Meter and Meaning: An Introduction to Rhythm in Poetry

by Thomas Carper, Derek Attridge

Poet, Thomas Carper, and scholar, Derek Attridge, join forces in Meter and Meaning to present an illuminating and user-friendly way to explore the rhythms of poetry in English. They begin by showing the value of performing any poem aloud, so that we can sense its unique use of rhythm. From this starting point they suggest an entirely fresh, jargon-free approach to reading poetry. Illustrating their 'beat/offbeat' method with a series of exercises, they help readers to appreciate the use of rhythm in poems of all periods and to understand the vital relationship between meter and meaning.
Beginning with the very basics, Meter and Meaning enables a smooth progression to an advanced knowledge of poetic rhythms. It is the essential guide to meter for anyone who wants to study, write, better appreciate, or simply enjoy poetry. Carper and Attridge make studying meter a pleasure and reading poetry a revelation.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2003

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely little introduction to metrical analysis of English poetry. The authors are actually Thomas Carper and Derek Attridge, the former a poet and the latter a scholar. Aimed at a general audience, this book reads easily, making a somewhat arcane topic accessible. Rather than chopping up lines into "feet" and labeling them with Greco-Latinate names, they focus on "beats." We get an analysis of various types of beats, offbeats, and virtual beats. The authors take great pains to be clear about all this, and if the book has one fault, it's that it talks down to the reader a little bit. However, this slim volume is useful to the specialist, too, as it presents a better beat notation system than the one provided in Attridge's more scholarly book, The Rhythms of English Poetry.

Heartily recommended for those interested in rhythm in English poetry.

[Adam Neikirk]

This is an interesting overview of prosody with a lot of line-level detail if you're into that sort of thing, but it's pretty tiny and there's not really any theoretical discussion to back up the analysis. It feels a bit like the authors were gunshy about codifying their prosodic methodology.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read.

The beat/offbeat scansion technique leads to a richer description of a performance of poetry. It broadens the understanding of the classical stressed/unstressed analysis of poetry by using three different types of beat and five different types of offbeat. Using the book's technique the scansion exercise feels less Procrustean.

The authors provide a number of exercises which are worth doing, and provide discussions of where rhythm and meter provide meaning to the poems under discussion.

[Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's rare to find an introduction to new methodology that marries in its later sections so well with the traditional. In their straightforward explanation of beat scansion, Carper and Attridge effectively teach it as a practical path to competence in prosody that I am grateful to have as a literary tool.

[Book busy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly this really broke things down. Whilst I dont' really enjoy the "homework" the book sets you, I found the extensive examples and clear explanations of how to count off-beats. I realise now I was doing everything wrong and this is a great but slightly late awakening to this fact haha.

[rania · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am praying i don't ever have to do scansion bc ... its So Boring

[Freya Munsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

very useful 👍

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books is a fairly short (~170 page) introduction to meter and scansion in poetry, specifically looking at how the rhythm of poetry can support or create meaning in performance. It presents a fairly original "beat" focused method of scansion which is mostly based on preforming the poems out-loud. It's a easy to preform method that is much more revealing than the traditional short explanations of meter found in other introductory texts, and offers a good way to record your own personal performances for a given poem, to be compare with other examples.

It's a simple and well written book that has had more impact on my enjoyment of poetry than perhaps any other book I have read so far. Definitely an excellent read for any fans of poetry.

[Chlo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book as a part of a Romantic Poetry class in college. Modern and well-written, it makes you think twice about reading and performing poetry. I really recommend it to poetry lovers to have on their shelves - it's small and actually interesting to read! For me, it helped me make Coleridge's poetry come alive when I had to study it!

[james · Rating 4 out of 5]

[dissertation source]

The single most recommendable source for the prosodically inept – will be passing this down to my younger cousins when they get round to studying poetry (which I am determined they will).

[Jilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book I've read on poetic meter