Abstract:
This paper aims to explore the functions of rhyme in children’s rhymes offering a close analysis on the variety of meter and its functions (rhythm). Also, this paper aims to discuss the start of oral transmission and its customs, and effectively how it survived from generation to generation. Rhymes from ancient poetry still carry great importance as part of today’s culture. The repetition of rhyme emphasises the sharing of culture, the gift of a musicality which these rhymes carry that improve one’s memory and facilitate the extension of vocabulary. The benefits of retelling; from time to time words that carry the same mnemonics become more distinguishable and easy to follow. Nursery Rhymes also contributed to children’s childhood, it brought sense, joy, ability to trick through language and cheer during hard times. There are different types of rhymes in many nursery rhymes which all function to facilitate the spread and emphasis of the message that is being sung. I don’t think you need this – and it’s not very clear, so I would discard it at this stage.
Introduction
Literature has been present from very early times until today. It has survived generations and generations retelling the stories and making history that one would never imagine if not through it. You can’t make such sweeping statements as they appear unsophisticated – what do you mean by literature? Printed, oral, manuscript? Maybe start, instead, with stories: stories are the oldest form of narrative communication through which humans attempt to make sense of their lives as well as their histories. Poetry, for instance, is the oldest type of literature. You need to finesse what you mean by ‘literature’ – I would avoid using the term unless you are referring to printed material Many material things such as buildings, houses, books and paintings have lost their identity over the years due to wars.
Cut such massive generalisations as they will make your reader lose confidence. However, the oral transmission of rhyme, songs and lullabies always remained the same because civilisations never ceased to repeat them. They didn’t remain the same – the adapted and mobilised across different moments and different forms of acculturation, that’s the power of oral transmission, For example, the oral transmission began in early days when civilizations had no access to paper or ink to register their stories. But they didn’t speak because they didn’t have paper, they spoke because this was the formative mode through which stories were told. These rhymes, songs, were pieces of poetry that worked as the vehicle to unite societies, reminding them about their past that was forgotten, their customs, roots and emphasises their identity grammatically awkward.
Then, things started to get easier for civilizations, paper was firstly manufactured in China[1] by the second century BC and got circulated by Arabs to the Middle East during the 8th century CE, arriving in Europe only in the 12th century. Tici this is all very over simplified – I would avoid it and talk about the contexts through which stories were told; you should read Jack Zipes on The irresitable Fairy Tale/ As consequence of the shift in civilisation’s history, battles and culture, many of the stories, rhymes were fully rooted in mythology and religious books and many carry similar structure and common features. Rhymes therefore, becomes the bridge that keeps humanity having something in common: to share stories whether in humorous, dramatic or tragic tones and the opportunity to learn and relive moments that were cherished by their ancestors. Again, I would avoid such generalizations and keep it specific to the moment you are working in. Then, poetry becomes essential to humankind, historically and socially speaking. Many of today’s poetry was inspired by nursery rhymes and songs that survived over years and years. Many of these old verses do not have a specific meaning, and if they have it is extremely difficult to access since it’s been ages that they have been created and we’d have no knowledge about the backgrounds from which they sprung this is a very clumsy sentence which needs rewriting. However, it is striking to explore the emergence of rhymes and how its importance remained particularly effective to the memories of trillions of people. A close analysis in the function of rhyme, metre and rhythm in some rhymes can illuminate us about their origins and the behaviour of societies during those period as well.
The Emergence of Oral Tradition
As mentioned previously, civilisations survived centuries without having the skills and accessibility to paper and ink to record their memories from their past, occurrences from their daily life and even create literature. However, from ecclesiastical days meaning since Christ or the establishment of the Church? Which `church? , there were always a man who had the skills to write and register one’s words. The Old Testament, for instance, recounts thousands of narratives about births, deaths, battles, punishments and even a collection of poems in Psalms. Every civilisation had a literate person however, many citizens had no the chance to share their stories for many natural reasons meaning? , unfortunately only the most recalled narratives do you mean orally transmitted from generation to generation? survived. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (the Brother’s Grimm[2]) for example, were the main reason why we know short stories from the 18th century Europe.
