How to Write in Iambic Tetrameter

Many poets from Christopher Marlowe and Lord Alfred Tennyson to modern day poets have written poetry in Iambic Tetrameter. Iambic Tetrameter is a syllabic form of poetry consisting of four iambic or metered feet. Learning to write Iambic Tetrameter poetry is fun and easy to do. Once you have, you can share your poetry with your friends and family or publish it.

Things You'll Need

• Dictionary
• Thesaurus

Instructions

1. Read poetry written in Iambic Tetrameter to learn the structure of an Iambic Tetrameter poem. Notice that each line has eight syllables and that every other syllable has a beat to it, so that you have eight syllables with four of them stressed or accented.

2. Listen to the way each line of Iambic Tetrameter sounds by reading it out loud. Listen to the way the syllables are accented as "da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM" in each line. Think about how the words work to create the sound of the poem.

3. Write a poem in Iambic Tetrameter. It doesn't have to rhyme, but if you can rhyme if you want to. There is no line length for an Iambic Tetrameter poem, so it can be as short as four lines or as long a book, which is what Herman Melville did when he wrote a book-length poem in Iambic Tetrameter that's called, "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land."

Tips & Warnings

• "A Iamb" is a two syllable poetic meter with one unaccented syllable followed by an accent syllable. It sounds like this da DUM.