Language with Rhythm

English is a stress-timed language. This means that, when we speak, we cluster the sounds of the language into groups which we call syllables. Some of these syllables are said with more emphasis which call stress. Stress in words can be marked like this:

Can I come with you? No I'm sorry you can't

W hen  the  stress  patterns  of language are regular in some way, then we have poetry or as it is sometimes called verse. In Henry Kendll's poem
'bell-bird' the syllables are stressed in a regular pattern which gives the lines a rhythm as shown by the highlighting:

By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges hear the creek falling:
it lives in the mountain where moss
and the sedges.
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.

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