Got Rhythm Sensitivity?

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Another "anyone else" post (last one, I've been meaning to ask these for awhile):

Is anyone else really sensitive to rhythm, meter, and "beats"?

I read a lot of poetry on this art site I frequent, and a lot of it has bad meter. It's actually unpleasant for me to read poetry with bad flow or meter. (This only applies if some rhythm or meter is attempted). I can hear syllables and stresses very well. I've noticed a lot of people can't- in French class a few days ago the teacher was trying to tell the class about syllables and stresses in French and a lot of the people in the class couldn't "get" it- couldn't hear the stresses, couldn't count the syllables. It was amazing; they're all college student, my age, and they can't count syllables! It seems to be something a lot of people just can't "hear."

I think my sensitivity to meter dictates what type of music I like to some extent. I like music with pronounced "beats." I think that’s' why I don't like classical music a whole lot, or jazz. Jazz is worse, but you have to be paying close attention to classical music in many cases to understand where the beats are. I was being driven to a party by another Aspie last month (I bet you never thought you'd hear a sentence like that on here) and he was playing music which was some combination of classical, Techno and Gregorian chants. I actually found it pretty listenable because the sound of it was really just an exercise in rhythm. ((It sounded to me, by the way, like the music that they were screwing around with in that utopian community in Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke probably sounded. Oh god I'm nerdy.))

It might not be an Aspie thing, though. My mom's an English teacher and she taught rhythm and meter to all of her classes and to me (at least when I was in her class- yeah, I had my mom as a teacher in high school, which wasn't as horrible as you might think because the other kids liked her). So, anyone else "got rhythm sensitivity?"

I learned how to count the number of syllables in a word by clapping. Before that it was just random guessing. Finding the stressed syllable in a word used to be pretty tough for me, too; but I've gotten fairly good at it.

I would say I'm pretty much deaf to rhythm and meter. I basically have no sense of them at all. For my world literature class, some of the translations (The Odyssey and The Aenied, for example) are still in verse as opposed to in prose. Apparently, this means there's some kind of rhythmic structure still present. I had thought the translators just put everything in straight prose and kept the line numbers for handy reference until I read the foreword to one of the epic poems.

Maybe I'd pick up on the rhythm better if I read these things out loud. I still doubt I'd have much sense of it. What makes a poem separate to me is that it uses unusual structures: meter; rhyme; alliteration; lots of metaphors and symbolism; scholarly allusion; hyperbole; and, of course, lots of talk about feelings.

Poetry lessen:

Meter is comprised of stressed and nonstressed syllables. A stressed syllable is what most people would associate with the word "beat". A line of poetry, whether formal or informal, consists of "feet". A foot of poetry consists of various combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables. These "feet" consist of:

The IAMB: the foot consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable or "beat".

ex: touché (the "ay" sound is stressed)

The TROCHEE: the foot consists of one stressed syllable or "beat" followed by an unstressed syllable.

ex: vacuum

The DACTYL: the foot consists of one stressed syllable or "beat" followed by two unstessed syllables.

ex: Gallery

The ANAPEST: the foot consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable or "beat".

ex: Mr. Clean (you kinda have to do the jingle to put all the emphasis on "Clean" but you get the point I hope.)

The SPONDEE: two stressed syllables or beats in a row.

ex: outright

Most people know meter when it's within a rhymed poem, so most put the two together. But there are indeed poems which are composed in solely Blank Verse, which is a poem in a formal-- structured-- meter but without any rhyme.

Every poem has meter, but if it's Free Verse, it just doesn't have a consistant or formal meter.

Meter is also often thought of as the "rhythm" of a poem. Meter, rhythm, and beat are all pretty much the same thing. "Meter" is just the formal name of it all.

So, to answer the question: I still have a hard time picking out the exact number of stresses because I find I hear it varying ways with some "stressed" syllables as even more stressed as other "stressed" syllables and I find it confusing to have what sounds to me as an intermediate level between stressed and unstressed.

But I am very sensitive to what I prefer to call it all instead the MUSIC of the poem. I will post one of my very short poems to show where I hear the "music":

I have stood on the shoulders of wise men
and pretended to see the stars;
peered into that cryptic universe,
saw no more than infinite space.

And I've studied the face of each wise man
having never looked down before:
I see nothing but wrinkles of time at the eyes
and beards of infinite gray.

As for the intermediate level I was talking about, there are some syllables in here which I would consider "inbetweeners" such as "men" and "man" and the first and fifth lines respetively. These are certainly more stressed than "of" but not as stressed, to my ears, as "wise".

According to my marking, my poem would be thus:

Line 1: Anapest, Anapest, Anapest, Tag (this is an extra syllable)
Line 2: Anapest, Anapest, Anapest
Line 3: Iamb, Anapest, Iamb, Tag
Line 4: Anapest, Iamb, Anapest

Line 5: Anapest, Anapest, Anapest, Tag
Line 6: Anapest, Anapest, Iamb
Line 7: Anapest, Anapest, Anapest, Anapest
Line 8: Iamb, Iamb, Anapest

Sorry for the long post.

