This paper examines Kuria praise poetry from a prosodic point of view. It argues that though the poem is delivered at great speed, it follows well laid out rhythmic patterns. Further, 1t claims that the poem is fundamentally a syllabic verse, that is, a verse in which syllable count is the main organizational strategy. The main finding is that the poem under analysis is octosyllabic (i.e. bas eight syllable lines). The study shows that phonology and prosody play a role in the production of

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... syHable lines. Since poetry uses language as its building blocks, the study looks at some compulsory phonological rules of the Kuria language which apply to the poem. These are followed by the application of optional prosodic rules. The selective application of the prosodic rules creates a poetic system from ordinary language.