Understanding Meter Guide

Syllable:
● The break up of how you_____________________ a word and how it’s
organized by units (use the ______________________ strategy)
○ Eagles has ________ syllables….EA-gles
○ English has ________ syllables...ENG-lish
○ Understand has ________ syllables...UN-DER-stand
● Stressed syllables (the syllable sounds _____________________________)
● Unstressed syllables (the syllable sounds ___________________________)
○ Poets play off of words and their syllables to form a
____________________________.
Meter:
● A regular _____________________ of stressed and unstressed syllables
● Poetic Feet: units or groups of __________________________________.
○ At least _______________ syllables
6 types of Metrical/Poetic Feet: Pattern: Example:______
● Iambic re-MOTE
● Trochaic JO-ker
● Anapestic in-ter-RUPT
● Dactylic HEA-ven-ly
● Spondaic HEART-BREAK
● Pyrrhic in the
Terms for Feet Per Line: Foot (Sets) Per Line:___________Beats:
● Monometer 1 2
● Dimeter 2 4
● Trimeter 3 6
● Tetrameter 4 8
● Pentameter 5 10
● Hexameter 6 12
● Heptameter 7 14
● Octameter 8 16
The number of how many groups of the poetic feet (syllable pattern) are in a line,
determines the type of meter!

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 Understanding Meter Guide
Most Common Example:
● Iambic pentameter
○ Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iambic)
■ 2 beats
○ 5 sets of a pattern (in this case the iambic pattern) is pentameter
■ 2 beats x 5 = 10 beats total
Example from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

But SOFT! what LIGHT through YON der WIN dow BREAKS?
1 2 3 4 5

5 sets of the iambic pattern = iambic pentameter

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Practice: Divide the words in syllables, listen and label the stressed and the
unstressed syllables, and then identify the pattern that matches the set. How many
sets do you have? The number of sets for the pattern determines the type of meter!

1. Picture yourself in a boat on a river with

2. And today that great Yertle, that marvelous he

3. Amazing grace how sweet the sound

4. These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wings

5. Tell me not in mournful numbers