As we speak English, we stress some syllables and leave other syllables "unstressed." Technically, from a linguistic standpoint, every syllable has at least some stress to it, or we wouldn't be able to hear it. It would be more accurate to say "long" and "short" stress, but even that is not completely accurate either, since some words may have degrees of intermediary (in- the-middle) stress. Regardless of this fact, it is common practice to refer to syllables with greater stress as "long," "strong," "heavy" or "stressed," and to refer to syllables with lesser stress as "short" or "light" or "unstressed." Verbs and nouns are often stressed; prepositions and articles are often unstressed. Exceptions frequently occur, however. Sometimes, a word that would be stressed or unstressed in normal, everyday speech becomes the opposite in poetry in order to match the surrounding pattern of words.

Here are the main rhythmic patterns Iambic= Iambics march from short to long Trochaic= Trochee trips from long to short; Dactylic= Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable. Anapests= With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng Spondee= Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot!

Practice #1. Identify the following rhythms.

EXAMPLE: And then. Answer: and THEN. Iambic

1. Around 2. Author 3. Balance 4. Because 5. Early 6. Evil 7. Guitar 8. Happening 9. In the east 10. Merrily 11. Morning 12. Often 13. Pizza 14. Stitching 15. Teenage

16. Understand