Prosidy Vanessa Clayberg and Arati Sharma. Meter Reoccurring patterns of sounds that give poems, written in verse, their distinctive rhythms.

Prosidy

Vanessa Clayberg and Arati Sharma

Meter

Reoccurring patterns of sounds that give poems, written in verse, their distinctive rhythms.

Quantitative Meter

The relative length of the utterance of syllables (long and short) that constitute a poetic line.• This type of meter was used predominately in Latin and Greek

poetry.

Syllabic Meter

Syllabic meter depends on the number of syllables in a line, without regard to their strees. • This type of meter is used mainly in French, Spanish, and

Japanese poetry.

Stress

The special emphasis given in pronouncing some syllables.

Accentual Meter

The number of stressed syllables in each line, without regard to unstressed syllables.• This meter is often featured in Germanic poetry.

Accentual-Syllabic Meter

Accentual-Syllabic Meter is based on both the number of syllables in a line and on the pattern of stresses in each metrical unit, or foot.

Metrical Feet

Foot

The 'Foot' in Literary Terms refers to two or more syllables that together make up the smallest unit of rhythm in a poem. It is composed of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable and an accented or stressed one. For example: unaccented syllable (noted by "x") and an accented (noted by "/")

              x    / a wall Iambic is the most common metrical measure in English verse.A line from Christopher Marlow:x / x / x / x / Come live | with me | and be | my love.

Anapest

An anapest (or anapaest) comprises two unstressed syllables and one stressed one: for example, "unabridged," "intercede," "on the loose."                                                   And

And the sound of a voice that is still

Trochee

A trochee  is a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one:      For example:

    Tell me not in mournful numbers

Dactyl

A dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. For example: This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock. (The final dactyl is replaced by a Trochee

Number of Feet in a Line

Monometer

A rare form of verse in which each line consists of a single metrical unit (foot).Example:

Desmond Skirrow’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn Summarized”:   Gods chase

Round vase.What say?What play?Don’t knowNice, though

Dimeter

A line of verse composed of two feet. For example:

“Some go local / Some go express  Some can’t wait / To answer Yes,”  by Muriel Rukeyser in her poem “Yes,”

Trimeter

A line of verse that consists of three feet. For example:Fresh green /upon /the tree.      When here /the spring / we see,

Tetrameter

A line of verse that contains four feet. For example :

Though she/ were true/ when you/ met herAnd last/ till you/ write your/ letter

Pentameter

A line of verse that contains five feet. For example : To be | or not | to be, | that is | the question

Hexameter

A line of verse that contains six feet.For example :

Down in a | deep dark | hole sat an | old pig | munching a | bean stalk. (All of it is supposed to be in one line)

Heptameter

A line of verse that contains seven feet.

This kind of verse is very rare in poems, because of it's complexity.

Naming the Meter

Iambic Pentameter

A line comprised of five iambs.• This meter is closest to English speech.

 Example:  "When you / are old / and grey / and full / of sleep,And nod / ding by the fire, / take down/ this book."    -William Butler Yeats, "When you are old

Trochaic Trimeter

A line made up of three feet of trochees.

Example:

"Higher / still and / higherFrom the/  earth thou / springestLike a / cloud of / fireThe deep / blue thou / wingest"    -Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To a skylark"

Dactylic Tetrameter

A line made up of four dactyls.

Example:

"Woman much / missed, how you / call to me, / call to me"    -Thomas Hardy, "The Voice"

Common Substitutions

Substitution

Any variant foot within a line that consists predominately if another metrical patten.

Spondee (Spondaic Foot)

Two stressed syllables in a row.

Example: "Rough winds / do shake / the dar / ling buds / of May,And sum / mer's lease / hath all / too short / a date."    -William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 18"

Catalexis

A missing unstressed syllable at the end of a Trochaic or Dactylic line.

Example:

"Go and / catch a / falling / star,Get with / child a / mandrake / root"    -John Donne, "Song"

Masculine Endings

Lines that end with a strong stress.

Example:

"I wake / to sleep / and take / my wak / ing slow."    -Theodore Roethke, "The Waking"

Feminine Endings

Lines that end in an unstressed syllable.

Example:

"To be / or not / to be, / that is / the ques / tion."    -William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Pauses Within and Between Lines of Verse

End-stopped Lines

These lines contain a complete sentence of an independent clause. So they have a distinct pause at the end. 

For example:The Burning Babe by Robert Southwell.   As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow,

Surprised I was with sudden heat, which made my heart to glow;And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.

Enjambed Lines

A line which does not end with a grammatical break, that is, where the line cannot stand alone, cannot make sense without the following line.  For example: A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and asleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing  The first and last lines are end-stopped. Lines 2,3,4 are enjambed.

Caesura

Caesura is a pause somewhere in the middle of a verse. Some lines have strong (easily recognizable) caesurae, which usually coincide with punctuation in the line, while others have weak ones. For example: A poem by Alexander Pope Alas how changed! || What sudden horrors rise!

A naked lover || bound and bleeding lies!Where, where was Eloise? || her voice, her hand,Her poniard, || had opposed the dire command.

Scansion

The process of analyzing and marking the type and number of feet in each line of verse.