Prosody

 To start off with, prosody is not a style of writing. It is not a literary form. Prosody can be understood as the ‘music’ of language. It includes rhythm, stress, meter, and feet. It also deals with intonation and the way people read poetry.

One important part of prosody is syllabic structure. The meter and feet show readers how to read the poem. It helps them understand how the poem should be interpreted too. Here are some tricks for identifying the feet used in a poem. Firstly, there are two kinds of words - content words and function words. Content words are containers of meaning. Single-syllable content words are usually stressed. Function words have syntactic importance. Single-syllable function words are usually unstressed. Suffixes and prefixes are also usually unstressed.

There should be a connection between rhythm and the meaning the poem is supposed to convey. If a poem starts with an unstressed syllable, the poem is usually sombre. Look at “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray as an example. It is mostly in iambic pentameter. This poem is sombre and serious, which is also evident in the meter. Another example is “Tyger” by Blake. Here, the poem starts with an unstressed syllable and is filled with trochaic feet. This helps the poem give off an energetic feel, opposite to the elegy.

Prosody isn’t just for students of literature. It is also for writers. It helps a writer structure their poem better, making sure the rhythm also matches the meaning of the poem.

Prosody isn't a set of rules telling you what a poem sounds like; it is a tool through which a poem creates meaning.