Poetry, rhytm and metre

Project leader: Marc van Oostendorp

Research staff: Louis Grijp, Varun DeCastro-Arrazola

Finance: NWO-Horizon

Short description:

Rhythm is a form of temporal organisation that plays a role in any systematic human activity involving sound: poetry, (non-poetic) language, and music. In music, rhythm is considered one of the dimensions of musical structure, alongside melody and timbre. In natural language, rhythm is a property that distinguished types of languages. In poetry, the metre of a verse can be described as a regular alternation of prominent and less prominent syllables. In this project the universal aspects of metre are studied alongside rhythm as a fundamental human ability.