Question about poetic meter（DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM）in a children's book

Question

Recently I've learned something about poetic meter such as iamb and trochee.

And I‘ve known that iamb is consisted of one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable. The rhythm of it sounds like da-DUM.

Trochee is the opposite and the rhythm of it sounds like DUM-da.

One of the classic example of trochee is the poem "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The bold parts are stressed syllables.👇

TWINkle, TWINkle, LITtle STAR（DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM）

HOW I WONder WHAT you ARE（DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da DUM)

So here comes my question:

I’ve been reading a children's book and it rhymes from start to finish. The whole text sounds very rhythmic.

I take one excerpt of it for example👇

After I marked the stressed syllables of the text, I understand the rhythm of it goes like:

DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da

DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM

The first line is “trochaic tetrameter” and the second is “catalectic trochaic tetrameter”. It's quite clear.

But when I check another excerpt of it. A problem occurred.

Initially, the first line is “DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM”. Since the last syllable “da” of the line is cut off, it's “catalectic trochaic tetrameter”. And the second line is “da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM”, so it’s “Iambic tetrameter”.

But When I read these two lines together, I tend to pronounce the “I’ll” of the start of the second line just followed closely by the end of the first line.

It seems that this “I’ll” just plays the part of the cut-off “da” of the end of the first line, which means it completes the trochee of the previous line.

If so, the first line turns to be “trochaic tetrameter” and the second line is “catalectic trochaic tetrameter”, sounding like:

DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da

DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM-da, DUM

And in this way, the rhythm of this excerpt is just the same as the first one I've mentioned before. They're all trochaic tetrameter with lines of 8|7|8|7 syllables.

And also the rhythm is almost the same as the poem "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". I read this line in this way: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1og46j-RbUR2IxqZrM7guOCGqCfBsccvl/view?usp=sharing

But I don't know whether it's right or not that I do so?

Thanks for the attention to this thread！ It's kind of long but I'm trying to express the whole thing thoroughly.

Answer 1

You're certainly not wrong about these different poetic meters. They exist pretty much as you define them, and they are fairly easy to spot, especially in children's literature. But unlike rules of grammar which can make a text right or wrong, a writer/poet can break or deviate from a poetic meter however they like - it's called poetic license! It would be a mistake to insist that the pronunciation of words should be altered to fit the stress arrangement of the perceived meter.

Take your example of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Some children (and adults) may stress the syllables in the way you highlighted, but others may not. In fact, this 'poem' is more commonly sung than read as poetry, and the interesting thing about this song is that the exact same melody is used for the children's songs Baa Baa Black Sheep and the 'ABC Song'. The former is also sometimes said as a poem, so consider the fact that "baa baa" has no inherent preference of which syllable to stress in comparison with the word "twinkle" when spoken naturally. In these comparable verses, syllable stress has more to do with the word choice and less to do with the structure of the poem.

Considering one of your other examples, you suggest that the line "Chicka chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room?" should be spoken with the emphasis on the second syllable in "enough". And you're right - to keep strictly to the perceived rhythm of the poem, that would be the case. But there's no rule to say it must be spoken that way. In fact, many educators using songs and poems like this to teach children would say that would be a bad idea. "Enough room" would sound like "a nufroom", and young children may not perceive what was really said. (Interestingly, some educators have adjusted the 'ABC' song in recent years to put individual emphasis on the letters L, M, N, O, P, as many children were hearing "elemenopee" and not perceiving these were five separate letters.)

Listening to your audio sample, there seems nothing wrong with your interpretation of this verse at all. Your English (and your singing!) is very good. Just one very minor observation - English speakers pronounce 'coconut' slightly differently (kō′kə-nŭt). Your pronunciation put equal emphasis on the first two syllables (co-co-nut). Crack that (pun intended) and you might find it flows better in your children's poetry.