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Natbite
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Rhythm
Traditionally English sonnets contain five beats or feet per line - ie, they are written in pentameter verse. However once again Whitman has done his own thing, with six feet in each line (except for the last, which has only four). This type of verse - hexameter - is quite unusual in English, so that the lines sound extra long to our ear, accustomed as they are to lines of 4 or 5 feet. Also notice how many of the feet are 'front-loaded' with a stressed first syllable, followed by one or two unstressed syllables:
Wild, ¦ wild the ¦ storm and the ¦ high ¦ sea ¦ runningSteady the ¦roar of the ¦ gale, with in ¦cessant ¦ undertone ¦ muttering,
WHAT EFFECT DOES THIS STRESS PATTERN HAVE???
Rhythm
Traditionally English sonnets contain five beats or feet per line - ie, they are written in pentameter verse. However once again Whitman has done his own thing, with six feet in each line (except for the last, which has only four). This type of verse - hexameter - is quite unusual in English, so that the lines sound extra long to our ear, accustomed as they are to lines of 4 or 5 feet. Also notice how many of the feet are 'front-loaded' with a stressed first syllable, followed by one or two unstressed syllables:
Wild, ¦ wild the ¦ storm and the ¦ high ¦ sea ¦ runningSteady the ¦roar of the ¦ gale, with in ¦cessant ¦ undertone ¦ muttering,
WHAT EFFECT DOES THIS STRESS PATTERN HAVE???