\u201c … You hear the notes, but do you hear the pauses \u2026 it\u2019s not filling every audible space with sound \u2026 It lets you experience the feeling by letting your mind fill in the spaces between the notes \u2026 You become part of the song \u2026 That\u2019s why it\u2019s so seductive. If you pay attention to what you don\u2019t hear, there\u2019s music every second but half of it is created by you \u2026 Listen to the cadence, listen to the volume, listen to the pauses \u2026 That\u2019s why he\u2019s a \u2018reverend;\u2019 not because of what he says but because of how he says it \u2026 It\u2019s how he works the cadence so the heart, the soul, the mind of the listener enters the rhythm. That\u2019s hypnotic. It\u2019s not just the message, Mike, it\u2019s the medium \u2026 \u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
This rhythm can be conveyed, for example, by the repetition of a two-syllable pattern that creates a beat, as in this passage from Anna Kavan\u2019s novel Ice<\/i>:<\/p>\n
\u201cAn insane impatience for death was driving mankind to a second suicide \u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Note the repetitive use of two-syllable words and word combinations: insane, for death, driving, mankind, second<\/i>. Breaking and re-starting the pattern is another skillful way that Kavan engages the reader\u2019s brain, so that the rhythmic pattern itself does not become tedious: the three-syllable words impatience<\/i> and suicide<\/i> are just slight deviations that break the pattern just enough, but in a very gentle way. Add to that the alliteration of insane impatience<\/i> and second suicide<\/i>, and the passage becomes very pleasing to the reader.<\/p>\n
Another example of this type of rhythm through word choice can be seen in Michael Chabon\u2019s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay<\/i> when he describes the crowd disembarking from the ferry into Manhattan in the WWII era:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 taut-jawed men in stiff hats and suits and obsidian shoes, newspapers pinned under their arms; brusque, brick-lipped, hard-heeled women in floral dresses \u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
There are some interesting things to note here. First, the bam<\/i>-bam-bam, bam<\/i>-bam-bam rhythm of \u201ctaut<\/i>-jawed men in<\/i> stiff hats\u201d [emphasis mine], which is then followed with \u201cand suits and obsidian shoes,\u201d which starts to replicate the pattern but then disrupts it, similar to what we saw in Kavan\u2019s piece. Then, there is the tight, hard, two-syllable pattern with brick-lipped, hard- heeled women<\/i> that has three consecutive two-syllable words with hard consonants. The sentence ends with another set of two-syllable words, floral dresses<\/i>, but this time the pattern is both replicated (consecutive two-syllable words) and broken (softer consonants).<\/p>\n
Rhythms can be altered in subtle ways depending on what is being described. Note the different rhythmic patterns in how Graham Greene, in The Quiet American<\/i>, has his protagonist describe a woman and a man in his life. First, the woman:<\/p>\n
\u201cI shut my eyes and she was again the same as she used to be: she was the hiss of steam, the clink of a cup, she was a certain hour of the night and the promise of rest.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Note the repetition of the soft \u201cs\u201d sound, and the way he presents his list of attributes that forces you to pause after each one. Then note the following description of a male acquaintance:<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy was another subject of his \u2014 he had pronounced and aggravating views on what the United States was doing for the world.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Notice how the repetition of the hard consonants\u2014d, p, g and v\u2014add a different kind of rhythm, a harder, less flowing but more drum-like beat. It creates a different engagement in our impression of the man compared with that of the woman he describes.<\/p>\n
A great example of how varying sentence length within a paragraph, as well as the suggestive use of certain words, can be found in Ocean Vuong\u2019s autobiographical novel, On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous<\/i>:<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause something in him knew she\u2019d be there. That she was waiting. Because that\u2019s what mothers do. They wait. They stand still until their children belong to someone else.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Vuong skillfully alternates long and short sentences, and the short sentences, That she was waiting<\/i>, and They wait<\/i>, makes your mind pause and wait, prompting your brain to do what it is reading about. And then the finish with the longest sentence, which seems to represent a moving on, a flowing into the future, which is just what the passage is about.<\/p>\n
While Vuong\u2019s book is a love letter to his mother, Chuck Pahlaniuk\u2019s Fight Club <\/i>is a brutal depiction of a violent pastime among alienated young men, and the rhythm he adopts reflects that brutality. Take this passage for example:<\/p>\n
\u201cA rubber band.<\/i><\/p>\n
You\u2019re in Ireland.<\/i><\/p>\n
You\u2019re <\/i>in fight<\/i> club.<\/i><\/p>\n
You\u2019re at work.<\/i><\/p>\n
You\u2019re anywhere but here.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
The repetition of short sentences, one after another, and the repetition of certain words, creates a blunt intensity and forces the mind to pause at the end of each sentence. These pauses compel contemplation. The bluntness and directness of the sentences mimic the aggressive nature of the story.<\/p>\n
Once you train yourself to notice rhythmic patterns in prose, you will become more conscious of the reasons some writing engages and pleases you, and the reasons you lose interest in and become fatigued by others. This awareness will seep into your brain and impel you to write passages that come alive not by what you are describing but by how you are describing it, and will, I hope, make writing a more enjoyable and enriching enterprise for you and for your readers.<\/p>\n
Rhythm, which often goes undetected on the surface, is vitally important in the readers\u2019 engagement….<\/p>\n![\"E.H.](\"http:\/\/www.hippocampusmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image1-3.png\")
E.H. Jacobs is a New England-based psychologist and writer. He is the author of the novels \u201cSplintered River<\/a>\u201d and \u201cInto a Wider Sky<\/a>.\u201d <\/i>His work has appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, Penstricken, Santa Fe Literary Review, Permafrost Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Streetlight Magazine, Bryant Literary Review and elsewhere. He was a finalist in the Derick Burleson Poetry and the Phil Heldrich Nonfiction Contests and was a nominee for the Nina Riggs Poetry Award. He has published two books on parenting, was a contributing book review editor for the American Journal of Psychotherapy and served on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from Vassar College and a Ph.D. from Temple University. His work can be seen at http:\/\/www.ehjacobsauthor.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"