Rhythm and Meter

These are similar but not identical concepts. Rhythm refers to the overall tempo, or
pace, at which the poem unfolds, while meter refers to the measured beat established by
patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Poets who write free verse, generally de-
emphasize or ignore meter and focus instead on refining and tuning their natural speech
rhythms to suit the poem's tone and content. Or as Ezra Pound put it, they "compose in
the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome."
Still, even if you write mostly free verse, understanding some basic metric principles can
help. As has often been pointed out, English sentences naturally tend to establish a
dominant beat, usually iambic, so if you have a troublesome line or phrase that "just
doesn't feel right," you may find that by quickly scanning your line, you can spot and fix
the problem, replacing a one syllable word with a two syllable word, or vice-versa.
Besides helping with such quick rhythmic tune ups, metric awareness is essential for
writing in traditional fixed forms, such as blank verse or the sonnet.
Here, very briefly, is how to scan a line. First read it aloud to get a feel for where the
stressed and unstressed syllables fall.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow;
--Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism"

Then mark the syllables as being stressed or unstressed. Mark unstressed syllables with
a   and stressed syllables with a  .

Next, look for patterns. First check the syllables two at a time; then if no pattern is
evident, three at a time. When you see a repeated pattern, use a / to divide the line
into feet.

If you're in doubt, try another line:

This second line is more difficult, partly because of the three lightly stressed syllables
" . . . bors, and the, . . ." Yet this very faltering, laboring for consistency seems to
emphasize Pope's points about effort and struggle, about sound echoing sense.
By now we can recognize a dominant meter:

And knowing that meter helps us fit the doubtful syllables into the established pattern,
in this case iambic pentameter.
This short discussion just gives the barest essentials. How deeply you get into metrics
depends upon your level of interest and the type of poetry you write.

Meter
Definition of Meter
Meter is a literary device that works as a structural element in poetry.
Essentially, meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem or
poetic work. Meter functions as a means of imposing a specific number of
syllables and emphasis when it comes to a line of poetry that adds to its
musicality. It consists of the number of syllables and the pattern of emphasis
on those syllables. In addition, meter governs individual units within a line of
poetry, called “feet.” A “foot” of a poetic work features a specific number of
syllables and pattern of emphasis.

Perhaps the most famous example of poetic meter is iambic pentameter.

An iamb is a metrical foot that consists of one short or unstressed syllable
followed by a long or stressed syllable. The structure of iambic
pentameter features five iambs per line, or ten total syllables per line. All the
even-numbered syllables in this metric form are stressed. Shakespeare is
well-known for his use of this literary device, especially in his sonnets. Here is
an example from Sonnet 104:

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,

For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,

Each line features five iambs that follow the pattern of unstressed/stressed
syllables.

Common Examples of Metrical Feet

For English poetry, metrical feet generally feature two or three syllables. They
are categorized by a specific combination of stressed and unstressed
syllables. The most common examples of metrical feet include:

 Trochee: stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable, as in

“custom”
  Iamb: unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable, as in “describe”
 Spondee: equal stress for both syllables, as in “cupcake”
 Dactyl: stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables, as in
“bicycle”
 Anapest: two unstressed syllables, followed by a stressed syllable, as
in “understand”

The repetition of metrical feet in a line of poetry creates poetic meter, like

beats in music. The length of a poetic meter is labeled with Greek suffixes:

 one foot = monometer

 two feet = dimeter
 three feet = trimeter
 four feet = Iatetrameter
 five feet = pentameter
 six feet = hexameter
 seven feet = heptameter
 eight feet = octameter

Therefore, the term Iambic Pentameter signifies that a poetic line contains five

repetitions of iamb, or a unstressed syllable / stressed syllable pattern
repeated five times, as illustrated in the sonnet lines above.

Examples of Meter in Well-Known Words and Phrases

Meter is found in many well-known words and phrases. The English language
lends itself to accenting or stressing particular syllables as elements and
patterns of speech. Here are some examples of meter in well-known words
and phrases:

Trochaic (stressed, unstressed)

 Gently down the stream

 Hold your horses
 Happy birthday
 Merry Christmas
 Nice to meet you

Iambic (unstressed, stressed)

 I pledge allegiance to the flag

  Your wish is my command
 It came upon a midnight clear
 No pain, no gain
 The buck stops here

Spondaic (stressed, stressed)

 Lay low
 Stay gold
 On point
 Step up
 Lights Out

Dactylic (stressed, unstressed, unstressed)

 Where do you think you are going?

