cadence
What is Cadence? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples
Cadence Definition
Cadence (KAY-dense) refers to the rhythmic flow or sequence of sound in language, particularly the rising and falling of a voice. Cadence also indicates changes in rhythm, pitch, and aural pacing. This literary term is most commonly used in reference to poetry, but it also applies to prose and music.
The word cadence first appeared in English in the late 14th century and indicated the “flow of rhythm in prose or verse.” Cadence derives from the Middle French cadence, which comes from the Old Italian cadenza, meaning the “conclusion of a movement in music,” or literally “a falling,” from the Vulgar Latin cadere, “to fall.” In the late 16th century, cadence was sometimes used literally to refer to a physical “act of falling.”
Elements That Affect Cadence
Like meter, cadence refers to rhythmic flow and patterns of sound in language. Meter can be used to create cadence, but cadence also arises from natural patterns in everyday speech. Therefore, we can see cadence in free verse poetry and prose, as well as blank verse and formal verse.
When language is read or spoken aloud, part of what determines cadence is the natural inflections of the reader’s voice. Authors shape cadence on the page with the placement of line breaks in their poetry and verse plays. Meter, rhyme, enjambment, and end stops all help determine cadence in verse, while diction and syntax contribute to cadence in both verse and prose. Any literary device that affects sound can be used to create cadence, including repetition or punctuation.
Types of Cadence
There are two types of cadence in literature: perfect and imperfect.
Perfect Cadence
This occurs when lines of verse end at the same place where their phrases or sentences end. This smoother cadence relies on the type of line break called an end stop, which is when the line ends at a punctuation mark delineating the conclusion of a sentence or phrase. This type of cadence is also called strong cadence because it has a sense of finality.
Imperfect Cadence
This created through the use of enjambment. Enjambment occurs when a line of verse breaks, or ends, in the middle of a phrase or sentence rather than at an ending punctuation mark. This type of cadence is also called half cadence or weak cadence.
Music includes many other different types of cadence including: evaded cadence, where one of two voices in a suspension doesn’t resolve as expected; inverted cadence, which inverts the final chord of a progression; and Corelli cadence, or Corelli clash, so named for its association with the violin music of the Baroque Corelli school. These cadences rely on tonal shifts and multiple voices.
Cadence in Prose and Music
In prose, cadence is determined more by punctuation and syntax. An author may create a falling imperfect cadence by using ellipsis. Conversely, the finality of strong cadence can be created by using a period or exclamation point at the end of a sentence or paragraph.
Cadence is created through harmonic configurations that require a progression of at least two chords to conclude a phrase, section, or entire piece of music. Musical cadence requires a sense of closure.
While cadence is produced differently for these genres, including poetry, one central similarity is shared: cadence indicates rising and falling rhythmic patterns that add a melodious and harmonic element to the work.
Examples of Cadence in Literature
1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Coleridge’s narrative poem conveys the story of an Ancient Mariner who unburdens himself to a Wedding-Guest. The poem begins by establishing this frame story and introducing these main characters:
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?’
Coleridge’s poem is primarily written in a loose common meter of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter with those of iambic trimeter. He also follows a ballad rhyme scheme of ABCB. Coleridge’s perfect cadence is created through the use of rhyme and meter, as well as his use of end-stopped lines.
2. Chen Chen, “The School of Morning & Letters”
Chen Chen begins his poem by saying:
Assigned to flurries
of dust, assigned to the dead
middle of winter in West Texas,
assigned to give assignments
in a building called English,
I walk to campus, rubbing flecks
This free verse poem is written in imperfect cadence. Lines one, two, four, and six all use enjambment to carry the action and thought of the phrase over into the next line, rather than concluding the lines with a more emphatic sense of finality.
3. Toni Morrison, Beloved
Morrison’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel opens with a series of short sentences, including a fragment:
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it
and so did the children.
Morrison uses these short declarative sentences, each ending with a period, to create a strong and emphatic cadence. This cadence gives a weight and importance to the setting and sets up the powerful and serious narrative that follows.
Further Resources on Cadence
Merriam-Webster Dictionary online published an interesting blog post about the application of cadence as a business term.
The All Write Fiction blog has a great post on how to convey cadence in your writing.
If you’d like to explore different types of musical cadence in more depth, Simplifying Theory has a great breakdown of perfect, imperfect, plagal, deceptive, and half cadence in the key of C major.