Basically, poetry is shorter, more condensed, and in a different
physical form. This may help you to visualize the basic differences:
Prose





Words
Phrases
Sentences
Paragraphs
Chapters
Poetry





Syllables
Feet
Lines
Stanzas
Cantos
The foot is the basic building block of poetry. It is composed of a pattern of syllables. These patterns cause the
meter of the poem. Meter is a pattern of beats or accents. Figure this out by counting the stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Unstressed = ˘ and Stressed = ′





The iamb
The trochee
The anapest
The dactyl
The spondee
˘′
′˘
˘˘′
′˘˘
′′
(tŏ dáy) (bĕ cáuse) (thĕ sún)
(háp pў) (líght lў) (wént tŏ)
(cĭg ă rétte) (ĭn tĕr rúpt) (ĭn thĕ dárk)
(ób vĭ oŭs) (rég ŭ lăr) (cólŏr ŏf)
(dówn tówn) (báth róbe) (trúe blúe)
Unlike the prose sentence that is determined by subject, verb,
and punctuation, the poetic line is measured by the number
of feet it contains.









1 foot
2 feet
3 feet
4 feet
5 feet
6 feet
7 feet
8 feet
9 feet
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
octameter
nonometer
Answers:
1. 5
2. 3
3. 2
4. 2
5. 4
You should now understand that syllables form feet, feet form
lines, and lines form stanzas. Stanzas also have names:
1 line
A line
2 lines
Couplet
3 lines
Tercet
4 lines
Quatrain
5 lines
Cinquain
6 lines
Sestet
7 lines
Septet
8 lines
Octave
Answer:
74
Finding a poem’s rhyme scheme is easy. Remember that you always
use the last word in each line to determine the rhyme scheme. The
purpose is to identify and establish a pattern and to consider if the
pattern helps to develop sound and/or meaning. Always use lower
case letters: a b a c b c …
Types of rhyme:
 End rhyme: the last words of two or more lines rhyme
 Internal rhyme: words within a line rhyme
 Masculine rhyme: most frequently used- the last stressed syllable
of the rhyming words match exactly. (“The play’s the
thing/Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”)
 Feminine rhyme: two consecutive syllables of the rhyming words,
with the first syllable stressed. (“The horses were prancing / as the
clowns were dancing.”)