Never heard classic English Literature quite like this!
Howard Shepherd, one of the Word Nerds, recently made my day by doing a rap version of the famous literary work, Beowulf. Howard did the piece as a demonstration of rhythm and meaning in English as part of one of the Word Nerds’ podcasts.
As a high school English teacher, he one day had the realization that Beowulf and modern American gangster rap (hip-hop) music had the same rhythm. The meter of both the poem and the music were trochaic tetrameter—go figure!
Listen to the podcast, and in minute 25 or so you’ll hear for yourself.
