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How to Determine Stress in a Poem

Getting good at determining a poem's meter -- that is, the rhythm of a poem -- depends upon being able to decipher which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed. Luckily, this is something that you will be able to do almost automatically with a bit of practice. Unluckily, it can be difficult at first to get the hang of this new way of thinking about language. With the help of a dictionary, however, and a few hints and tricks, you'll soon be able to decipher everyone from Emily Dickinson to e.e. cummings.

Things You'll Need

  • Dictionary
  • Pencil
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Instructions

    • 1
      You have to be able to read the poem out loud.

      Read the poem out loud. Listen for syllables that you say louder and syllables that you say more quietly. It's OK if you can't tell them apart yet.

    • 2
      Using a dictionary will help a great deal while getting a feel for poetry meter.

      Open a dictionary. Look up each two-syllable word in the first and second lines of the poem.

    • 3

      Use the dictionary to find where the stress marks are placed. You can find the stress marks in the pronunciation guide immediately following the word itself. Stress marks usually look like a single quote (') and appear before the syllable that is stressed.

    • 4
      Use a pencil so that you can erase if you make a mistake.

      Mark, on the poem itself, a small line above each syllable you know is stressed. This line should look like a forward-slash.

    • 5

      Practice saying these words so that you over-emphasize the stressed syllable.

    • 6

      Mark all single nouns and verbs with a stress mark. These marks may change later, but there's a higher chance that these single syllables will be stressed while articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, but, or), prepositions (in, of, from) and other minor words will not.

    • 7

      Mark above all unstressed syllables with a u-shaped curve.

    • 8

      Read the first and second lines again, this time over-stressing the syllables where the stress marks are, and under-stressing where the unstress marks are.

    • 9

      Repeat the process from Step 2 with more lines of the poem until you feel confident that you can figure out the stress simply be reading the poem aloud to yourself.

Poetry

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