A term used by Gerard Manley Hopkins to describe the rhythm of most language and music which he observed to be patterned by a regular beat of stressed syllables, interspersed with a variable number of unstressed syllables. In Hopkins’ view, each foot began with a stress so the natural types of rhythm were dactyl, spondee and trochee, as in the following:
Spring and Fall
to a young child
Márgarét áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
…
Please log in to
consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing
institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on
campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we
offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If
you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal
subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
170 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Sprung Rhythm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1036, accessed 23 November 2024.]
