Poetry

====Rhythm====
{{Main|Timing (linguistics)|tone (linguistics)|Pitch accent}}
[[File:Robinsonjeffers (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Robinson Jeffers]]]]
The methods for creating poetic rhythm vary across languages and between poetic traditions. Languages are often described as having timing set primarily by [[stress-timed language|accents]], [[syllable-timed language|syllables]], or [[mora-timed language|moras]], depending on how rhythm is established, although a language can be influenced by multiple approaches. [[Japanese Language|Japanese]] is a [[mora (linguistics)|mora]]-timed language. [[Latin language|Latin]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[French language|French]], [[Leonese language|Leonese]], [[Galician language|Galician]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] are called syllable-timed languages. Stress-timed languages include [[English language|English]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and, generally, [[German language|German]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schülter |first=Julia |title=Rhythmic Grammar |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2005 |pages=24, 304, 332}}</ref> Varying [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] also affects how rhythm is perceived. Languages can rely on either pitch or tone. Some languages with a pitch accent are Vedic Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. [[Tonal language]]s include Chinese, Vietnamese and most [[Niger–Congo languages|Subsaharan languages]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yip |first=Moira |author-link=Moira Yip |title=Tone |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-77314-0 |series=Cambridge textbooks in linguistics |pages=1–4, 130}}</ref>

Metrical rhythm generally involves precise arrangements of stresses or syllables into repeated patterns called [[foot (prosody)|feet]] within a line. In Modern English verse the pattern of stresses primarily differentiate feet, so rhythm based on meter in Modern English is most often founded on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (alone or [[elision|elided]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|p=12}}</ref> In the [[classical languages]], on the other hand, while the [[Meter (music)|metrical]] units are similar, [[vowel length]] rather than stresses define the meter.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jorgens |first=Elise Bickford |title=The well-tun'd word : musical interpretations of English poetry, 1597–1651 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-8166-1029-7 |page=23}}</ref> [[Old English]] poetry used a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number of strong stresses in each line.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=75–76}}</ref>

[[File:Marianne Moore 1935.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Marianne Moore]]]]
The chief device of ancient [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[Biblical poetry]], including many of the [[psalms]], was ''[[parallelism (rhetoric)|parallelism]]'', a rhetorical structure in which successive lines reflected each other in grammatical structure, sound structure, notional content, or all three. Parallelism lent itself to [[antiphon]]al or [[call and response (music)|call-and-response]] performance, which could also be reinforced by [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]]. Thus, Biblical poetry relies much less on metrical feet to create rhythm, but instead creates rhythm based on much larger sound units of lines, phrases and sentences.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker-Jones |first=Arthur |title=Hebrew for biblical interpretation |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58983-086-8 |pages=211–213}}</ref> Some classical poetry forms, such as [[Venpa]] of the [[Tamil language]], had rigid grammars (to the point that they could be expressed as a [[context-free grammar]]) which ensured a rhythm.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bala Sundara Raman |first1=L. |last2=Ishwar |first2=S. |last3=Kumar Ravindranath |first3=Sanjeeth |year=2003 |title=Context Free Grammar for Natural Language Constructs: An implementation for Venpa Class of Tamil Poetry |journal=Tamil Internet |pages=128–136 |citeseerx=10.1.1.3.7738}}</ref>

[[Shi (poetry)|Classical Chinese poetics]], based on the [[Four tones (Middle Chinese)|tone system of Middle Chinese]], recognized two kinds of tones: the level (平 ''píng'') tone and the oblique (仄 ''zè'') tones, a category consisting of the rising (上 ''sháng'') tone, the departing (去 ''qù'') tone and the entering (入 ''rù'') tone. Certain forms of poetry placed constraints on which syllables were required to be level and which oblique.

The formal patterns of meter used in Modern English verse to create rhythm no longer dominate contemporary English poetry. In the case of [[free verse]], rhythm is often organized based on looser units of [[Cadence (poetry)|cadence]] rather than a regular meter. [[Robinson Jeffers]], [[Marianne Moore]], and [[William Carlos Williams]] are three notable poets who reject the idea that regular accentual meter is critical to English poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartman |first=Charles O. |title=Free Verse An Essay on Prosody |publisher=Northwestern University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-8101-1316-9 |pages=24, 44, 47}}</ref> Jeffers experimented with [[sprung rhythm]] as an alternative to accentual rhythm.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hollander|1981|p=22}}</ref>