Dynamics and Rhythm

Vocal Dynamics are composed of

• Pace (fast or slow)
• Pitch (high or low)
• Volume (loud or soft)

Rhythm consists of

• Dynamics
• Emphasis
• Pattern (regular, irregular, syncopated but in poetry it can be:
  • Iambic (exist, belong, predict, away, the one….”If ever two were one, then surely we. If every man were loved by wife, then thee;”)
  • Trochaic (garden, highway, tiger, raven…”Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore–“)
  • Spondaic (football, heartbreak, breakdown, love-song…”Break, break, break, On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!”)
  • Anapestic (understand, interrupt, comprehend, contradict…”Twas the night before christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.”)
  • Dactylic (tenderly, carefully, scorpion, horrible, glycerin…”half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley of death”)

But the best way to rehabilitate your reading or speaking is to learn poetry “by heart”--which is to say, to memorize a few lines.