Emily Dickinson Group
Question:
alex23
Student
College - Junior
What is the rhythm of the poem "Because I could not stop for Death"?
Answers:
-
eNotes Editor
Posted by robertwilliam on Friday February 20, 2009 at 3:50 AMThe poem's written in ballad meter, alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, rhyming ABAB. I'll show you what I mean.
An iamb is a weak beat followed by a strong beat (de DUM). So all you have to do is count the iambs:
de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM (4)
Because I could not stop for Death,
de DUMde DUM de DUM (3)
He kindly stopped for me;
de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM (4)
The carriage held but just ourselves
de DUMdeDUMdeDUM (3)
And Immortality.A line with four iambs is an iambic tetrameter. A line with three is an iambic trimeter. And this form is commonly thought of as "ballad meter". Hope it helps!
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