Podcast 43 - B2 English as a stress-timed language

Why I'm going to read you this poem

Poem starts at 13:00

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of practicing English. And today I have a treat for you, a treat, which means something special. And what is special then? Well, I'm going to read you a poem. Now, this poem, I remember hearing many, many years ago, when I was at primary school. I suppose I was about nine or ten, and it was my headmaster, Mr. Dipper. He used to come and read stories to us, and poems as well. Now usually when you're nine years old, you're not very interested in poetry. But some of the poems that he read, were particularly fascinating. And this is one of them. It's by a poet called Robert Southey, who was a poet in the 18th century. And he wrote a series of adventure poems, and one of these I'm going to read you today. It is called The Inchcape Rock.

English - a stress-timed language

Now, the reason, or one of the reasons, that I'm reading you this poem is because today I'm talking about the rhythm of English, and how important it is to be able to apply the correct rhythm to your speech. Now, English is a language we call a stress-timed language. Perhaps it's unusual, because many other European languages are syllable-timed, especially Latin-based languages, like Spanish and Italian, for example. Each syllable, more or less, receives a similar stress. So if I speak English now, in a syllable-timed way, it would sound like this.... Yes, I am speaking in a syllable-timed way, I am speaking with all the words receiving... sorry, I mean, the sy-lla-bles - they are receiving more or less the same amount of stress. Although it's difficult for me to do that, quite honestly, because it's quite difficult to speak English in that way. But this can be something which, if you can change it, can make your English sound so much more native English-like.

I'm going to give you an example of how a stress-timed language works, how English works, and I'm going to read you a series of lines, and each line has one more syllable in it than the one before. Right. Okay. Let's listen.

Dogs chase cats.

Okay, you've got that? Three beats if you like. I mean, you can use your hand, a flat hand and move it up and down. So, dogs chase cats, and I've moved my hand up and down three times for each of the syllables or each of the words because each word is just one syllable here. Right. The next one is,

The dogs chase cats.

Now what I did then... I also move my hand up and down three times, the dogs chase cats. Now why? Because the 'the' - the article - is not an important word. What we do is that the words which are important in a sentence, the key, meaning words are those that receive the stress. And those little words in between, like articles and prepositions and other syllables in a word, do not receive stress. So I say, the dogs chase cats, and 'the' almost disappears. So I still have three beats - the dogs chase cats. Then I'm going to add another syllable now,

The dogs chase the cats.

So I've added two more words. No, one more word, I've added one more word there, another 'the' in front of cats, the dogs chase the cats. And now I'm going to add two more syllables, I'm going to put that into present continuous,

The dogs are chasing the cats.

So you'll notice there are still three beats there. Now I'm going to do this with a metronome. A metronome is one of those clicking things, a little arm, which goes backwards and forwards, and it marks time. They use it, for example, a musician, playing the piano, to keep time to the music, they have a metronome to help them. So you maintain the same time throughout the piece of music that you're playing. So I'm going to use a metronome here. I'm going to switch it on and I'm going to apply, then, the metronome beats to those phrases which I just read to you. So here we go.

Dogs chase cats,
The dogs chase cats,
The dogs chase the cats,
The dogs are chasing the cats.

Okay, all right, I'll stop it! Well, there you go, I hope you realized that there were three beats for each of those sentences with the metronome. And the beats fell on the three words, dogs chase cats, being the nouns, so they are important meaning words, and the verb, chase. So in the last example, where I had, the dogs are chasing the cats, well, then the articles were without stress, and also the auxiliary verb 'are', and the 'ing' syllable in chasing. So, we can't really even hear the 'are' - just a very brief sound, the dogs are chasing the cats. I hope you get the point. It's a very important one if you want to improve the sound of your spoken language.

Okay, I'm going to read you a poem. And obviously the wonderful thing about poems is that they also follow a beat. Now, it's easier with poetry because the syllables in each line are usually the same. So it's easier to do this in a stress-timed way. Even so, I think it's useful. And you'll notice then, that when I read, the stress goes on those key words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, if the adjectives are important, and negatives is another one as well. For example, if I said,

I'm watching television.

So I've got I watch television are the three stresses there. I'm watching television. But if I put that into the negative, well, then I will stress the negative words in there to make it clear that it's in the negative.

I'm not watching television.

So negative words in a sentence, for example, the auxiliary don't or doesn't or didn't, will also receive stress normally.

So I'm going to read you this lovely poem then. It's called the Inchcape Rock, as I've already said, and it's a poem about a pirate. It goes back to the 14th century, there was this pirate called Sir Ralph the Rover, and he was a particularly evil man. The story takes place off the coast of Scotland, where there were, and still are, some dangerous sand banks and rocks, which were a problem for shipping. The ships going past there could hit these sand banks or these rocks when there was fog or mist. There was an abbot - so that is a religious man, an abbot. And he was the Abbot of Aberbrothok. And what he did, he put a float, anchored to the bottom of the sea, in the place where the sandbanks were, with a large bell on it that rang as the waves rocked the float. And so ships going past in the fog, could hear the bell, and steer clear of the rocks. That is actually a true story. And this poem is based on this wonderful character called Sir Ralph the Rover, the pirate who cut the rope, just to be nasty, so that ships would run into the sand bank, hit the rocks there, and sink and everybody would be killed. And he thought that was very funny.

So that's the basis of the story. I haven't made any changes to this poem, it's in the transcript at PractisingEnglish.com. You may need to look up words, perhaps, to understand every word of it, but I hope, if you have a B2 level, that you should be able to understand most of the poem. Okay, so here we go. And notice the rhythm as I go through. In fact, I'll put the metronome on just for the first couple of verses, and then I'll switch it off, all right? But so you just get the idea of how poetry and our normal speech is based on rhythm. Okay, so here we go.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Now I'm going to turn off the metronome, but I'll keep up with the same rhythm. And I'll start again, actually, right? So you have the whole poem without the metronome ticking behind.

Pirate ship

The Inchcape Rock (by Robert Southey)

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The worthy Abbot of Aberbrothok
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge’s swell,
The Mariners heard the warning Bell;
And then they knew the perilous Rock,
And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok

The sun in the heaven was shining gay,
All things were joyful on that day;
The sea-birds scream’d as they wheel’d round,
And there was joyaunce in their sound.

The buoy of the Inchcpe Bell was seen
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walk’d his deck,
And fix’d his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess,
But the Rover’s mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape Float;
Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I’ll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lower’d, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,
And he cut the bell from the Inchcape Float.

Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound,
The bubbles rose and burst around;
Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock,
Won’t bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

Sir Ralph the Rover sail’d away,
He scour’d the seas for many a day;
And now grown rich with plunder’d store,
He steers his course for Scotland’s shore.

So thick a haze o’erspreads the sky,
They cannot see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day,
At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the Rover takes his stand,
So dark it is they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

"Canst hear,"? said one, "the breakers roar
For methinks we should be near the shore."
"Now, where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell."

They hear no sound, the swell is strong,
Though the wind hath fallen they drift along;
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,
"Oh Christ! It is the Inchcape Rock!"

Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair,
He curst himself in his despair;
The waves rush in on every side,
The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

But even in his dying fear,
One dreadful sound could the Rover hear;
A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell,
The Devil below was ringing his knell.

Wonderful poem by Robert Southey, the Inchcape Rock!

I read another poem by Robert Southey at podcast 126...

Until next time, goodbye.