European fables, like Rapunzel, Cinderella and many others were retold by villagers to Brother’s Grimm who used to travel to different villages where peculiar things happened. This is not the case – they were collected by Basile, among others and Perrault and transmitted in different modes And this is how folk fables spread, by mouth and then by writing, the same occurs with nursery rhymes and poetry. As Walter J. Ong states: ‘In an oral culture, knowledge, once acquired, had to be constantly repeated or it would be lost…’[3], this emphasises the importance of not breaking the oral transmission. Through oral transmission, moral teachings and values were passed to illiterate people which provided them the ability to imagine, create different perspectives and improve their ways of living. Yes, think about the function of fairy tale. Furthermore, the epic narratives such as the Iliad or Odyssey by Homer[4], dated 8th century BC still remain extremely important to our history.
he dramatic events were transmitted time to time by oral transmission, enabling uneducated civilisations from early age to experience art, the musicality of texts and have accessibility to information and culture. But also those stories are told and retold in different ways so that they become ‘memes’ ideas and narratives repeated which acculturate and adapt, evolve and replicate It is thought that Iliad and Odyssey were firstly introduced through oral transmission, these narratives are composed of thousands of lines and they were all memorised by their poet.You need to explain this more clearly Certainly, Poets those days had a very extend vocabulary and skills to transmit massive poems and all of this survived long periods of time without the need of technology or printed books.
But how does oral transmission contribute to one’s memory and culture? Rhyme and meter are present in our everyday speech, in our every routine, even when we don’t acknowledge it. Can you give examples? Rhyme adds musicality and rhythm to a text, especially a recited poem; it gains life. Maybe look, too, at Konner’s Evolution of Childhood as well as Frank’s Letting Stories Breathe It is thought that the first vocabulary was consisted of only semi vowels and consonants[5], thankfully, the Greeks introduced vowels to the alphabet, which brought a whole different musicality to texts; this needs greater depth and exploration paraphrasing Walter J. Ong: undoubtedly the alphabet was the most extraordinary thing the Greeks created, for it was invented only once[6].’’ By reaching this new level, it became easier for people to recall poems, songs and nursery rhymes to their children so they could pass them on to their generations.
Oral Transmission < Use of Additive + Rhyme = memories
Most of the children’s nursery rhymes were firstly introduced to children in domestic environments and then, in schools. Children normally this is a very culturally loaded term – perhaps explain or replace? like sharing rhymes, jokes and poems when they carry a strong rhythm and sound pattern. Nursery rhymes for children are products of a society which envisioned teaching and passing on customs and manners through fables and narratives. Retelling stories and singing nursery rhymes has become a very old tradition, reason why Children’s Literature has emerged grammar.
Popular folk songs for children and nursery rhymes were retold in first manner ? and children’s literature has adapted itself through these joyful and old traditions. This is very vague and needs explaining and finessing It could be said that before having contact with nursery rhymes, children used to take part in the adulthood events such as social and political, witnessing wars and celebrations across their nations without experiencing the joys of childhood. According to who? Children have, since ancient cultures, created their own versions of childhood within the limitations of what they have – they will ‘play’ in war zones, find toys in weapons and domestic materials and create cultures in adversity Nursery rhymes have made childhood more meaningful, they would never experience certain emotions and be exposed to aspects about their culture if not by singing and listening fables, jingles and songs that contributed to their cultural development. This is a huge statement that needs justifying and exploring
It is thought that from the very beginning of primary oral cultures expression remains important to the style of oral traditions I don’t know what this means? Who are ‘primary oral cultures’?. For instance, thought and expression in various cultures tend to be presented in noticeable what makes a thought noticeable? forms, for example, the need of additive in narratives rather than subordinative. As Walter J. Ong explores in Orality and Literacy[7], the Holy Scripture is our first example of primary oral traditions with a high presence of additive words. Genesis’s first chapter for example, strongly emphasises how creation was formed in continuous form by the use of ‘and’ in almost every line:
‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said: Be light made. And light was made[8].’
Not unlike Abrahamic texts, people were also inclined to create and narrate their fables and nursery rhymes by using additive. Although originally written in Hebrew in the 6th century BC, it is visible that translators employed the additives (and) to keep with the flow of the narrative. This remains the same until today’s rhymes and literature because people never ceased creating stories within their history and eventually retelling them. Consider the use of and in terms of rhetorical power and the use of ‘piling up’ clauses as propounded by Cicero In Oranges and Lemons[9] the nursery rhyme Aiken Drum highly demonstrates the presence of additive which adds an unceasing effect to the narrative: Before you tackle the rhymes you need to establish your critical approach and methodology which, at the moment, is too vague.
