meter


 * Meter**-what results when the natural rhythmical movements of colloquial speech are heightened, organized, and regulated so that [repetition] emerges from the relative phonetic haphazard of ordinary utterance.¹

The meter that a poem is written in can emphasize, weaken, or clarify the message of the poem. A given syllable is either accented, emphasizing the sound when spoken, or unaccented, under emphasizing the word when spoken. A **poetic foot** is a "unit of accented and unaccented syllables that is repeated or used in sequence with others to form the meter"² of a poem. There are different patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in a given foot.

Here are the most common of these patterns with example words¹: The next part of meter shows the number of poetic feet in a line. A poem written in hexameter, for example, has six poetic feet in a line. Below is a list of common meters in english poetry.
 * = Iambic ||< unstressed, stressed || destroy ||
 * = Anapestic ||< unstressed, unstressed, stressed || intervene ||
 * = Trochaic ||< stressed, unstressed || topsy ||
 * = Dactylic ||< stressed, unstressed, unstressed || merrily ||

One foot: **Monometer** Two feet: **Dimeter** Three feet: **Trimeter** Four feet: **Tetrameter** Five feet: **Pentameter** Six feet: **Hexameter** Seven feet: **Heptameter** Eight feet: **Octameter**²

Look now at an excerpt of //The Badger// by John Clare (the italicized syllables are accented)

Till //the// old //grunt//ing //bad//ger //pass//es //bye³//
This poem is a perfect example of Iambic Pentameter. It is accented every other syllable and has 5 poetic feet per line.

¹Fussel, Paul. __Poetic Meter and Poetic Rhyme__. N.p.: McGraw Hill Inc., 1979. ²Conrey, Sean M. "Meter." __Online Writing Lab__. Purdue University. 17 Nov. 2008 . ³Clare, John. “Badger.” //Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online//. 2008. Columbia University Press. 20 Nov. 2008. .