Meter
Prose – words, phrases, sentences,
paragraphs, chapters
Poetry – syllables, feet, lines, stanzas,
cantos
Without the division of lines – no poem,
without the meter – no music
Meter
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Rhythm – pulse or beat we feel in a phrase of music or a poem.
Sense of rhythm comes from everyday life and experiences with
language and music
Meter – poetry’s rhythm or its pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
Poetic foot – is a measured unit of meter, made up of stressed
and unstressed syllables
Lexical stress – dictionary stress
Rhetorical stress – stress placed on a word for effect
Metrical stress – expectation drives the stress, meter gets
established
Whose woods/ these are/ I think / I know
Type of metric foot
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Iambic/ iamb
Trochaic/ trochee
Anapestic/ anapest
Dactyllic/dactyl
Spondaic/spondee
Pyrrhic
accent/stress
example
/
today, balloon
/
happy, soda
 /
obvious, contradict
/ 
cigarette, maniac
/ / Downtown, manmade

of the
Da dum
 DA
dum (FORest) = Trochee
 DA DUM (RED CAT) = Spondee
 da da DUM (like a WOLF) =
Anapest
 DA da DUM (CUT the FLESH) =
Dactyl
 da dum (and the) (-ing the) =
Pyrrhic
meter
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Duple – two syllable feet - - -IT
Triple – three syllable feet - - AD
Rising feet/ascending feet– iamb, anapest - vowels
Falling/descending feet – trochee, dactyl - - consonants
Substitute feet – spondee, pyrrhic
Amphibrach – a foot with unstressed, stressed,
unstressed syllables  /  Chicago
Anacrusis – an extra unaccented syllable at the
beginning of a line before the regular meter
begins
Mine by the right of the white election
Number of metric feet
Type of Line
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One foot
Two feet
Three feet
Four feet
Five feet
Six feet
Seven feet
Eight feet
Nine feet
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
octometer
nonometer
meter
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Amphimacer – a foot with stressed, unstressed,
stressed syllables
/  / attitude
Catalexis – an extra unaccented syllable at the
ending of a line after the regular meter ends
(opposite of anacrusis)
Scansion – the analysis of these mechanical
elements within a poem to determine meter.
Feet are marked off with slashes /
Bĕcaǘse/ Ĭ coǘld / nŏt stóp/ fŏr deáth
Can you figure out the number and
type of feet?
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Iambic pentameter_____________
Dactylic Trimeter _____________
Anapestic dimeter ______________
Spondaic monometer ______________
Trochaic tetrameter ______________
Examples
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iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)
That time | of year | thou mayst | in me |
behold
trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables)
Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers
anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables)
And the sound | of a voice | that is still
dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a
trochee replaces the last dactyl)
This is the | forest pri | meval, the | murmuring
| pine and the | hemlocks
Mixed Meter
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There WAS..|..a TIME..|..when MEAD..|..ow, GROVE,..|..and STREAM,
Iambic Pentameter
.........1................2...............3................4.
The EARTH,..|..and EV..|..ry COM..|..mon SIGHT,
Iambic Tetrameter
.....1..............2
To ME..|..did SEEM
Iambic Dimeter
......1..............2.............3...............4
Ap PAR..|..elled IN..|..cel EST..|..ial LIGHT,
........1..............2.................3................4.................5
The GLOR..|..y AND..|..the FRESH..|..ness OF..|..a DREAM.
Iambic Tetrameter
Iambic Pentameter
..1.............2.............3.............4..................5
It IS..|..not NOW..|..as IT..|..hath BEEN..|..of YORE;
Iambic Pentameter
........1....................2.............3
Turn WHERE..|..so E'ER..|..I MAY,
Iambic Trimeter
.......1..............2
By NIGHT..|..or DAY,
ambic Dimeter
I
..........1...............2.................3................4................5..............6
The THINGS..|..which I..|..have SEEN..|..I NOW..|..can SEE..|..no MORE.
Iambic Hexameter
Anapestic Tetrameter
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From "The Destruction of Sennacherib," by George Gordon Lord Byron
........1.......................2..........................3......................4
The As SYR..|..ian came DOWN..|..like the WOLF..|..on the FOLD,
........1.......................2..........................3....................4
And his CO..|..horts were GLEAM..|..ing in PUR..|..ple and GOLD;
.........1.........................2.............................3.......................4
And the SHEEN..|..of their SPEARS..|..was like STARS..|..on the
SEA
Trochaic Tetrameter
From "The Tyger," by William Blake
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....1.............2...............3.................4
TY ger..|..TY ger..|..BURN ning..|..BRIGHT
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....1...............2...............3............4
IN the..|..FOR..ests..|..OF the..|..NIGHT
Stanzas
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Metric feet make up lines, which make up
stanzas
Number of lines
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Type of Stanza
couplet
tercet
quatrain
cinquain
sestet
septet
octet/ octave
x-line stanza