‘There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon,
There was a man lived in the moon,
And his name was Aiken Drum;
And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle, a ladle,
And he played upon a ladle,
And his name was Aiken Drum,
And his hat was made of good cream cheese, good cream cheese,
good cream cheese,
And his hat was made of good cream cheese, good cream cheese,
good cream cheese,
And his coat was made of good roast beef, good roast beef,
good roast beef,
And his coat was made of good roast beef, good roast beef,
good roast beef[10]…’
This rhyme was common in Scotland around 1821[11], however the name Aiken Drum could be taken from a jingle about the Sheriffmuir battle in the Jacobite Rebellion. So what does this tell us? The constant use of ‘and’ is clearly an employed rhetorical device (repetition) that keeps the rhythm flowing and raise more interest from the listeners grammar; repeated words are normally used to reinforce the key idea or ‘repetition is a central feature of amplification’. However, in nursery rhymes repetition also helps the message what is the message? You haven’t discussed the moral and socializing function of nursery rhyme to be memorized with more efficiency, repeating the same sentence and word to children for a couple of times makes their learning more absorbable grammar!. Another example of repetition is encountered in If All the Seas Were One Sea[12]:
‘If all the seas were one sea,
What a great sea that would be!
If all the trees were one tree,
What a great tree that would be!
And if all the axes were one axe,
What a great axe that would be!
And if all the men were one man,
What a great man that would be!
And if the great man took the great axe,
And cut down the great tree,
And let it fall into the great sea,
What a splish-splash that would be!’
Although this nursery rhyme first appeared in 1842[13] and there is no information about its origins, it shows how the additive form was still functional in oral traditions and children’s books in that period. Repetition helps the reader/listener to be on the track, especially face-to-face story-telling I don’t know what this means: on the track of what? The narrative? But is that paramount in nursery rhymes? , where sometimes rhymes demand more dynamic to entertain than an actual piece of paper that is being read this doesn’t make sense. In oral delivery, along with gestures and facial expressions, there must be a fluency and rhythm in the text so that audiences can fully enjoy the message. You should also consider how, traditionally, the speaker acted as the embodiment of the veracity of the tale. When a text is properly delivered in an interactive way, the audience will be able to pass it on, since its becomes impressive and easier to retell. However, if not well transmitted according to its meters and rhymes, the nursery rhyme will die and won’t deliver the message with efficiency (no pattern of sounds will help people memorize it) neither will entertain the listener/audience this needs explaining as it doesn’t; really make sense. Repetition makes mnemonics highly motivating to the memorization process in everyone’s minds you need to explain. Plus, repetition influences people to create other versions and extend the primary rhymes, this shows how effective it can also be the creative process of the mind. How and in what ways? Children’s oral memorization develops significantly when nursery rhymes carry strong presence of additive words (repetition), such as the examples provided above. Can you justify this?
Rhyme
Sounds are extremely essential to humanity. Sounds move one’s interiority. Listening to music makes the listener wonder about things, travel in time and even discover unhidden feelings they had. This is a massive generalization that states the obvious and needs refining and developing in terms of audibility, musicality and the effects of harmony Paraphrasing Walter J. Ong, ‘sounds exist when they go out of existence[14]’ and, because there is a gap in between the syllables after we pronounce them, our minds can absorb, paint the picture according to the message. You need to explicate this quote from Ong as it’s too elliptical The message can be joyful or not. Children in special especially? , they are very attracted by sounds. In nursery rhymes, sounds are commonly known for carrying a pattern, called rhymes. Most of the nursery rhymes entertain and colour meaning? children’s mind encouraging their imagination. This needs to be expressed with greater clarity and detail Rhyming shows children how language functions. It helps them notice and work with the sounds within words. You need to give some evidence for this and also acknowledge cultural and linguistic difference. Once children become familiar with the rhyming pattern of a text (such as a nursery rhyme), they automatically anticipate the rhyming word. These predictions strengthen their reading skills. Yes, why? Though? there are few types of rhymes which we should consider before analysing.
The most common rhyme happens to appear by the end of each line in a poem grammar , which means, the last stressed vowel in the sentence will get the emphasis and create a rhyming pattern an end rhyme, in other word, which follows the iambic stress pattern. Normally monosyllables are as known as masculine rhymes, such as rat/cat in This is the House That Jack Built song:
‘This is the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built[15]’.
