Mermaids Don't Fart is funny.
It's educational.
It's got a bit of magic.
And it's written in anapestic tetrameter.
Ana-what-a-what?
Anapestic tetrameter!
Each line of poetry has 4 (tetra) hard beats, and the beats are arranged in anapests.
Anapests are groups of three-syllables arranged in this pattern:
soft beat, soft beat, hard beat
or
unstressed syllable, unstressed syllable, STRESSED syllable.
Don't worry about stressed-out syllables. It's just how we speak.
Notice the difference between the names Mary and Marie, or Daniel and Danielle.
Imagine a child sounding out these names when reading, and you see that they have the same sounds. They sound different because different syllables are stressed.
MAR-y (Xx)
ma-RIE (xX) or
DAN-iel (Xx)
dan-IELLE (xX)
In poetry we make a pattern with these stressed syllables. Anapestic tetrameter is this pattern: xxX xxX xxX xxX
Anapestic tetrameter is a popular pattern for children's books, for example Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Both Dr. Seuss and I wrote our whole story arranging each line to have 11 or 12 syllables in this pattern: soft, soft, hard ... soft, soft, hard ... etc.
Check out the text below (from my picture book Mermaids Don't Fart) and see if you can hear this pattern!
I hear the meter (the syllable pattern) like this:
you THINK that i'm WRONG? we should WAGer, not FIGHT (I like to mark the syllables in the pattern like this: xX xxX xxX xxX)
obSERVing the MERmaids, i'll PROVE that i'm RIGHT (xX xxX xxX xxX)
if i WIN (and i WILL), you can EAT all your WORDS (xxX xxX xxX xxX)
and SWIM to the SURface to DANCE for the BIRDS (xX xxX xxX xxX)
when you LOSE (and you WILL), you can SWIM way down DEEP (xxX xxX xxX xxX)
where you'll TAP on the NOSE of that ANG-ler-fish CREEP (xxX xxX xxX xxX)
"it's a BET!" they shook HANDS (well, a CLAW and a FIN), (xxX xxX xxX xxX)
and they SPIED on the MER-maids to SEE who would WIN. (xxX xxX xxX xxX)
This predictability in the pattern of syllables is what makes poetry so satisfying to read, whether in a children's book, a novel in verse, or a collection of poems.
Want to read the rest of Mermaid's Don't Fart? Check out the poetry in this picture book or its sister book The Race on Mermaid Reef to hear more anapestic tetrameter:
Mermaids Don't Fart and The Race on Mermaid Reef have this same syllabic pattern (Anapestic Tetrameter).
If you'd like to learn to write in meter, reach out to editor Tamara Rittershaus (she/her, "Ritter's house") about her signature Poetry Coaching. She'll teach you how to write in meter using your own poem/manuscript as an example.
Thanks for checking out the poetry of picture book Mermaid's Don't Fart!
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