Rhythm and Meter in English Poetry

Rhythm and Meter in English Poetry

English poetry employs five basic rhythms of varying stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. The meters are iambs, trochees, spondees, anapests and dactyls. In this document the stressed syllables are marked in boldface type rather than the tradition

al "/" and "x." Each unit of rhythm is called a "foot" of poetry.

The meters with two-syllable feet are

• IAMBIC (x /) : That time of year thou mayst in me behold
  
• TROCHAIC (/ x): Tell me not in mournful numbers
  
• SPONDAIC (/ /): Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
  

Meters with three-syllable feet are

• ANAPESTIC (x x /): And the sound of a voice that is still
  
• DACTYLIC (/ x x): This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock (a trochee replaces the final dactyl)
  

Each line of a poem contains a certain number of feet of iambs, trochees, spondees, dactyls or anapests. A line of one foot is a monometer, 2 feet is a dimeter, and so on--trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7), and octameter (8). The number of syllables in a line varies therefore according to the meter. A good example of trochaic monometer, for example, is this poem entitled "Fleas":

Adam
Had'em.

Here are some more serious examples of the various meters.

iambic pentameter (5 iambs, 10 syllables)

• That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold
  

trochaic tetrameter (4 trochees, 8 syllables)

• Tell me | not in | mournful | numbers
  

anapestic trimeter (3 anapests, 9 syllables)

• And the sound | of a voice | that is still
  

dactylic hexameter (6 dactyls, 17 syllables; a trochee replaces the last dactyl)

This is the | forest pri | meval, the | murmuring | pine and the | hemlocks