Meter [Part II]

Meter is about arranging the stressed and unstressed syllables into a specific pattern, there are many different metrical patterns to be made.

Analysis of the pattern of stressed versus unstressed syllables in a poem is known as scansion. Let's review it again--

We use two methods to illustrate scansion in these lessons. The first is to capitalize the stressed syllables while showing the unstressed syllables in lowercase letters, as demonstrated below in Iambic Tetrameter.

i HEARD the BELLS on CHRISTmas DAY,

their OLD famILiar CARols PLAY.

If we just want to show the stress pattern, we can use slash and x notation. Slash represents the stressed syllable (the ictus, from the Latin word for "struck"); x represents the unstressed syllable. We can write the scansion of the poem this way.

I heard the bells on Christmas day

their old familiar carols play

x/x/x/x/

x/x/x/x/

For simplification, we will focus on only two types of meter, Iambic and Trochaic. There are many other types of meter but this is only an introduction to meter.

Types of Feet and Meter

Iambic Pentameter--A foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as above) is called an iamb. Because there are five feet in the line, all iambic, the meter of the line is iambic pentameter. The prefix pent- in pentameter means five (Greek: penta, five). Pent is joined to words or word roots to form new words indicating five. For example, the Pentagon in Washington has five sides, the Pentateuch of the Bible consists of five books, and a pentathlon in a sports event has five events. Thus, poetry lines with five feet are in pentameter.

Some feet in verse and poetry have different stress patterns. For example, one type of foot consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. Another type consists of a stressed one followed by an unstressed one. In all, there are six types of feet. We will be learning two of these in this lesson; Iambic and Trochaic.

Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed Two Syllables in one foot;

Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed Two Syllables in one foot.

The length of lines—and thus the meter—can also vary. Following are the types of meter and the line length:

Monometer-- One Foot; Dimeter-- Two Feet; Trimeter-- Three Feet; Tetrameter-- Four Feet; Pentameter-- Five Feet; Hexameter-- Six Feet; Heptameter--Seven Feet; Octameter-- Eight Feet.

Meter is determined by the type of foot and the number of feet in a line. Thus, a line with four iambic feet is known as Iambic Tetrameter. It has 8 syllables in all. A line with five feet is Iambic Pentameter with 10 syllables. There are variations and exceptions to this, but this class will not get into the further complexities of meter as it is an introduction to meter only.

Examples of Metric Formats

Following are examples of feet and meter--.

Iambic Pentameter

From "On His Blindness," by John Milton

1.............2................... ..3...............4..............5

When I..|..con SID..|..er HOW..|..my LIFE..|..is SPENT

1........................2.............. 3....................4............... ........5

Ere HALF..|..my DAYS..|..in THIS..|..dark WORLD..|..and WIDE

(A poem can be written in mixed meter in different lines, but we are focusing on learning two specific meters for now; Iambic and Trochaic.

Trochaic Tetrameter--

This type of meter can be demonstrated in the following excerpt from a famous poem, where the accented syllables of each trochee have been capitalized:

Henry Wadworth Longfellow, 'The Song of Hiawatha'--

BY the/ SHORES of /GIT/che GU/mee, 

BY the /SHIN/ing/ BIG/-Sea-/WA/ter,

Notice that each line is four trochaic feet of a stressed and unstressed syllables making 8 syllables; Trochaic Tetrameter.

The dictionary does not show stresses for all single-syllable words as this can very depending on the meter. A general rule is that verbs and nouns are usually stressed while connecting words are not.