Poetry Appendix:

Teachable Terms

POETRY TERMINOLOGY: RHYTHM

Verse – A line of metered poetry.

Meter – The patterned repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in a

line of poetry. Meter is named according to the kind and number of feet composing
the line.

Foot – The smallest repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in

a poetic line. Think of it as the ‘molecule’ in the poem’s basic chemical makeup.
There are six commonly distinguished kinds of poetic feet:
Iambic – an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. (The
iambic rhythm is, by the by, the sound of a heartbeat. It accounts for about 80
percent of English metered poetry.)
Example: re-peat
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right! Hamlet I.v 210-11
Anapestic – two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one.
Example: interrupt
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
“The Destruction of Sennacherib” George Lord Byron
Trochaic – a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
Example: older
Peter Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn’t keep her
Dactyllic – a stressed followed by two unstressed syllables
Example: openly
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred…
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” Alfred Lord Tennyson
Spondaic – two stressed syllables
Example: heartbreak
Pyrrhic – two unstressed syllables
Example: (only occurs in the context of other words) “O my/ Mari/ on’s a/ bonny/
lass”
Poetry Appendix:
Teachable Terms

Number of feet – The proper terminology for the number of feet in a line is
as follows:
Monometer: one foot Pentameter: five feet
Dimeter: two feet Hexameter: six feet
Trimeter: three feet Heptameter: seven feet
Tetrameter: four feet Octometer: eight feet

Scansion – The process of analyzing verse rhythm, that is, of marking

accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines into feet, identifying the
metrical pattern, and noting significant variations from that pattern. To scan a poem
is to do all of the above and requires that you do the following:
1) Identify the polysyllabic words in the verse in question.
2) Identify the accented and unaccented syllables in the polysyllabic
words. (If you can’t hear the difference, you can use a dictionary to
help on this step.)
3) Mark the remaining accented syllables in the verse in a way
consistent with the predominant rhythm suggested by the accent
marks on the polysyllabic words. (Realize that there are going to be
minor variations in the meter from line to line; the poem was not
written to sound like a metronome.)
4) What kind of foot do you see being repeated? (for example, iambic)
5) Count the number of feet in a representative line. (for example,
four = tetrameter)
6) Remember, meter = kind of foot + number of feet per line. You
have figured out the meter of the poem – (iambic tetrameter).

Blank verse – Unrhymed iambic pentameter lines. Most of Shakespeare’s

plays are written in blank verse. All of Paradise Lost by John Milton uses blank verse.

Free verse – AKA “vebs libre.” Non-metrical verse. Poetry written in free
verse is arranged in lines that emphasize the rhythmic cadences of the language but
it has no fixed metrical pattern or expectation. Much of Walt Whitman’s “Song of
Myself” is in free verse. Most of contemporary poetry is written in free verse. (Free
verse may or may not employ a rhyme scheme.)

Caesura – A break or pause in a line of metered verse usually marked by

punctuation. For example, there is a caesura right after the question mark in the first
line of this sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How do I love thee? Let me count
the ways.”

Enjambment – Syntax that runs over the end of a line of verse and reaches
a pause within the next line, as in:
Deep in the seas, deep in the southern seas
The coral palace of Te Tuna lies
Beneath an ocean. Far above, the breeze…
“The Legend of Te Tuna” by Richard Adams
Poetry Appendix:
Teachable Terms

End stopped line -- A line that ends with a natural speech pause, often
marked by punctuation.

Sprung rhythm – A term invented by the British poet Gerald Manley

Hopkins to describe his innovative verse. His meter goes in ‘jumps’ of various
rhythms. Each metrical foot begins with a stressed syllable or may itself occupy the
whole foot. Verse in sprung rhythm can be compelling and emphatic, especially when
strong stresses appear in sequence. Many 20th century poets have imitated this
technique to vary the structure of their free verse.