Prosody is the music of speech, a set of signifying systems that causes syllables to differ in pitch, duration and perceived prominence. Prosodic variation, particularly in tempo, is an important device in poetry and prose: consider, for example, the way the following persuasion to suicide from Spenser’s Faerie Queene achieves its hypnotic lulling rhythms partly through the insistent repetition of a small set of long vowels (particularly ee, o(r) and ay:
Is not short pain well borne, that brings long ease,
And lays the soul to sleep in quiet grave,
Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war , death after life does greatly please. (1.9.40.5-9)
Prosody is also the specific means through which metre is embodied in performance, and in English, three features of prosody are particularly relevant to the metre: lexical...
1152 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Prosody". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 January 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=905, accessed 18 December 2025.]