When there are two syllables (disyllable) as danger/stranger, letter/better, it is called feminine rhyme found in the Sneeze on Monday: But it’s not just about the number of syllables it’s also about the stress patterns – unstressed endings are feminine
‘Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger,
Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Sneeze on Wednesday, receive a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday, something better[16]…’
Rhyming pairs (each last word from two lines) are known as rich rhyme or full rhyme; the consonants are identical[17] even if their spellings differ dock/clock in Hickory, Dickory, Dock:
‘Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock[18].’
The imperfect rhyme is also known as half rhyme or near rhyme, it creates a different range of pattern of sounds in the poem. This gives a certain freedom to the poem. Imperfect rhymes presents two words that almost fully carry similar sounds in the end of the lines, such as buttons/ribbons in Oh Dear, What Can The Matter Be?: Yes this is clearer but I still don’t know what your argument is – in other words, what is the research question that this paper seeks to answer and how are you answering it?
‘He promised to buy me a pair of sleeve buttons,
A pair of new garters that cost him but two pence,
He promised he’d bring me a bunch of blue ribbons,
To tie up my bonny brown hair[19].’
On the other hand, the internal rhyme is normally found within the text and between syllables in the same line. These rhymes are often used to heighten amplify? the meaning of words in a poem and create a different sound pattern, something more unexpected since rhyming couplets are commonly seen in many poems so what alternative meanings does this function produce?. In Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark[20] for instance, we have internal rhymes in lines 1 (hark/bark) and 4 (rags/tags):
‘Hark, hark, the dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town,
Some in rags and some in tags,
And one in velvet gown.’
All these different rhymes deliver great musicality which can be perceived by children and adults when singing along. Another common feature about nursery rhymes is metre. Metre is the mechanical feature that emphasises the sounds which words carry. According to the Dictionary of Literary Terms metre is ‘the pattern of measured sound-units recurring more or less regularly in lines of verse[21].’ Metre is essential to nursery rhymes since they are the rhythmic part of them. While rhymes bring musicality and life, metre organises these sounds.
Then, without metre, nursery rhymes would only transmit musicality but not the order in which Poets and writers meant them to be You need to explain what you mean here because how can you separate music from meaning as well as authorial intention?
Metre
In English language metre is normally known as accentual-syllabic metre which is mostly found in every English verse. There are different types of metre in the English language and they are named after the amount of feet/stress/unstressed which syllables resemble. The length of a metrical line as dimeter (two feet), trimester (three feet), tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five feet), hexameter (six feet) and heptameter (seven feet). In nursery rhymes we also normally find various types of metre, for example, in Humpty Dumpty[22] there are four stressed syllables in the first two lines (tetrameter) as follows: This is fine, but, again, I still don’t know what your argument is and why we are looking at metre – the other thing I think you need to consider is whether you are only focusing on sound and rhythm rather than content: you don’t mention the narrative or language of these rhymes and I think you need to in order to make the point about rhythm – the words are not there only for their musical and rhythm qualities but those qualities are harnessed to amplify meaning and to aid recall so you cannot ignore the text, as it were.
‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses,
And all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.’
The function of a tetrameter in this nursery rhyme resounds like horses marching. This correlation could exist though, according to Richard Rodney Bennett’s children opera All The King’s Men[23], this old rhyme is about an incident that took place during the Civil War in England grammatically incomplete sentence. Charles I employed Dr. Chillingworth to build a machine so they could overcome their enemies. Then, Dr. Chillingworth decided to build something that resembled a similar machine that the Romans used, called ‘tortoise’.
The design of this machine was round to roll down the steep slope on wheels, cross the bridge over River Severn and cover way over the walls of the city, so the King’s men could enter safely. The tetrameter makes the rhythm more like into a knightly thing, almost making its sounds turning into mounted troops. Thus, these emphasised stresses contribute to the reader’s imagination, especially children. OK – good, so you are saying that the rhyme and sounds emphasize but also tell the story alongside the semantics? The tetrameter pattern when once introduced becomes easy to follow. Furthermore, the presence of fall/wall in couplets supports the mnemonic function of nursery rhymes. Although the third line comes after a short break, it can be easily identified as internal rhyme, for the third line begins stressing all which keeps the flow from the previous word in the second line, wall.
