How to Determine Meter in Poetry

Meter is used to read, write and interpret poetry.

Meter, or metre, is the rhythm of a poem, and it is determined by the stress you put on a syllable. Syllables are the segments of pronunciation that make up a word. The two syllables in the word "teacher" are "tea" and "cher," for example. Syllables are either stressed or unstressed. Stress is the emphasis you put on syllables when you pronounce a word. For example, in the word "English," the first syllable, "Eng," is stressed, and the second syllable, "lish," is unstressed. A stressed syllable also can be referred to as long or accented, and an unstressed syllable can be referred to as short or unaccented.

Instructions

1. Count syllables. One method of counting syllables is by counting the vowels in a word. For example, the word "money" has two vowels and two syllables, "mon" and "ey." Exceptions to this method are silent vowels such as in the word "slope." "Slope" has two vowels; however, because the "e" at the end is silent, the word has only one syllable. The other exception is vowel clusters. The word "cloud" has two vowels and one syllable because the vowels are clustered together.

2. Determine the stress of a syllable. The stressed syllable is louder, higher in pitch or has a longer duration. The noun "document" has three syllables, "do-cu-ment." The emphases are in the first and last syllables, "dó-cû-mént." When writing out syllable stress, put an accent over the stressed syllables and a line over the unstressed syllables.

3. Count feet per line. Now that a line can be separated into stressed and unstressed syllables, meter can be determined. Meter is counted in feet. A foot is the combination of different stress patterns. A sonnet, for example, has 10 syllables with two syllables per foot for a total of five feet per line. The length of the line plus the feet make up the meter of a poem. Foot length has eight types. Monometer is one foot. Dimeter is two feet. Trimeter is three feet. Tetrameter is four feet. Pentameter is five feet. Hexameter is six feet. Heptameter is seven feet, and octameter is eight feet.

4. Determine the type of foot. Along with length, feet are identified by the stress of the syllables. Feet are split into six types. The following types have two syllables. Iamb or Iambic is unstressed plus stressed. Trochee or trochaic is stressed plus unstressed. Spondee or Spondaic is stressed plus stressed. Pyrrhic is unstressed plus unstressed.

   The following types have three syllables. Anapest or anapestic is unstressed plus unstressed plus stressed. Dactyl or dactylic is stressed plus stressed plus unstressed.

5. Combine the number of feet in a line with the type of foot to get the meter. A line with unstressed plus stressed syllables is iambic; and if it has five feet, the line is pentameter. So it is iambic pentameter.

   William Shakespeare is well known for his use of iambic pentameter. This example is from his Sonnet No. 18: "Shall I compare the to a Summer's day?"

   Shâll - Í - côm - páre - thêe - tó - â - Súmm - êr's - dáy.

   This line has 10 syllables, or five feet. The accents, unstressed plus stressed, are Iamb. So the line is iambic pentameter.

Tips & Warnings

• Some poems have more than one foot per line. This example is from "Evangeline" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks."

• The syllables break down as: This - is - the - for - est - prim - ev - al. - The - mur - mur - ing - pines - and - the - hem - locks.

• You will notice that this line has 17 syllables. This means that two types of feet will be determined by the accents.

• The accents are: Thís - îs - thê | fór - êst - prîm | év - âl. Thê | múr - mûr - îng | pínes - ând - thê | hém -lôcks.

• The accents are stress plus unstressed plus unstressed in the first five feet. The last foot is stressed plus unstressed.

• The first five lines are dactylic, and the last is trochee in this hexameter.

References

• Cummings Study Guides: Meter in Poetry and Verse
• Poets' Graves: Glossary of Poetic Terms
• Northern Arizona University: English Pronunciation Learning Site--Word Stress