Sprung rhythm is a

poetic rhythm In poetry, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of ...

designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

in which the first

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. The British poet

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...

said he discovered this previously unnamed poetic rhythm in the natural patterns of English in folk songs, spoken

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

, et al. He used

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

al marks on syllables to indicate which should be stressed in cases "where the reader might be in doubt which syllable should have the stress" (acute, e.g. shéer) and which syllables should be pronounced but not stressed (grave, e.g., gleanèd). Some critics believe he merely coined a name for poems with mixed, irregular feet, like

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

. However, while sprung rhythm allows for an indeterminate number of syllables to a foot, Hopkins was very careful to keep the number of feet per line consistent across each individual work, a trait that free verse does not share. Sprung rhythm may be classed as a form of

accentual verse Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line regardless of the number of syllables that are present. It is common in languages that are stress-timed, such as English, as opposed to syllabic verse which is common in syllable-timed langua ...

, as it is stress-timed, rather than syllable-timed, and while sprung rhythm did not become a popular literary form, Hopkins's advocacy did assist in a revival of accentual verse more generally.Accentual verse
,

Dana Gioia Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the literary movements within American poetry known as New Formalis ...

Example

The Windhover ''To Christ our Lord'' I caught this morning morning's minion, king- dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion. —Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

Scansion

Since Hopkins considers that feet always begin in a stressed syllable in sprung rhythm, for a

scansion Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are ...

it is enough to specify which syllables are stressed. One proposed scansion of this poem is I cáught this mórning mórning's mínion, kíng- dom of dáylight's dáuphin, dapple-dáwn-drawn Fálcon, in his ríding Of the rólling level úndernéath him steady áir, and stríding Hígh there, how he rúng upon the réin of a wímpling wíng In his écstasy! then óff, óff fórth on swíng, As a skáte's heel sweeps smóoth on a bów-bend: the húrl and glíding Rebúffed the bíg wínd. My héart in híding Stírred for a bírd, – the achíeve of, the mástery of the thíng! Brute béauty and válour and áct, oh, air, príde, plume, hére Buckle! ÁND the fíre that bréaks from thee thén, a bíllion Tímes told lóvelier, more dángerous, Ó my chevalíer! No wónder of it: shéer plód makes plóugh down síllion Shíne, and blúe-bleak émbers, áh my déar, Fall, gáll themsélves, and gásh góld-vermílion. The scansion of this poem is discussed in ''Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins.'' Gardner, W. H. and Mackenzie, N.H. ''Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins,'' Oxford University Press, Fourth edition, 1967. Authorities disagree about the scansion.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprung Rhythm Poetic rhythm Sonnet studies Victorian poetry

Example

Scansion

See also

Notes

References