What are the Elements of Poetic Rhythm?

[JCT]

What are the Elements of Poetic Rhythm?

According to Mary Oliver, (Rules for the Dance, Page 8), "Rhythm is made up of the continual tonal rise and fall of speech, by writing the words down in such a way that the inflections, heavy or light stresses, will fall at certain points only …")

This definition includes two parameters: 1. pitches up and down a melodic scale, and 2. inflections of heavy and soft stresses. Yet Oliver goes on to discuss stresses only.

Doesn't poetry include both of these parameters? What is the "melodic shape" of a poetic line called?

[HowardM2]

Robert Pinsky discusses pitch in the first chapter of The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide.

[JCT]

Hi Howard,
Thanks for your speedy reply. I just ordered Pinsky's The Sounds of Poetry from the NYPL. The library will send me an email when the book arrives at my neighborhood branch half a block away. Oh the wonders of the internet !!!
Thanks again,
JCT

[Monk Bretton]

This article (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31654) has something to say on the interplay of pitch and rhythm.

[JCT]

Hi Monk,
I read the Levertov article and learned that poetic "melody" (pitch patterns) is determined by the reader's interpretation of intent, and this can alter radically depending on what constitutes a phrase and what constitutes a phrase can be determined by punctuation and by where the poet ends a line.
Thanks for the reference,
JCT