23 Poetry Literary Terms: A Guide
Metre
Metre refers to the rhythmic structure of lines of verse. The majority of English verse since Chaucer is inaccentual-syllabic metre, which consists of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables within a fixed total number of syllables in each line. The metrical rhythm is thus the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in each line. Groups of syllables are known as metrical feet; each line of verse is made up of a set number of feet. Thus:
Monometer: one foot per line
Dimeter: two feet per line
Trimeter: three feet per line
Tetrameter: four feet per line
Pentameter: five feet per line
Hexameter: six feet per line
Heptameter: seven feet per line
Octameter: eight feet per line
Each foot usually consists of a single stressed syllable—though there are some important variations—therefore these patterns correspond to the number of stressed syllables in a line; thus tetrameter has four, pentameter five, etc.
There are two types of metrical feet in English accentual-syllabic metre: duple metre, consisting of disyllabic (2-syllable) feet, in which stressed syllables (x) and unstressed syllables (o) alternate in pairs; and triple metre, consisting of trisyllabic (3-syllable) feet, in which single stressed syllables are grouped with a pair of unstressed syllables. Duple metre is the metre most commonly found in English verse.
The following metrical feet make up the most common rhythmical patterns:
Duple metre:
Iamb (iambic foot): o x
Trochee (trochaic foot): x o
Spondee (spondaic foot): x x
Pyrrhus / dibrach (pyrrhic foot): o o
Triple metre:
Dactyl (dactylic foot): x o o
Anapaest (anapaestic foot): o o x
Amphibrach: o x o
Molossus: x x x
Note that the spondee, pyrrhus and molossus do not usually form the basis for whole lines of verse, but are considered forms of substitution: that is, when a foot required by the metrical pattern being used is replaced by a different sort of foot. A frequently-found example of substitution is the replacement of the initial iamb in an iambic line by a trochee, e.g. (underlined syllables represent stressed syllables):
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
—Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
(The first three lines of this quatrain are perfectly iambic; the initial foot of the fourth line is an example of trochaic substitution, also known as inversion.)
Other variations in metrical rhythm include acephalexis, in which the first syllable of a line that would be expected according to the regular metre of the line, is lacking; and catalexis, in which a line lacks the final syllable expected by its metrical pattern. Amasculine ending is a line that ends on a stressed syllable, while a feminine ending is a line that ends on an unstressed syllable.
Free verse is poetry that does not conform to any regular metre.
Examples of different meters and metrical substitutions: