Definition of Meter in Literature
Meter is the rhythmic, recurring pattern of accented and unaccented syllables you hear in literature. It can be used in prose and plays, though it is most commonly found in poetry. A piece of writing may contain several different types of meters, but there is usually a dominant pattern that follows throughout.
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Basic meters
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Meter is definined by the number of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Each sequence or group of two to three syllables in a line is called a foot. The simplest and most basic types of meters are: monometer, which is one foot; dimeter, two feet; trimester, three feet; tetrameter, four feet; pentameter, five feet; hexameter, six feet; and heptameter, seven feet. An example of hexameter is found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie":
THIS is the | FORest pri | ME val. The | MURmuring | PINES and the | HEMlocks
Iambic pentameter
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The most commonly used meter is iambic pentameter. Each line contains five feet, or 10 paired syllables. Every other syllable is stressed, following the pattern "unstressed-stressed" within each foot. Here is an example from William Shakespeare's 29th sonnet:
When IN | dis GRACE | with FOR | tune AND | men's EYES
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Trochaic
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In this meter, every other syllable is stressed, but opposite from iambic, so that the feet are "stressed-unstressed". Here is an example from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha":
ON the | MOUNT ains | OF the | PRAIR rie,
Anapestic
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A quick, light meter of any length, where within the foot two unaccented syllables are followed by one accented syllable. Here is an example from Isaac Watts' "The Sluggard:"
'Tis the VOICE | of the SLUG | gard, I HEARD | him com PLAIN,
Other meters
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Other forms of meter are dactylic, spondee and pyrrhic. A dactylic foot consists one accented syllable and two unaccented ones, such as "SWIM | ing | ly" or "HAND | ful | of." A spondee consists of two, long accented syllables, such as "HEART | BREAK" or "WHITE | FOUNTS." A pyrrhic foot consists of two unaccented syllables, such as "on | a" or "when | the."
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References
- Gale Cengage Learning: Glossary of Terms
- Read Book Online: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, poem(s) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Cummings Study Guides: The Sonnet
- University of Virginia Library: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882. Hiawatha; a poem, by Henry Wadsworth
- JGHawaii Publishing Co.: Ready to go eBooks---The Sluggard
Resources
- Photo Credit writing book image by AGphotographer from Fotolia.com
