I need help with my poetry homework...?

Question

I have to say which words are stressed and unstressed and I was wondering how you can tell what the one-syllable words are?

this is what I'm doing:

It’s dust in my mouth
Taste of the prairie’s hot wind
Tells me I’m in Chicago
Not New York
Days after flying in
Over lake Michigan….
A familiar looking skyline
Mile of shop names I recognize
Mean nothing
When the wind starts up…



like how can you tell what "It's" and "dust" is since it's only one-syllable?

Answer 1

Poetry is written to be read aloud, or perhaps for someone with a drama background the operative word should be "delivered".

If you were to stand on a stage and perform this piece, you would need to read it aloud several times until you knew the character and the voice of the narrator. And that is the key to unlocking poems. The stresses come naturally if you use this process, especially if you are aware of and account for line breaks.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Stressed syllables can often occur in 1 syllable words. I'd read this one thusly:
Do not' go gen'tle into that' good' night'
Rage' rage' against the dy'ing of the light'

see? rage and not are stressed

Answer 3

stress them out loud.

ex. IT'S dust
it's DUST

which one sounds "right"? i wouldn't think a little pronoun like "it's" needs to be stressed in this case.