Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

d) Rhythm

Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and as­sumes multifarious form.

The stylistic device of rhythm is a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in the utterance. Rhy­thmical arrangement may be found in prose too but it is an inconsistent element of poetry:

Sweet and low, sweet and low,

Wind of the western sea,

Low, low, breathe and blow,

Over the rolling waters go. (A. Tennyson)

Rhythm is sometimes used by the author to produce the desired stylistic effect, whereas in poetry rhythmical arrangement is constant organic element, a natural out­come of poetic emotion.

Poetic rhythm is created by the regular use of stressed and unstressed syllables or equal poetic lines. The regular alternations of stressed and unstressed syllables form a unit - the foot.

There are five basic feet and consequently metres in English poetry: iambus, trochee, dactyl, anapest and amp­hibrach.

2. 
   Iambus is a foot consisting of one unstressed syl­lable followed by one stressed syllable:
   

My soul is dark - oh; quickly string The harp I yet can brook to here. (Byron)

2. 
   Trochee is a foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable:
   

Fare thee well! and if for ever Still for ever, fare the well. (Byron)

2. 
   Dactil is a foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables:
   

Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances! Honoured and blessed be the ever-green pine!

(W.Scott)

2. 
   Anapest is a foot consisting of two unstressed syl­lables followed by one stressed syllable:
   

He is gone to the mountain,

He is lost to the forest

Like a summer-dried fountain,

When our need was the sorest. (W. Scott)

2. 
   Amphibrach is a foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed and one unstressed syl­lable:
   

The waters are flashing,

The white hail is dashing,

The lightnings are glancing,

The boar-spray is dancing. (Shelley)

Rhythm in verse as a stylistic device interprets the beauty of nature, its stillness, helps to intensify the emo­tions, especially used in music, dance and poetry.

Rhythmical arrangement may sometimes be found in prose. Rhythm in prose is also created by more or less re­gular currence of some similar units of speech, which in prose are parallel constructions, various kinds of repeti­tion, enumeration, polysyndeton or asyndeton. Inversion usually helps to create a rhythmical arrangement in prose. E.g.:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of ti­mes, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had every­thing before us, we had nothing about us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period,..." (Dickens)

Rhythmical arrangement in prose generally heightens the emotional tension of the narration