The forth line keeps emphasizing that all the king’s horses and men could not help putting the machine back in one piece. Internal rhymes such as all and kings ease the rhythm of the lines. For instance, the pronunciation of all followed by the K sound (as in kings) highlight plosive[24] sounds. By repeating these two middle lines twice, the reader can recall? imagery and sound according to the content of the rhyme. Clearly, these are examples of successful mnemonics present in old rhymes. They all contribute to the process of learning, memorizing and retelling.
Not unlike Abrahamic texts, people were also inclined to create and narrate their fables and nursery rhymes by using additive. Although originally written in Hebrew in the 6th century BC, it is visible that translators employed the additives (and) to keep with the flow of the narrative. This remains the same until today’s rhymes and literature because people never ceased creating stories within their history and eventually retelling them. Consider the use of and in terms of rhetorical power and the use of ‘piling up’ clauses as propounded by Cicero In Oranges and Lemons[25] the nursery rhyme Aiken Drum highly demonstrates the presence of additive which adds an unceasing effect to the narrative: Before you tackle the rhymes you need to establish your critical approach and methodology which, at the moment, is too vague.
‘There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon,
There was a man lived in the moon,
And his name was Aiken Drum;
And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle, a ladle,
And he played upon a ladle,
And his name was Aiken Drum,
And his hat was made of good cream cheese, good cream cheese,
good cream cheese,
And his hat was made of good cream cheese, good cream cheese,
good cream cheese,
And his coat was made of good roast beef, good roast beef,
good roast beef,
And his coat was made of good roast beef, good roast beef,
good roast beef[26]…’
This rhyme was common in Scotland around 1821[27], however the name Aiken Drum could be taken from a jingle about the Sheriffmuir battle in the Jacobite Rebellion. So what does this tell us? The constant use of ‘and’ is clearly an employed rhetorical device (repetition) that keeps the rhythm flowing and raise more interest from the listeners grammar; repeated words are normally used to reinforce the key idea or ‘repetition is a central feature of amplification’. However, in nursery rhymes repetition also helps the message what is the message? You haven’t discussed the moral and socializing function of nursery rhyme to be memorized with more efficiency, repeating the same sentence and word to children for a couple of times makes their learning more absorbable grammar!. Another example of repetition is encountered in If All the Seas Were One Sea[28]:
‘If all the seas were one sea,
What a great sea that would be!
If all the trees were one tree,
What a great tree that would be!
And if all the axes were one axe,
What a great axe that would be!
And if all the men were one man,
What a great man that would be!
And if the great man took the great axe,
And cut down the great tree,
And let it fall into the great sea,
What a splish-splash that would be!’
Although this nursery rhyme first appeared in 1842[29] and there is no information about its origins, it shows how the additive form was still functional in oral traditions and children’s books in that period. Repetition helps the reader/listener to be on the track, especially face-to-face story-telling I don’t know what this means: on the track of what? The narrative? But is that paramount in nursery rhymes? , where sometimes rhymes demand more dynamic to entertain than an actual piece of paper that is being read this doesn’t make sense. In oral delivery, along with gestures and facial expressions, there must be a fluency and rhythm in the text so that audiences can fully enjoy the message. You should also consider how, traditionally, the speaker acted as the embodiment of the veracity of the tale.
When a text is properly delivered in an interactive way, the audience will be able to pass it on, since its becomes impressive and easier to retell. However, if not well transmitted according to its meters and rhymes, the nursery rhyme will die and won’t deliver the message with efficiency (no pattern of sounds will help people memorize it) neither will entertain the listener/audience this needs explaining as it doesn’t; really make sense. Repetition makes mnemonics highly motivating to the memorization process in everyone’s minds you need to explain. Plus, repetition influences people to create other versions and extend the primary rhymes, this shows how effective it can also be the creative process of the mind. How and in what ways? Children’s oral memorization develops significantly when nursery rhymes carry strong presence of additive words (repetition), such as the examples provided above. Can you justify this?
Rhyme
Sounds are extremely essential to humanity. Sounds move one’s interiority. Listening to music makes the listener wonder about things, travel in time and even discover unhidden feelings they had. This is a massive generalization that states the obvious and needs refining and developing in terms of audibility, musicality and the effects of harmony Paraphrasing Walter J. Ong, ‘sounds exist when they go out of existence[30]’ and, because there is a gap in between the syllables after we pronounce them, our minds can absorb, paint the picture according to the message. You need to explicate this quote from Ong as it’s too elliptical The message can be joyful or not. Children in special especially? , they are very attracted by sounds. In nursery rhymes, sounds are commonly known for carrying a pattern, called rhymes. Most of the nursery rhymes entertain and colour meaning? children’s mind encouraging their imagination. This needs to be expressed with greater clarity and detail Rhyming shows children how language functions. It helps them notice and work with the sounds within words. You need to give some evidence for this and also acknowledge cultural and linguistic difference. Once children become familiar with the rhyming pattern of a text (such as a nursery rhyme), they automatically anticipate the rhyming word. These predictions strengthen their reading skills. Yes, why? Though? there are few types of rhymes which we should consider before analysing.
