Two Kinds of Rhythm
In Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poem, “With Serving Still”, the emphasis on words varies between each line; in the first line the stressed words are the last two and in the second line it is the first two, and so on. In Dorothy Parker’s poem, “Resume”, the stressed words seem to be the first word or couple of words in each line. Parker’s poem is also very morbid, and each line is a simple, straight to the point sentence. Wyatt’s poem is more playful and keeps on flowing line after line. Both poems have short 3 to 5 syllable lines, but Wyatt’s tone is lighter than Parker’s which also changes the way it is read. Each stanza makes a sort of complete thought in Wyatt’s poem whereas Parker has a complete thought in each line.
