poetry accents?

Question

how do you know when a word is accented in poetry? are there rule to emphasizing syllables? do words have fixed stresses and are always emphasized on a certain syllable? or can the poet "assign" a different syllable stress to fit the rhythm of the poem?

Answer 1

That's a really interesting question.
Poetry is often written in iambic metres. An iamb is a double beat which sounds 'di dum'.
Iambic quadrameters are made up of 4 iambs; di dum, di dum, di dum, di dum. Iambic pentameters of 5, iambic hexameters of 6.
The stress is usually on the 'dum', but the poet may choose to reverse the stress (dum di) which is called a trochee or use two strong syllables (dum dum) which I think is called a spondee

The general rule for speaking the poetry is not to stress anything unnaturally. Sense is more important than rhythm, and irregularities in the rhythm are usually there for a purpose.
So speak the poetry as close to normal speech as possible, and let the rhythm look after itself.
Don't stress rhymes either, they will be obvious without stressing them.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Good poetry makes use of the normal rhythm of words. It doesn't try to force some artificial rhythm onto them. For example, when you say "poetry," you stress the first syllable -- PO-uh-tree. If the rhythm of a poem tries to force you to say po-UH-tree or po-uh-TREE, then the poet is doing something wrong.

Answer 3

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