Poetic Meter
Meter: Patterns of stressed and
unstressed syllables
• The basic unit of meter is a foot. A foot is a unit
of meter that consists of a combination of two
or more stressed or unstressed syllables.
When analyzing poetry, a stressed syllable is
marked as (/) and an unstressed syllable is
marked as ( or ^).
• Most common feet in English poetry:
Iamb
Trochee
Anapest
Note that
/
Dactyl
/
/
Spondee
//
/
these feet contain either 2 or 3
syllables

/ Iambic
 /

/   / 
/
I asked my mo·ther for fif·ty cents
 /
 /  / x
/ 
/
To see the el·e·phant jump the fence

/

/ 
/

/
He jumped so high, he touched the sky

/  /

/
 
/
  /
And he did not come back ‘til the Fourth of Ju·ly
Trochaic /  (Tro-kay-ik)
/  / 
/
 /  /  / 
Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers
x /  / 
/
 /  /  / 
If Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers
/

/  /  / 
Where’s the peck of pick·led pep·pers
 /  /  / (iambic)
That Pe·ter Pi·per picked?
Anapestic   /


/

/  
/
There was an old man in a tree


 
/
/  
/
Who was hor·rib·ly bored by a bee



/

/
When they said, "Does it buzz?“


/


/
He re·plied, "Yes, it does!
 
/  
/
 
/
It's a reg·u·lar brute of a bee!"
Edward Lear
/   Dactylic (po·e·try)
/   /  / 
/ 
/
  /
This is the forest prim·eval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
dactylic hexameter: Longfellow, Evangeline
/   /  
/   /  
Picture your self in a boat on a river with
/  
/


/  
/  
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
Dactylic tetrameter ¾ time: The Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds “
Spondaic / /
(Rarely an entire line of poetry)
/ /
/  /
See Saw, Margery Daw
/ /
/
/
I scream. You scream.
/ 
/
 / 
We all scream for ice cream
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. -- E.A. Poe
Metrical Lines
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
One foot
Two feet
Three feet
Four feet
Five feet
Six feet
Seven feet
Eight feet
monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
octameter
(iambic pentameter)
(dactylic hexameter)
Stanzas
• 2 line stanzas:
couplets
• 3 line stanzas:
 tercets
 triplets: aaa bbb ccc
ddd
 terza rima: aba bcb
cdc ded
• 4 line stanzas:
quatrains
• 5 line stanzas: quintets
• 6 line stanzas: sestets
• 7 line stanzas: septets
• 8 line stanzas: octaves
How do I figure out
the meter of a poem?
Basic Background…
• Every word has syllables and particular
emphasis when the word is pronounced
• Dictionary Example:
emphasis = \ˈem(p)-fə-səs\
syllable = \ˈsi-lə-bəl\
• In dictionaries, the ` symbol marks which
syllable is stressed in a word’s pronunciation
3 Steps for Determining
Poetic Meter in Poetic Lines
1. Count & number the syllables in a
poetic line.
2. Find words that are
poly/multisyllabic (more than one).
3. Check for patterns to determine the
stress pattern
Note: If necessary, you can use a dictionary to find out
which syllable is stressed in particular
poly/multisyllabic words
1). Number the syllables
Blake, “The Tyger”
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
Blake, “The Tyger”
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
In the forests of the night
2). Decide how many syllables belong in
one poetic foot of the poem. Tip: Look for
multisyllabic words, noting where their
syllables would be stressed.
Blake, “The Tyger”
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
In the forests of the night
Blake, “The Tyger”
/

/

/

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
/

In the forests of the night
Let’s check for patterns.
• The feet of this poem have 2 syllables (based
on the multisyllabic words)
• The multisyllabic words all follow the structure
of starting with a stressed followed by an
unstressed syllable (What type is this?)
• In both lines of the poem, there are 7 syllables,
which equals 4 separate feet. (What type of
metrical line has 4 feet?)
• NOTE: When there’s an odd number, the last
foot is considered catalectic, which means
incomplete. It still counts as a foot.
So what do we have?
Trochaic (Stress unstressed)
Tetrameter (4 feet per line)
/

/

/

/
Tyger, | tyger, | burning | bright
/

/

/

/
In the | forests | of the | night
Example Line of Poetry # 2
And the sheen of their
spears was like stars on
the sea
1. Number the syllables
2. Decide if the poetic foot is two
or three syllables
3. Look for patterns; determine the
stress pattern
Problems!
• 12 syllables are divisible by either
2 or 3, so how do we find out how
many syllables are in one foot of
this poem?
• There are no multisyllabic words
to give us clues!
STRATEGY: Test the pattern aloud.
And the | sheen of | their
spears |was like| stars on| the
sea|
-ORAnd the sheen |
of their spears |
was like stars | on the sea|
Determine the poetic feet &
where the syllables should be
stressed


/
And the sheen |


/
of their spears |


/
was like stars |


on the sea|
So, what
is the
type of
foot?
/
What is
the type
of
metrical
line?


/
And the sheen |


/
of their spears |


/
was like stars |


on the sea|
/
Unstressed,
unstressed,
stressed =
 /
anapestic
4 feet =
tetrameter
Example Line of Poetry # 3
Half a league, half a league,
half a league onward
1. Number the syllables
2. Decide if the poetic foot is two or
three syllables
3. Look for patterns; determine the
stress pattern
Dactyl (/  ) Tetrameter

/

Half a league, |

/

half a league, |
/


/

half a league | onward
Note: Onward is incomplete, but is
still a foot (catalectic)