quantitative meter
Length-based poetic rhythm
Quantitative meter is a system of poetic rhythm based on syllable length rather than stress.
In languages like classical Greek and Latin, syllables were classified as long or short depending on vowel duration and consonant patterns, and verse forms prescribed specific sequences of these.
English poetry occasionally imitates quantitative patterns, but since English rhythm depends primarily on stress, such attempts are artificial approximations: Poets have tried to write English hexameters using quantity, with mixed results.
- rhythmic patternsRepeating arrangements of beats
- moraProsodic duration unit
- prosodyStudy of verse rhythm
- classical poetryFormal ancient literary works
- Greek poetryLiterature from ancient Athens
scansion · phonetics · spondee · tempo · dactyl · thesis · note value · time signature · metric · pulse · foot · verse · quantitative verse · cadence · measure · beat · pattern · accent
quantitative meteriambic pentameter
Unstressed-stressed pattern, five feet