Metric Speech Is Often Good!

Fridays are for Philosophy  11/13/15
Wilson, Douglas, and Nathan D. Wilson. The Rhetoric Companion: A Student's Guide to Power in Persuasion. Moscow, Idaho: Canon, 2011.
Lesson 24, “Still More Rhythm of Words.” pp. 119-121

Wilson continues his foray into poetic meter and rhythm, urging the reader to find and use poetic elements in prose. The most common forms in English are the iamb (._ ._ ._ ._) and the trochee (_._._._.) (Wilson 2011, 119). He also reminds the reader of the anapest (.._ .._ .._ .._ ) and the dactyl (_.. _.. _.. _..). Then he illustrates how a sentence with rhythm can be especially memorable. We close these notes with one example from p. 120.

1. Unmetered speech - Talk about it. Try to decide maybe.
2. Metered speech - Talk about the issue first, and then perhaps you might decide.