Poetry & rhythm

Metre, rhyme and poetic licence

• Metre is the pattern of stressed (heffing) and unstressed (daling) syllables. A jambe goes da-DUM (verliefd), a trochee DUM-da (zomer). Because Dutch, like English, is stress-timed, Dutch verse often uses the iambic pentameter: de jambische vijfvoeter.
• Kinds of rhyme: volrijm (full rhyme: laan – staan), assonantie (vowel rhyme: maan – staart), alliteratie or stafrijm (same first sound: wind en water). By position: eindrijm at the end of the line, binnenrijm inside it.
• Rhyme schemes: gepaard rijm (aabb), gekruist rijm (abab), omarmend rijm (abba).
• A sonnet has 14 lines: an octaaf (8 lines) and a sextet (6). Between them comes the wending (volta), where the poem turns. When a sentence runs on past the end of a line, that is an enjambement.
• Dichterlijke vrijheid allows clipped forms ('k, 't, m'n) and unusual word order (Zacht valt de sneeuw op 't stille land). Older poems also show pre-1947 spelling, e.g. breede (Marsman, 1936: Denkend aan Holland / zie ik breede rivieren / traag door oneindig / laagland gaan).