The most common rhyme happens to appear by the end of each line in a poem grammar , which means, the last stressed vowel in the sentence will get the emphasis and create a rhyming pattern an end rhyme, in other word, which follows the iambic stress pattern. Normally monosyllables are as known as masculine rhymes, such as rat/cat in This is the House That Jack Built song:
‘This is the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built[31]’.
When there are two syllables (disyllable) as danger/stranger, letter/better, it is called feminine rhyme found in the Sneeze on Monday: But it’s not just about the number of syllables it’s also about the stress patterns – unstressed endings are feminine
‘Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger,
Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Sneeze on Wednesday, receive a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday, something better[32]…’
Rhyming pairs (each last word from two lines) are known as rich rhyme or full rhyme; the consonants are identical[33] even if their spellings differ dock/clock in Hickory, Dickory, Dock:
‘Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock[34].’
The imperfect rhyme is also known as half rhyme or near rhyme, it creates a different range of pattern of sounds in the poem. This gives a certain freedom to the poem. Imperfect rhymes presents two words that almost fully carry similar sounds in the end of the lines, such as buttons/ribbons in Oh Dear, What Can The Matter Be?: Yes this is clearer but I still don’t know what your argument is – in other words, what is the research question that this paper seeks to answer and how are you answering it?
‘He promised to buy me a pair of sleeve buttons,
A pair of new garters that cost him but two pence,
He promised he’d bring me a bunch of blue ribbons,
To tie up my bonny brown hair[35].’
On the other hand, the internal rhyme is normally found within the text and between syllables in the same line. These rhymes are often used to heighten amplify? the meaning of words in a poem and create a different sound pattern, something more unexpected since rhyming couplets are commonly seen in many poems so what alternative meanings does this function produce?. In Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark[36] for instance, we have internal rhymes in lines 1 (hark/bark) and 4 (rags/tags):
‘Hark, hark, the dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town,
Some in rags and some in tags,
And one in velvet gown.’
All these different rhymes deliver great musicality which can be perceived by children and adults when singing along. Another common feature about nursery rhymes is metre. Metre is the mechanical feature that emphasises the sounds which words carry. According to the Dictionary of Literary Terms metre is ‘the pattern of measured sound-units recurring more or less regularly in lines of verse[37].’ Metre is essential to nursery rhymes since they are the rhythmic part of them. While rhymes bring musicality and life, metre organises these sounds.
Then, without metre, nursery rhymes would only transmit musicality but not the order in which Poets and writers meant them to be You need to explain what you mean here because how can you separate music from meaning as well as authorial intention?
Metre
In English language metre is normally known as accentual-syllabic metre which is mostly found in every English verse. There are different types of metre in the English language and they are named after the amount of feet/stress/unstressed which syllables resemble. The length of a metrical line as dimeter (two feet), trimester (three feet), tetrameter (four feet), pentameter (five feet), hexameter (six feet) and heptameter (seven feet). In nursery rhymes we also normally find various types of metre, for example, in Humpty Dumpty[38] there are four stressed syllables in the first two lines (tetrameter) as follows: This is fine, but, again, I still don’t know what your argument is and why we are looking at metre – the other thing I think you need to consider is whether you are only focusing on sound and rhythm rather than content: you don’t mention the narrative or language of these rhymes and I think you need to in order to make the point about rhythm – the words are not there only for their musical and rhythm qualities but those qualities are harnessed to amplify meaning and to aid recall so you cannot ignore the text, as it were.
‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses,
And all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.’
