Boxi Learn › Chinese › Stage 2 · Models and Patterns
Tap the beat of a Tang poem
CN-5 Sound and rhythmX-1 Guess, then check
What many people think
How you read a poem aloud doesn't matter — just read every character at the same speed.
The idea
A five-character line is read in beats 2 + 3 (often 2 + 2 + 1 or 2 + 1 + 2) and a seven-character line 4 + 3 (2 + 2 + 3); in 绝句 and 律诗 the rhyme falls at the end of the even-numbered lines, and line 1 may rhyme too.
Explain it
A friend reads 白日依山尽 one character at a time, all at the same speed. Show them where the main pause goes and why. Then tell them which lines of 登鹳雀楼 rhyme and how you can tell.
Try at home
Pick a Tang poem you know. Read it to someone at home, clapping once for each beat group, and write a / at each main pause. Do the rhyming characters fall at the end of lines 2 and 4?