helped me to understand better. Thank you Renee! Extremely helpful video lesson!
Wonderful! I'm so glad you found the video helpful!
Haha! I LOVE the extinct do-DO!! And what a wonderful why to understand meter, seeing the same words in different ways; you always blow me away with the new things you teach me😍
Thank you, Kaitlyn! I enjoyed this one because it's always fun to play with words. :)
@@LyricalLanguageLab me too😍
So happy to see you back up and running!
Thanks, Kaitlyn. It's still kind of hit or miss with the scheduling though. Alas.
Yoooooooooooo, this is sooooooooooooo good. THANK YOU for this. It is what I have been looking for forever.
thank youuuu, this is so helpful for english
Re-NÉE - just what I needed today! A diphthong (argh!) threw off my meter and I was wresting with a rewrite. As always, thank you!
Yay!! I'm so glad it was helpful!
I do have another question. If you know the rhythm is Iambic for example, then you know the pattern is "u/" and can stress the single syllable words as required. But what if you are trying to determine the rhythm pattern of a poem you never read or heard before, and that poem has many one syllable words on each line with only maybe one or two multi-syllable words?
EXCELLENT information here! I LOVED your Lyrical Language course too!
Thank you, Michelle!
OH this is a good one. I get hung up on this, and the Dodo examples really help, because I know I try to cheat and trick my brain sometimes.
So glad you found it helpful! And yes, it's so easy to trick our brains. Sometimes we get so deeply ensconced in our own words that we can't even really hear them anymore. :)
Subscribed and love your videos! My ditty for fall.
Orange Marmalade
Renee, what fun! I missed these lessons.
So glad you enjoyed it, Maria! :)
This is very helpful! When I was doing my test, I got 64 because I didn't watch this video at first. But when I watched this, I got 95 and I passed
Great news, Regina! I'm so glad it was helpful to you!
Thanks!
"The do-DO bird is more extinct than the DO-do bird" 😂 love it. This video was very helpful. Thanks!
😂 Glad you found it helpful! :)
Kindly tell me dear mam
Is it part of the course that you
Conduct in which you just say
Of the poems that we write?
Or is it that anyone could
Simply write a verse and then
Send you as to know how much
Good and sound it has turned?
Hi, Hari! Anyone can send in writing for consideration for use in a video (though there is no guarantee that I will use it). The submission form is here: www.reneelatulippe.com/peek-critique-2/
I do have a question, are words such as: the, as, a, an, and, & like stressed or unstressed? Do they fall into this category as well?
Gary, the "little words" should generally fall on unstressed beats because we wouldn't normally stress them in real life, right? I wouldn't normally say: i SHOV-eled THE snow -- that would be forcing syllables into unnatural stresses to force an iambic rhythm. The natural rhythm in that phrase is anapestic: i SHOV-eled the SNOW...
Even with these words, it's all about placement. When you are writing in any meter, read it out loud and make sure you aren't forcing stress on a word or syllable that wouldn't normally be stressed.
I watched this a couple times and I am still not sure I understand all four kinds. But since sick-ish and I'm awaiting my test results and quarantined away from civilization :) I thought I'd give your challenge a shot. (with my related attempts) I'd welcome critiques, corrections! Obviously my word is "sneeze" Also I LOVE your videos! So helpful, and Thanks! you!......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................TROCHAIC (or is this one also Anapestic???
Oh the Covid, lurking near me, poised to bring me doom and gloom.
I sneeze, I cough, I shake and shiver, as I’m holed up in my room.
I've quarantined for oh how long now, so confused -I just don’t know.
Binging, watching Netlix series, Hulu’s got a brand new show.
IAMBIC/(unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable).
I know I have to wear my mask and and now I just can’t find it.
For heavens knows that if I sneeze, that sneeze must stay behind it.
And in these times, we do our best to keep all others healthy.
For this pandemic, as you know, is real and very stealthy.