 Easy come, easy go
 Go forth and conquer
 Let them eat cake
 Live long and prosper

Anapestic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed)

 In the blink of an eye

 Hit the nail on the head
 At the drop of a hat
 Costs an arm and a leg
 In the blink of an eye

Famous Examples of Meter

Meter is found in many famous examples of poetic works, including
poems, drama, and lyrics. Here are some famous examples of meter:

 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (iambic pentameter)

 Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
(trochaic octameter)
 Out, damned spot! Out, I say! (spondaic trimeter)
 The itsy, bitsy spider (iambic trimeter)
 Stop all the clocks, / Cut off the telephone (dactylic dimeter)
  I wandered, lonely as a cloud (iambic tetrameter)
 “Forward, the Light Brigade! / Charge for the guns!” he said. (dactylic
dimeter)
 Fair is foul and foul is fair. (trochaic tetrameter)
 But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? (iambic
pentameter)
 ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house (anapestic
tetrameter)

Difference Between Meter and Rhythm

Many people use the words meter and rhythm interchangeably due to their
similarities. However, as literary devices, they are different. Rhythm is a
literary device that sets the overall tempo or pace of a literary work. Rhythm
can be applied to poetry, free verse, or prose. Meter is a literary device that
creates a measured beat, often in a work of poetry, that is established by
patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Meter is considered a more formal writing tool, particularly as it applies to

poetry. It can enhance the rhythmic quality of poetic writing. However, its
purpose is to set steady timing in poetic lines with metrical feet, just as a time
signature and metronome might set steady timing in a musical work.

Unlike meter, rhythm is less about a steady and measured beat of syllables.
Instead, the purpose of rhythm is to create natural patterns and flow of words
that enhance a poetic work’s tone and content. This is especially true for
poets that write free verse. In this case, meter is not emphasized to give the
verse poetic structure. Instead, poets of free verse focus on natural rhythm
and pacing.

Writing Meter
Overall, as a literary device, meter functions as a means of creating structure
and musicality in lines of poetry. This is effective for readers in that meter
allows for specific patterns, or beats, of stressed and unstressed syllables in
poetry while simultaneously elevating artistic language. Meter enhances the
enjoyment and meaning of poetic works for readers.

It’s important that writers understand the distinction between qualitative and
quantitative meter:
  Qualitative meter features stressed syllables in regular intervals, such
as five iambs in a line of poetry. This type of meter creates a consistent
flow for readers.
 Qualitative meter features patterns based on the “weight” of syllables
rather than which are stressed. This allows for combinations of meter
that still create flow for the reader. For example, a spondee may follow
a dactyl in order to facilitate meter in a line of poetry. Rather than the
stress on syllables, it is their length or duration that is important.

Here are some ways that writers, and especially poets, benefit from
incorporating meter into their work:

Creates Poetic Structure

Meter is an essential element of poetry. This literary device allows readers to

understand and feel rhythm in relation to words and lines in poetic works, just
as it would with notes in a line of music, providing melodic undertones to
poetic compositions. In addition, meter allows writers to work within clearly
defined structural elements when composing poetry as a means of
providing cadence to the literary piece. Meter not only serves as a benefit to
writers in their individual work, but it connects them to other poets as well by
enhancing the legacy of poetic traditions such as sonnets, elegies, pastorals,
and so forth.

Enhances Artistic Use of Language

Meter also enhances the artistic use of language, which is the foundation of
poetry. As a literary device, meter can amplify the meaning of a poetic work by
stressing and emphasizing certain syllables or words. This can invoke a
pattern of feeling and emotion for the reader that may be lost without such
rhythmic structure.

Examples of Meter in Literature

Meter is a very effective literary device, especially in poetic works. Here are
some examples of meter and how it adds to the significance and musicality of
well-known literary works:

Example 1: Sonnet LXV (Sir Edmund Spenser)

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away;

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide and made my pains his prey.

Spenser utilizes iambic pentameter in his sonnet, which is the most common
meter found in English poetry. In this poem, the iambic pentameter enhances
the beauty of the language and poetic lines. The flow of the meter reflects and
underscores the imagery of the tide and waves, washing away the written
name. This meter provides a natural flow for the subject of the poem in
addition to the wording of the poetic lines.

Example 2: Yesterday and To-morrow (Paul Laurence Dunbar)

Yesterday I held your hand,

Reverently I pressed it,
And its gentle yieldingness
From my soul I blessed it.

In this poem, Dunbar uses dactylic dimeter which mirrors the beat of a waltz.
This adds a level of musicality and almost a dance-like structure to the poem
that is satisfying for the reader. In addition, this emphasizes the action in the
poem of the poet holding someone’s hand in a reverent manner, as a dance
partner might. The “gentle yieldingness” of the hand evokes a sense of
dancing as well, which is supported by the rhythmic structure of dactylic
dimeter. Therefore, the reader is able to enjoy a greater understanding of the
poetic lines as the meter connects with both the artistic phrasing and action in
the poem.

