Meter
Meter: the musical rhythm of language and poetry. It
is formed by the combination of accented and
unaccented syllables in words.
Accent: The accent in a word is the natural stress
given to different syllables. A _ mark indicates an
unaccented syllable, and a / mark indicates accent.
_ /
Ex: because
_ /
although
/ _ _
happiness
Iambic meter: a line of poetry written in
unaccented/accented form.
_ / _ / _
/
_ /
_ /
Example: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. (5 beats)
_ /
_ / _
/ _ /
Example 2: I taste a liquor never brewed
(4 beats/feet)
_
/
_
/
_ /
From tankards scooped in pearl
(3 beats)
_
/ _ /
_ / _ /
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
(4 beats)
_
/
_ / _ /
Yield such an alchohol
(3beats)
Guided Practice: Copy down the following lines and mark
them for accented and unaccented stress:
When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxgloves door
When butterflies renounce their drams
I shall but drink the more.
Meter – Page 2
Syllable – the natural breaks in the sounds of individual
words. Ex: pizza = pi/zza or Geronimo =
Ger/o/ni/mo.
Stress – This relates to how loudly you say the syllables.
The syllables in words are naturally either stressed or
unstressed. A stressed syllable gets a / mark over it,
and an unstressed syllable gets a – mark over it.
Ex: pizza is said PI – za, with the first syllable louder,
so it looks like: /
-- / - Pi zza
Ger o ni mo
Iamb – an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable.
Foot – any collection of two syllables: for example, an
iamb makes one foot. We mark each foot with
parenthesis ( -- /).
Meter: the musical rhythm of language, made up by
arranging syllables into rhythms.
Pentameter - is any collection of 5 beats or 5 feet.
Iambic pentameter - a collection of 5 iambs.