We look at several forms of meter, beginning with the basic poetic foot. A “foot” of poetry is not 12 inches of verse; it’s a description of the meter, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.
In short, a foot is a set pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. The common poetic feet are:
Foot |
Pattern of Syllables |
Example |
|
iamb |
unstressed-stressed |
instead in love because |
|
trochee |
stressed-unstressed |
novel ice cream basket stop it |
|
anapest |
unstressed-unstressed-stressed |
disregard by myself |
|
dactyl |
stressed-unstressed-unstressed |
Emily kiddy swing |
|
spondee |
stressed-stressed |
green truck white hot |
|
pyrrhic |
unstressed-unstressed |
for the in a |
Along with feet, we also describe meter by indicating the number of a particular foot that appears in a line of poetry.
| Number of Feet | |
| monometer | 1 |
| dimeter | 2 |
| trimeter | 3 |
| tetrameter | 4 |
| penatmeter | 5 |
| hexameter | 6 |
The most common meter in English poetry is iambic pentameter.
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