The function of a tetrameter in this nursery rhyme resounds like horses marching. This correlation could exist though, according to Richard Rodney Bennett’s children opera All The King’s Men[39], this old rhyme is about an incident that took place during the Civil War in England grammatically incomplete sentence. Charles I employed Dr. Chillingworth to build a machine so they could overcome their enemies. Then, Dr. Chillingworth decided to build something that resembled a similar machine that the Romans used, called ‘tortoise’. The design of this machine was round to roll down the steep slope on wheels, cross the bridge over River Severn and cover way over the walls of the city, so the King’s men could enter safely. The tetrameter makes the rhythm more like into a knightly thing, almost making its sounds turning into mounted troops. Thus, these emphasised stresses contribute to the reader’s imagination, especially children. OK – good, so you are saying that the rhyme and sounds emphasize but also tell the story alongside the semantics? The tetrameter pattern when once introduced becomes easy to follow. Furthermore, the presence of fall/wall in couplets supports the mnemonic function of nursery rhymes. Although the third line comes after a short break, it can be easily identified as internal rhyme, for the third line begins stressing all which keeps the flow from the previous word in the second line, wall. The forth line keeps emphasizing that all the king’s horses and men could not help putting the machine back in one piece. Internal rhymes such as all and kings ease the rhythm of the lines. For instance, the pronunciation of all followed by the K sound (as in kings) highlight plosive[40] sounds. By repeating these two middle lines twice, the reader can recall? imagery and sound according to the content of the rhyme. Clearly, these are examples of successful mnemonics present in old rhymes. They all contribute to the process of learning, memorizing and retelling.
Bibliography
Baldick, Chris, The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Bible, The Holy, “Genesis 1, English Standard Version (ESV) | Chapter 1 | The Bible App | Bible.Com”, Bible.Com, 2018 <https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/59/GEN.1.ESV> [21 January 2018]
Dictionaries, Oxford, “Plosive | Definition Of Plosive In English By Oxford Dictionaries”, Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2018 <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/plosive> [29 January 2018]
Dolby, Karen, Oranges And Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015)
Harrowven, Jean, The Origins Of Rhymes, Songs And Sayings (London: Kaye & Ward, 1977)
Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989)
Opie, Iona Archibald, and Peter Opie, The Lore And Language Of Schoolchildren (New York: New York review Books, 2001)
- Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989) page 95. ↑
- Wilhelm Grimm and others, The Original Folk And Fairy Tales Of The Brothers Grimm, 1st edn (Princeton University Press, 2014). ↑
- Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989) page 24. ↑
- Homer and others, The Iliad And The Odyssey, 1st edn (Lulu Press). ↑
- Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989) page 28. ↑
- Ibid, page 89. ↑
- Ibid, page 37. ↑
- The Holy Bible, “Genesis 1, English Standard Version (ESV) | Chapter 1 | The Bible App | Bible.Com”, Bible.Com, 2018 <https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/59/GEN.1.ESV> [21 January 2018]. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), p. 25. ↑
- Ibid, page 26. ↑
- Ibid, page 28. ↑
- Ibid, page 31. ↑
- Ibid. ↑
- Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989) page 91. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), page 40. ↑
- Ibid, page 48. ↑
- Chris Baldick and Chris Baldick, The Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) page 288. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), page 100. ↑
- Ibid, page 138. ↑
- Ibid, page 30. ↑
- Chris Baldick and Chris Baldick, The Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) page 208. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges And Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), p. 51. ↑
- Jean Harrowven, The Origins Of Rhymes, Songs And Sayings, 1st edn (London: Kaye & Ward, 1977) page 174. ↑
- Oxford Dictionaries, “Plosive | Definition Of Plosive In English By Oxford Dictionaries”, Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2018 <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/plosive> [29 January 2018]. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), p. 25. ↑
- Ibid, page 26. ↑
- Ibid, page 28. ↑
- Ibid, page 31. ↑
- Ibid. ↑
- Ong, Walter J, Orality And Literacy, 1st edn (London: Methuen, 1989) page 91. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), page 40. ↑
- Ibid, page 48. ↑
- Chris Baldick and Chris Baldick, The Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) page 288. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges and Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), page 100. ↑
- Ibid, page 138. ↑
- Ibid, page 30. ↑
- Chris Baldick and Chris Baldick, The Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) page 208. ↑
- Karen Dolby, Oranges And Lemons, 1st edn (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015), p. 51. ↑
- Jean Harrowven, The Origins Of Rhymes, Songs And Sayings, 1st edn (London: Kaye & Ward, 1977) page 174. ↑
- Oxford Dictionaries, “Plosive | Definition Of Plosive In English By Oxford Dictionaries”, Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2018 <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/plosive> [29 January 2018]. ↑