Example 3: When I Was One-and-Twenty (A. E. Housman)

When I Was One-and-Twenty

I heard a wise man say,

Give crowns and pounds and guineas

But not your heart away,

Housman utilizes iambic trimeter in this stanza to create a firm structure and

poetic beat. This adds to the meaning of the poem in terms of the theme of
value. For example, the poet assigns value to his age as “one-and-twenty,”
which is then echoed by the value of “crowns and pounds and guineas” as
currency. The sharp iambic trimeter creates a rhythmic structure and cadence
that resembles counting, enhancing the “numeric” value of the poet’s words.
This is especially effective as a contrast for the word “heart” in the last line of
the stanza, which changes the interpretation of the meter to one of a
heartbeat.

Blank Verse vs. Free Verse

Blank verse depends on the un-rhymed pattern, mostly of iambic pentameter.
Free verse has no meter or rhyming pattern. Blank Verse has a continuous
meter to produce du-DUM rhythm results. Free Verse is free from all
restrictions of poetry. Blank verse poetry has a continuous rhythm. Free
Verse is free from form, and limitation of poetry pattern. Blank Verse mostly
depends on ten syllables and five stresses in every line. Free verse poetry has
no organized pattern and rhyme. Blank Verse has a restricted structure to
follows. But Free verse is an open structure of poetry.

What is Blank Verse?

The Blank Verse form of poetry is so simple to write and understand. Blank
Verse poetry has regular use of poetical devices. It has lines of five feet, and
every foot is in iambic form. It means that two syllables are lengthy, one un-
stressed directed by a stressed syllable. Blank Verse has great importance in
literature. Christopher Marlowe was the first writer who uses Blank Verse is
his poetical writings. Thomas Norton’s ‘Gorboduc’ was the first Blank Verse
play in English history, published in 1561. It was a new style of writing in
poetry. After this, William Shakespeare played a vital role in Blank Verse
poetry. ‘Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house, O’er covered quite with dead
men’s rattling bones,’ is the best example of Blank Verse.

 Changing of caesura, stop, from point to pint between the lines.

 There is also the changing of stress between syllables.
 Use the stanzas in a way that chain your thoughts as a paragraph.
What is Free Verse?
Free Verse poetry has a real connection with natural speech structure. A little
free verse poetry comes before the 1800s. But they were written in other
languages. In English, first Free Verse writers arise in the 19s. After
Whitman and Matthew Arnold, Allen, William, and Ezra appeared. Due to
the use of imagery and the continuity of anaphora, again and again, you can
easily understand Churchill’s poetry behaving as a free verse form. Free
Verse Poetry has a remarkable period in literary history. From last more one
hundred years ago, Free Verse is a leading form in poetry. As ‘Song of
myself’ by “Walt Whitman” is the first masterpiece of Free Verse in
Literature history. In this masterpiece, Whitman also uses other poetic
strategies to covey the real sense of Free Verse.

Sound Devices in Poetry

Did you know that repeating a word or selecting a rhyme scheme can create sound in a poem?
Repetition and rhyme are only a few of the many sound devices found in beautiful poetry. Check
out these types of sound devices and see how many resonate with you!

Alliteration in Poetry
Alliteration is a term for repeated letter sounds (usually consonants, but not always) at the
stressed part of two or more words. One example is “glowing golden grains.” Another word for
alliteration is initial rhyme or head rhyme.

Ezra Pound’s “The Seafarer” uses several examples of alliteration. See if you can spot them in
the first eight lines:

May I for my own self song's truth reckon,

Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Hardship endured oft.
Bitter breast-cares have I abided,
Known on my keel many a care's hold,
And dire sea-surge, and there I oft spent
Narrow nightwatch nigh the ship's head

While she tossed close to cliffs.

(Pound, "The Seafarer")

The steady waves of alliteration that rise and fall. They mirror the rise and fall of a ship on the
ocean, much as Pound’s speaker is describing. You can find more examples of alliteration in
poetry here.
Repetition in Poetry

Repeating a word in a poem may not make sense until you read it out loud. Repetition allows the
speaker to emphasize a particular word and cause a desired sound in a poem. Check out the first
stanza of T.S. Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” for an example of repetition:

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn

Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things

(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)

Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
(Eliot, "Ash Wednesday")
Two examples of repetition – “because I do not hope” and “why should” force the reader to ask
these questions more than once. They reaffirm the prevalence of such thoughts in the speaker’s
mind. You can learn more about the different types of repetition with these explanations and
examples.
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Rhyme in Poetry
Even people who don’t read much poetry can recognize a rhyme. Rhyming words have the same
end sound repeated at the end of a line. Many poems, such as free verse poems, don’t use a
particular rhyme scheme.

Robert Frost uses an ABAAB rhyme scheme in “The Road Not Taken” to strong effect:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth…

(Frost, “The Road Not Taken”)

The first, third, and fourth lines rhyme, while the second and fifth lines rhyme. You can also find
rhyme within a line called internal rhyme. Learn more about the different types of rhyme.