By Andrew Lee 7E

An in-depth guide to the fascinatingly splendid candid aspect of meter. (yay)

What is meter?

Meter :: is the pattern of the syllables in the lines of a poem.

There are stressed, as in long, and unstressed, as in the shorter syllables.

How does it work?

Meter splits up the lines of a poem into feet, or groups of these unstressed and stressed syllables.

For example, in the following line, there are five feet.

comPARE | isLANDS | throughOUT | midDLE | agES

Continuing...

As shown in the line, each foot had a stressed and unstressed syllable. A foot with a stressed and unstressed syllable is called an iamb.

Because there were five iambs, this line is called an Iambic pentameter. The pentameter is based on the number of iambs there were.

But there are more than iambs, and we’ll cover those next.

What else is there?

Trochee - is like an iamb but it has a stressed then unstressed syllable, not a unstressed then stressed like an iamb.

Spondee - is a stressed then stressed syllable.

Anapest - is a unstressed, unstressed, stressed syllable.

Dactyl - is a stressed then unstressed, unstressed.

The Numbering

Monometer - One Foot

Dimeter - Two Feet

Trimeter - Three Feet

Tetrameter - Four Feet

Pentameter - Five Feet

Hexameter - Six Feet

Heptameter Seven Feet

Octameter Eight Feet

Example

Here’s an example of meter in poetry. I’ve underlined the stressed syllables

Still, I found MY way HOME,

THOUGH, there WAS an EEIRE silence.

SINCE the GUARD dog WASN’T there,

I FOUND my WAY to the GRAVEYARD.

Conclusion

In conclusion, meter is the pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a poem. They have many different forms and orders, and can give the rhythm that most poems have.