Meter in Poetry and

VerseBy Francis Bae

What is a Meter in a Poetry?

Meter in verses and poetries are repeatedly pattern of emphasized and not emphasized syllables in lines of set of the length in a verse. For instance, say the lines of set has 5 lines. The first syllable unstressed, second is stressed, third is unstressed and on up to the fifth 5th syllable. The opening from the poem “The Unicorn”. The underlined words are stressed and not underlined words are unstressed.

A long time ago when the earth was green. And there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen, And they run around free while the earth was being born. And the loveliest of all was the Unicorn.

Types of Meters

Foot – A foot is a pair of stressed and unstressed syllables, ex) Ago

Iamb – A foot that has unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable.

Iambic Pentameter – The meter of the line.

Catalexis – The absence of the unstressed syllable.

Types of Feet

Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed

Two Syllables

Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed

Two Syllables

Spondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed Two Syllables

Anapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed

Three Syllables

Dactyl (Dactylic) Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed

Three Syllables

Special Names

The followings are names of meter & line length

Monometer One foot

Dimeter Two feet

Trimeter Three feet

Tetrameter Four feet

Pentameter Five feet

Hexameter Six feet

Heptameter Seven feet

Octameter Eight feet

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