Meter in Poetry

What is meter?
In poetry, meter is the basic
rhythmic structure of a verse. In
a closer look, it refers to the
recurring patterns of stressed
and unstressed syllables.
What is a
syllable?
Syllable is a very small unit
of speech sound. Every word we
use is made up of one or more
syllables.
"Cat" contains one syllable.

"Monkey" contains two

syllables.
 Each pair, or three, of
unstressed and stressed
syllables make up a
bigger unit of sound
called 'foot’.
Shalll / comPARE / theeTO / aSUM /
mer'sDAY

Each pair of unstressed and stressed

syllables makes up a unit called a foot.
The unstressed syllables are in blue and the
stressed syllables in red.
A foot needs not to be a fusion of two
different words. A pair of fragments from two
different words may well form a foot.
 Poetic Meter
These terms show number of stresses or feet to a line:
 One stress (foot) per line = mono + meter = monometer
 Two = di + meter = dimeter
 Three = tri + meter = trimeter
 Four = tetra + meter = tetrameter
 Five = penta + meter = pentameter
 Six = hex + a + meter = hexameter
 Seven = hep + a + meter = heptameter
 Eight = oct + a + meter = octameter
 This pattern of ~/ also has a name
derived from Greek: it is called an iamb.
Although there are some exceptions --
notably the pattern ~~/ in Rich's lines -- we
can say that the dominant, most common
pattern is the iamb, or the iambic pattern.
patterns
Along with the iamb, there are other possible
patterns:

Pattern Noun Adjective

~/ iamb iambic
~~/ anapest anapestic
/~ trochee trochaic
/~~ dactyl dactylic
// spondee spondaic
We describe a poetic line, then, by
its type and number of poetic feet.
For example:
5 iambs = iambic pentameter
4 trochees = trochaic tetrameter
What is iambic
pentameter?
Iambic pentameter is a style of writing in poetry
where each line is five feet long. Each foot contains two
syllables, one is stressed and second is unstressed. In
simple way, each line carries ten syllable: five stressed
and five unstressed.
Example of iambic pentameter:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
(Shakespeare)
(Shall + I) (com+pare) (thee+to) (a+sum) (mer’s +day)
Poetry and its
Types
 A poem is a composition that uses
words to evoke emotions in an imaginative
way. Although poetry is a form of self-
expression that knows no bounds, it can be
safely divided into three main genres: lyric
poetry, narrative poetry, and dramatic
poetry.
Lyric Poetry
This poetry uses song-like and emotional
words to describe a moment, an object, a
feeling, or a person. Lyric poems do not
necessarily tell a story but focus on the
poet’s personal attitudes and state of mind.
They use sensory language to set the scene
and inspire emotions in the reader.
 Types of
lYric POetry
1. ELEGY - a reflective poem to
honor the dead

Tennyson's "In Memoriam"

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
2. HAIKU - a seventeen-syllable poem
that uses natural imagery to express
an emotion

On a withered branch
A crow has alighted;
Nightfall in autumn.
3. ODE - an elevated poem that pays
tribute to a person, idea, place, or
another concept

Intimations of Immortality from Reflections of

Early Childhood by William Wordsworth
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
4. Limerick - consists of a single stanza, an AABBA
rhyme scheme, exactly five lines, a rhyme on the
first, second, and fifth lines, and a second rhyme on
the third and fourth lines.
There was a young lady of station
A
"I love man" was her sole exclamation A
But when men cried, "You flatter“
B
She replied, "Oh! no matter!
B
Isle of Man is the true explanation.
5. SONNET - a descriptive
fourteen-line poem with a
specific rhyme scheme
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace
How Do I Love I love thee to the level of everyday's

Thee (Sonnet
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

43) by Elizabeth I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use
Barrett Browning In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith
I love thee with a love I seem to love
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."
Narrative Poetry
This poetry tells a story. Also known
as epic poetry, narrative poetry is often
set to music as ballads. Narrative poems
are usually of human interest and
include epics, or long stories.
 Types of
NARRATIVE
POetry
music, typically composed of four-line
stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme
scheme.
O I forbid you, maidens all,
A
That wear gold in your hair,
B
To come or go by Carterhaugh, C
For young Tam Lin is there.
tells a story of heroic
adventures "SPEAK, MEMORY—
Of the cunning hero,
The wanderer, blown off course time and
again
After he plundered Troy's sacred heights.
The Speak of all the cities he saw, the minds he
grasped,
Odyssey The suffering deep in his heart at sea
As he struggled to survive and bring his men

by Homer home
But could not save them, hard as he tried—
The fools—destroyed by their own
recklessness
When they ate the oxen of Hyperion the Sun,
Dramatic Poetry
This poetry, also known as dramatic
monologue, is meant to be spoken or
acted. Similar to narrative poetry,
dramatic poetry tells a story. You’re most
likely to find dramatic poetry in the form
of dramatic (or even comedic)
monologues or soliloquies written in a
 Types of
Dramatic POetry
1. MONOLOGUE - a speech given by one
character to another, or by one character to
the audience (also known as dramatic verse
when not in poetic form)
"That's my last Duchess painted on the
wall,
And seemed as they would ask me, if
Looking as if she were alive. I call they durst,
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's How such a glance came there; so, not
hands the first

The Worked busily a day, and there she

stands.
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas
not
Will't please you sit and look at her? I

Odyssey
Her husband's presence only, called that
said spot
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read Of joy into the Duchess' cheek; perhaps

by Homer
Strangers like you that pictured Fra Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle
countenance, laps
The depth and passion of its earnest Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
glance,
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
But to myself they turned (since none
puts by Half-flush that dies along her throat."
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
character to himself or herself; a
dramatic representation of inner
monologue "I am that merry wandered of the
night.
A I jest to Oberon and make him smile
Midsummer When I a far and bean-fed horse
beguile,
Night’s Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
Dream And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's
bowl,
by William In very likeness of a roasted crab,

Shakespear And when she drinks, against her

lips I bob