Yes, I'm also incredibly sensitive to meter and rhythm. I do think it's an Aspie thing. If something is offbeat, usually someone trying to sing with no accompaniment, I have to totally tune out if it isn't perfect. I'm also ultra-critical of musical notes being exactly on pitch, not too sharp or flat, and the harmony must be exactly right too. Even if there isn't enough harmony in a song, I'll add my own. Everyone around me says they have no idea what I'm talking about, so I figure it's an Aspie thing. It's worked out well for me, though, by helping me be very good at music and playing musical instruments. Going back to rhythm, and your example of poetry, I used to love poetry in high school. However, now, 14 years later, I've grown so incredibly picky about the meter "working" that I actually can't stand poetry right now. If I start hearing or reading something and I realize that someone is "trying" to create a certain rhythm, I just stop reading / listening. It just never seems like they're using the right rhythm anymore.

Probably getting some sort of music degree in college, and very sensitive to rhythm, among other things. I played tuba for a long time, so I can usually pick up on the rhythms in basically any kind of music. I should mention that tuba players play almosy nothing but rhythms, and that I played for 7 years. I can know create my own rhythms, and have actually skimmed the grammar off a poem of mine for it to have an almost seemingly perfect rhyming scheme and meter. It actually sounds plaeasant to my ear, regerdless of the lack of grammar that is proper. Poems are big issue with me, because most seem to have no meter or rhyme scheme at all. With some of my more refined poems, I go deep into syllable patterns and rhyming patterns. I'd post my poem with incorrect grammar, but I'd rather not change topic.

Don't know.
Maybe over or under sensitive, but can't work it out. I prefer flowing rather than staccato speech, I like classical, love Gregorian Chant, but can't stand techno, etc, etc, even where it is a very recognisable rip-off of something I would normally like. When beats are missed or altered in something that has a heavy emphasis on the beat, it disorientates me, in more classical styles where there is less emphasis on beat it causes no problem at all. Maybe I'll get some music training and see if that throws any light on the subject
Dazed and Confused.

No, I relish music.

Can't say I have a sensitivity per se, but there are songs I really like, simply because of their rhythm. For instance, I like "Behind These Hazel Eyes" by Kelly Clarkson, because of the intense rise-and-fall in pitch and volume in its melody. Then agian, it could also be true because I like Kelly Clarkson herself, so honestly, I can't say for sure.

Well I'll be damned. I didn't kill this thread with my long post afterall.

As for "an Aspie thing", I kind of consider it as part of a savantish gene I have been reading about in some research which frequents the Autistic Spectrum-- not necessarily to its full-blown Savant Syndrome, but an unusual amount of Aspies have "talents" in one or more areas which is more than to be expected of the general population and moreso than can be accounted for by "intelligence".

I've never spoken with a more talented bunch of individuals in my life as the Aspies I've met on WP and other places. So I think those Aspies who are musically or wordly inclined might have a greater sensitivity to musical rhythm or written meter.

So it might not be an "every Aspie thing", since there are plenty of things I cannot do which others of you very well can.

I'd have to agree with Sophist, I've been in music learinig things for a long time; but I'm still a lot better than some people at perfect pitch, tuning by ear, and especially discerning rhythms. I'm also a very exceptional tuba palyer and singer, so I can definitely say that I highly specialize and am talented in music. I prefer music with an obvious structure, and poetry often seems random and unorganized. Not to say stuff like that is bad, it jsut doesn't appeal to me as much.

I guess I'll post my poem. I worked a lot on it, so I put my real name at the end for copyright purposes. It's a common name, so I don't mind revealing it. This is the last poem I wrote, and I tryed something new to make it. I have this one really long poem, but it has absolutely no structure. It's very raw and emotional, but has very repetitve vocabulary and por phrasing. I decided to clean it up, add verses form other poems, and completely re-write everything. This is basically a summary of a lot of my good poems in one poem. I read for the first time in a long time, and quickly caught the rhythms (etc.).

sarcastic name- it comes out as really forced to me. The meter switches a lot; I can hear it but it's unnatural-sounding in my head. Sorry.

I couldn't say if it's forced or not, but if it isn't good poetry I vote it brilliant literature.

Make no mistake about it, it was a compliment. If its supposed to be technically incorrect then I'd suggest you start a new movement. It connected to me straight off and surely that is the point? (well not me in particular, but you get the drift)
Having looked at my prev post again, the usual insensitivity seems to have crept in. It was purely a positive reaction, there is no criticism of anyone else involved, on the technical merits, methods, meters, etc of poetry I am an absolute ignoramus, I just know what I like.