DACTYLIC: (a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables)
Covid flu, covid flu just made me sneeze.
Messed with my tummy, and caused me to wheeze.
ANAPESTIC (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable).
I am coughing and sneezing -my head starts to pound.
As I try to remember who I’ve been around.
Well done, Eileen! I love the first two lines of your iambic sample -- very funny! All of your meter is excellent. The first one starts trochaic then reverts to iambic and then back to trochaic, but it's clear you get the idea and know how to handle your rhythm. :D One thing though -- I know this was just a quick exercise, but in your "real" writing do try to avoid using "so" and "oh" and "oh so" since those are filler words. Always strive for SPECIFIC words and images!
@@LyricalLanguageLab Thank you very much! Yes I SO have a habit of doing that in my "real" writing". My critique group calls me out on that OH SO much! :) I appreciate your comments! I love writing in rhyme, and your videos are so well done and helpful. I did take out the "so's" above. Maybe if you have a moment you'll see if they work better. I think you may have made a video about "mixing different meters" and I'll watch that one to see what you say say about it. Thanks again! (BTW I got my test results back yesterday- negative!)
Okay, here is what I came up with:
(Iambic) "The robot shot at me today;
(Anapestic) So I sneezed in the breeze, and he ran away....
(Trochaic) Still in my head I thought I heard banging;
(Dactylic) That robot came from behind my back;
(Iambic) But I sneezed, sneezed, sneezed into that blessed breeze,
(Iambic) And I saw that robot taken in the leaves."
If you happen to see this, I could use feedback on (well, all of it) my trochaic and dactylic lines. Not sure they flow.
Thanks!
Nice job, Gary! Here's some feedback:
ANAPESTIC: good, with a variation at the end (missing beat) in: and he RAN a-WAY
IAMBIC SNEEZE line: too much variation. I read it as: but i SNEEZED SNEEZED SNEEZED INto that BLESS-ed BREEZE
TROCHAIC: Not quite there yet. Read it out loud in a trochaic beat and ask yourself if it sounds natural: STILL in MY head I thought I heard BANG-ing. Not really, right? Because we wouldn't stress MY. You need to start with a strong, unmistakably stressed beat in both trochaic and dactylic meter, as in: BANG-ing RO-bots IN my HEAD
DACTYLIC: This one also needs work. Again, you need a strong first stressed beat and then two unstressed beats that are minor words and syllables that the reader does not want to naturally stress, like: RO-bots are SNEAK-y and TER-ri-ble FOLK.
It takes lots of practice -- keep up the good work!
Excellent video. Answers my question in your 5 tips comments.
Wonderful! So glad I could help!
Dear mam you taught me how
Writing verse could easily be
Apt for fun and leisure too
I do owe you all of it.
Now do kindly add me to
Group of Facebook poets where
You do teach to excel at
What you taught and moulded once.
It would be of real worth
What and how you teach us all
Of the worthy tips you give
To the poem lovers here.
Hello Hari! I'm so glad you've found the videos helpful. The Facebook group, however, is only for students who have taken my Lyrical Language Lab course, which you can find more about here: www.reneelatulippe.com/writing-courses/ Happy writing!
Thank you anyway, dear mam!
I am grateful for your time.
You did teach me with the best
Tips so kindly at no cost.
What about a word with a second stress?
Can the stress be placed on the second stress? Instead of the primary stress?
avalanche | av·a·lanche | \ ˈa-və-ˌlanch
I've seen avalanche rhymed with ranch in a picture book. Is this ok to do?
Hello! Yes, absolutely -- if a secondary stress falls on the last syllable of a multisyllable word, you can make a rhyme on it, so ranch/avalanche is an excellent rhyme indeed.
@@LyricalLanguageLab Thank you so much for clarifying my confusion on this. I have a few lines that rhyme on the second stress of a word, and I was worried about them.
In one line I am stressing rainBOW, so this should still work correct?
@@LyricalLanguageLab ..or does it only work on 3 or more syllables? The line with rainBOW is an internal rhyme.
