How to Identify Poem’s Meter and Rhythm?

A. RHYTHM - The sequences of Stress and Unstressed Syllables in a word or line.

For example the word
1. “belong” the be is Unstressed for we do not emphasize them, the long is
stressed for we emphasize them.
2. fragile the fra is stressed while the gile is Unstressed.

WAYS CLASSIFYING RHYTHM IN A POEM

1. Iambic foot – an Unstressed syllable followed by Stressed syllable

 Belong
 Today
 Destroy
 Delay

2. The Trochaic foot the opposite of Iambic.

The sequences of Stressed and Unstressed Syllable
 Fragile
 Ankle
 Fruitful
 Panther

MORE EXAMPLES:

1. IAMBIC PENTAMETER (Ask them to read it aloud)

2. Edgar Allan Poe uses TROCHAIC METER TROCHAIC HEPTAMETER (7

Unstressed and stresses syllables) in his 1845 poem “The Raven.” Notice how he
excludes the final unstressed syllable from the end of the second, fourth, fifth, and
sixth lines. This type of line—one that drops the final syllable—is called a catalectic
line. Each catalectic line in this poem creates an incomplete trochaic foot, ending on a
stressed syllable, which is easier to rhyme.

SPONDEE
3. Spondees in Tennyson's "Break, Break, Break"
Perhaps the most well-known example of spondaic meter comes from Lord Alfred
Tennyson's poem "Break, Break, Break." Tennyson wrote the poem as an elegy after
the death of his friend and fellow poet, Arthur Hallum. Each stanza of the poem begins
with a spondee, creating a rhythm that mirrors both the crashing of waves and the
relentless heartache of mourning.

4. Spondees in Hopkins's "Pied Beauty"

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote this poem in praise of God for having created all things
beautiful on earth. In these, the final lines, the poet makes heavy use of spondees to
create a feeling of growing excitement.
ANAPEST
5. Anapests in Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib"
In this excerpt—the first stanza of Byron's poem "The Destruction of Sennacherib"—you
can clearly see the unstressed-unstressed-stressed metrical pattern throughout. This
poem is a famous example of anapestic meter, because every foot is an anapest and
also because it is a poem about someone riding a galloping horse which mentions
rolling waves, two things to which the rhythm of anapests are often compared.

DACTYL
6. Dactyls in Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
In this excerpt—the first stanza of Tennyson’s famous poem "The Charge of the Light
Brigade"—you can clearly see the stressed-unstressed-unstressed metrical pattern
throughout.

B. METER
Types of feet and Metrical Lines
 The regularity of the Rhythm
 How many times in one line are there unstressed/stressed OR
stressed/unstressed syllables?

1 foot on a line Monometer

2 feet on a line Dimeter
3 feet on a line Trimeter
4 feet on a line Tetrameter
5 feet on a line Pentameter
6 feet on a line Hexameter
7 feet on a line Heptameter
8 feet on a line Octometer

LET’S US PRACTICE!

This line is written in ___________ ____________

(rhythm) (meter)

Willian Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a Cloud

Now I want you to Identify the Rhythm so the Unstressed and Stressed Syllables:
 I wan / dered lone / ly as / a cloud
So we have this kind of Bouncy rhythm “ba ba, ba ba, ba ba, ba ba" I wandered lonely
as a cloud. So it starts with Unstressed and followed by Stress Syllable so we have
Iambic foot. So we have that kind of Rhythm (Iambic)

Now, how many times do we have an Unstressed syllable followed by a stress Syllable?
As you read aloud, there are 4 groups of unstressed and stressed syllables. Again
going back to the meter, we have four labeled as Tetramter.

Therefore, thi sline is Written in Iambic Tetrameter.

Tell me not in mournful numbers

Tell me / not in / morn ful / num bers

We have the opposite pattern from our previous Example for this time, we put emphasis
on the first syllable so we have the Stressed followed by the Unstressed Syllable means
it has a Rhythmical pattern of Trochaic Foot.

Still, we have how many Stressed and Unstressed syllable in this line? Very good! We
have still 4 groups of Stressed and Unstressed Syllable and it is labeled as Tetrameter.

C. BEAT:

Anne and Jayne Taylor

“The Star”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqsvbqt/articles/zmpxbdm
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/examples-and-definition-of-trochee-in-
poetry

https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/dactyl#:~:text=A%20dactyl
%20is%20a%20three,%3A%20Po%2De%2Dtry.
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/anapest
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/spondee