0:00:06.839,0:00:08.320
Just for a moment,

0:00:08.320,0:00:10.315
focus on your breath.

0:00:10.315,0:00:12.140
In slowly.

0:00:12.140,0:00:13.756
Out slowly.

0:00:13.756,0:00:15.274
In slowly.

0:00:15.274,0:00:16.625
Out.

0:00:16.625,0:00:19.944
The same pattern repeats within[br]every one of us

0:00:19.944,0:00:21.574
and consider your pulse.

0:00:21.574,0:00:25.474
The beat is built into the very[br]fabric of our being.

0:00:25.474,0:00:29.405
Simply put, we're creatures of rhythm[br]and repetition.

0:00:29.405,0:00:31.466
It's central to our experience,

0:00:31.466,0:00:33.231
rhythm and repetition,

0:00:33.231,0:00:35.260
rhythm and repetition.

0:00:35.260,0:00:36.449
On, and in,

0:00:36.449,0:00:38.736
and on, and out.

0:00:38.736,0:00:41.409
And we delight in those aspects everyday,

0:00:41.409,0:00:42.696
in the rhythm of a song,

0:00:42.696,0:00:44.148
the beat of the drum,

0:00:44.148,0:00:45.564
the nod of your head,

0:00:45.564,0:00:47.874
or in the repetition of soup cans,

0:00:47.874,0:00:49.492
the rows of an orchard,

0:00:49.492,0:00:51.382
the artistry of petals.

0:00:51.382,0:00:53.511
Pattern can be pleasure.

0:00:53.511,0:00:56.475
In language, rhythm and repetition[br]are often used

0:00:56.475,0:00:59.406
as the building blocks for poetry.

0:00:59.406,0:01:01.305
There's the rhythm of language,

0:01:01.305,0:01:04.101
created by syllables and their emphasis,

0:01:04.101,0:01:09.806
such as, "So long as men can breathe[br]or eyes can see."

0:01:09.806,0:01:13.026
And there's the repetition of language[br]at multiple levels:

0:01:13.026,0:01:14.667
the repetition of letters,

0:01:14.667,0:01:18.071
"So long lives this[br]and this gives life to thee,"

0:01:18.071,0:01:19.291
of sounds,

0:01:19.291,0:01:21.874
"breathe," "see," "thee,"

0:01:21.874,0:01:23.477
and of words.

0:01:23.477,0:01:27.250
With so many uses, repetition[br]is one of the poet's most malleable

0:01:27.250,0:01:29.342
and reliable tools.

0:01:29.342,0:01:31.818
It can lift or lull the listener,

0:01:31.818,0:01:34.197
amplify or diminish the line,

0:01:34.197,0:01:37.223
unify or diversify ideas.

0:01:37.223,0:01:39.318
In fact, even rhythm itself,

0:01:39.318,0:01:42.088
a repeated pattern of stressed syllables,

0:01:42.088,0:01:44.500
is a form of repetition.

0:01:44.500,0:01:46.362
Yet for all its varied uses,

0:01:46.362,0:01:48.942
too much repetition can backfire.

0:01:48.942,0:01:53.095
Imagine writing the same sentence[br]on the blackboard twenty times,

0:01:53.095,0:01:55.739
again, and again, and again, and again,

0:01:55.739,0:01:59.695
or imagine a young child clamoring[br]for her mother's attention,

0:01:59.695,0:02:03.241
"Mom, mom, mommy, mom, mom."

0:02:03.241,0:02:06.164
Not exactly what we might call poetry.

0:02:06.164,0:02:09.831
So what is poetic repetition,[br]and why does it work?

0:02:09.831,0:02:12.249
Possibly most familiar is rhyme,

0:02:12.249,0:02:15.343
the repetition of like sounds[br]in word endings.

0:02:15.343,0:02:17.529
As with Shakespeare's example,

0:02:17.529,0:02:20.547
we often encounter rhyme[br]at the ends of lines.

0:02:20.547,0:02:23.862
Repetition in this way creates[br]an expectation.

0:02:23.862,0:02:27.601
We begin to listen for the repetition[br]of those similar sounds.

0:02:27.601,0:02:31.250
When we hear them, [br]the found pattern is pleasurable.

0:02:31.250,0:02:33.588
Like finding Waldo in the visual chaos,

0:02:33.588,0:02:36.815
we hear the echo in the oral chatter.

0:02:36.815,0:02:41.347
Yet, rhyme need not surface solely[br]at a line's end.

0:02:41.347,0:02:43.374
Notice the strong "i" sound in,

0:02:43.374,0:02:47.631
"So long lives this [br]and this gives life to thee."

0:02:47.631,0:02:50.757
This repetition of vowel sounds[br]is called assonance

0:02:50.757,0:02:53.771
and can also be heard [br]in Eminem's "Lose Yourself."

0:02:53.771,0:02:57.146
Notice how the "e" and "o" sounds[br]repeat both within in

0:02:57.146,0:02:59.150
and at the end of each line:

0:02:59.150,0:03:01.011
"Oh, there goes gravity,

0:03:01.011,0:03:03.046
Oh, there goes rabbit,[br]he choked,

0:03:03.046,0:03:05.578
he so mad but he won't[br]give up that easy,

0:03:05.578,0:03:06.750
no, he won't have it,

0:03:06.750,0:03:09.903
he knows his whole back's[br]to these ropes."

0:03:09.903,0:03:12.441
The alternating assonance[br]creates its own rhythm,

0:03:12.441,0:03:15.982
and invites us to try our own voices[br]in echoing it.

0:03:15.982,0:03:20.261
Similarly, consonance is the repetition[br]of like consonant sounds,

0:03:20.261,0:03:22.385
such as the "l" and "th" in,

0:03:22.385,0:03:26.417
"So long lives this[br]and this gives life to thee."

0:03:26.417,0:03:28.991
In fact, this type of specific consonance,

0:03:28.991,0:03:31.201
which occurs at the beginning of words

0:03:31.201,0:03:33.207
may be familiar to you already.

0:03:33.207,0:03:36.482
It's called alliteration,[br]or front rhyme.

0:03:36.482,0:03:38.639
Great examples include tongue twisters.

0:03:38.639,0:03:41.187
Betty bought some butter [br]but the butter was bitter

0:03:41.187,0:03:44.634
so Betty bought some better butter[br]to make the bitter butter better.

0:03:44.634,0:03:49.357
Here, the pleasure in pattern is apparent[br]as we trip over the consonance

0:03:49.357,0:03:52.544
both within words and at their start.

0:03:52.544,0:03:57.281
Yet tongue twisters also reflect the need[br]for variation in poetic repetition.

0:03:57.281,0:03:58.853
While challenging to say,

0:03:58.853,0:04:02.500
they're seen by some[br]as lesser imitations of poetry,

0:04:02.500,0:04:06.784
or gimmicky because they hammer[br]so heavily on the same sounds,

0:04:06.784,0:04:09.192
closer to that blackboard-style [br]of repetition.

0:04:09.192,0:04:12.538
Ultimately, this is the poet's [br]balancing act,

0:04:12.538,0:04:13.858
learning when to repeat

0:04:13.858,0:04:15.181
and when to riff,

0:04:15.181,0:04:17.009
when to satisfy expectations,

0:04:17.009,0:04:19.367
and when to thwart them,

0:04:19.367,0:04:21.970
and in that balance, [br]it may be enough to remember

0:04:21.970,0:04:25.061
we all live in a world of wild variation

0:04:25.061,0:04:27.987
and carry with us our own breath and beat,

0:04:27.987,0:04:30.755
our own repetition wherever we go.