@@nexuswon No, you can’t rhyme on rain-BOW because that is messing with the stress. The word is pronounced RAIN-bow and you can’t change that to make a rhyme.
@@nexuswon Right, two-syllable words don’t have a secondary stress - only multi syllable words with 3 or more syllables.
Thank you for the nice lesson. I know I am very late here. I hope you will see this and have the time to respond. I am from India and I have no idea about stressed syllables in English. My language doesn't have that concept.
I have a little confusion about one thing in the video. You showed examples of how the word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to make the meter work. You also showed how the word "Never" can be used so that it has no stressed syllables. Then you said "Don't mess with the stress" and said that one can never make the word "Never" a word with the second syllable stressed. This confuses me. If it is okay to make the word "baked" stressed or unstressed, and it is okay to make the word "Never" a word with no syllables stressed, then why is it forbidden to make it sound "ne-VEr?" I am unable to follow the rules here.
Also, in another video, you gave as an example the sentence "But her mom had something else planned." Then you said, that sentence has no meter at all. You didn't explain it in more detail. If the single syllable word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to form a desired meter, why that sentence with all but one single syllable words can not have some words stressed to form a meter pattern? May be you explained the rules in more detail in another video. I am sorry if that is the case.
Thank you.
Hi John! Those are all very good questions -- and equally difficult to answer! I think some of your confusion comes from how you understood my explanation because you say "You showed examples of how the word "baked" can be stressed or unstressed to make the meter work." But that is not the case -- we can't "decide" to stress or unstress a one-syllable word to make the meter work; rather, the PLACEMENT of the word within our chosen (and consistent) meter will determine whether it will be stressed or unstressed. In the case of the "mom had something else planned" line, there is no discernible meter because not only do we have to think about the patterns we set up, we also have to think about the cadences of natural speech. If I am writing in iambic meter, for example, I could not use that line because it would sound like this: her MOM had SOME-thing ELSE planned. And that is simply not natural at all! Yes, it is very confusing and there is a lot to consider.
As for never saying nev-ER: we can't do that because it is definitely messing with the natural stress of that word, which is NEV-er. What I mean about both syllables being "unstressed" is again about PLACEMENT: my FRIEND ne-ver CAME to my HOUSE. That line is anapestic and is based on the natural cadence of speech. Does the word NEVER completely lose its stress on the first syllable? No, because that's not possible. But in the context of the meter, the NEV simply takes a backseat to the stressed words around it (FRIEND and CAME), which are simply stronger beats in the context of the meter. It's all about placement and rhythm it takes a lot of practice! I hope this was a little bit helpful. 🙂
I made a comment and I can see it only if I sign in.
I can’t think of an example, but I feel like cheeky poems or raps do “mess with the stress.” It’s jarring, yes, but in moderation it can be fun or at least get your attention. Can you think of any exceptions to your rule? Or am I alone in this theory? Haha
Rap/music lyrics in general are a different thing and have their own rules. Still, I would cringe if I heard a misplaced stress no matter the source -- poem or lyrics!
@@LyricalLanguageLab fair! Ha
I am giving out a try. I mean this to be Iambic, but I am not sure if it is right. Most probably it might not be. Anyway here it goes:
What a picnic did we have?
It is how a picnic sounds!
Picnics come for leisure always,
And not for writing notes!
You achieved a good rhythm here! Note that iambs begin with an unstressed beat, but your first three lines start on a stressed beat. This can still work, but it begins to sound trochaic if you start too many lines on a stressed beat. Well done, though!
@@LyricalLanguageLab Thank you mam for your kind suggestion 🥰
(Iambic) Don’t SNEEZE on me! (Trochaic) SNEEZE that way instead. (Anapestic) If you SNEEZE in your arm, it is best. (Dactylic) Why did you SNEEZE on your shoe?
Ha! Well done, Michelle -- those all work for me!
Thank you!
You bet! :)