poetic meter
Syllable stress pattern
Poetic meter is the rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.
Different meters have names based on their repeating units: iambic (da-DUM), trochaic (DUM-da), anapestic (da-da-DUM).
The number of units per line adds another term: iambic pentameter has five iambic feet.
Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter.
Free verse abandons fixed meter entirely.
- hexameterSix-foot poetic line
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
- dimeterTwo-foot poetic line
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
- unstressed syllableUnaccented unit of speech
prosody · iamb · rhyme scheme · verse form · caesura · pyrrhic · anapest · spondee · oral tradition · trochee · dactyl · couplet · tetrameter · stanza · rhythmic pattern · syllable count · cadence · beat
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, beat
- Classical PoetryHomer, epic poetry, Virgil, Ovid, Horace
- Homeric epicsIliad, Odyssey, Homer, Achilles, Odysseus
- poeticsrhyme, versification, stanza, dactylic, couplet
- rhythm termsrhythm, beat, tempo, cadence, syncopation
poetic meterfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose · prose poetry · irregular rhythm · sprung rhythm · stream of consciousness
poetic meterarrhythmia
Abnormal cardiac rhythm
irregular rhythm · chaos · randomness · formlessness · unpredictability