3.1.7 Metre

[This section is intended for the more advanced student of poetry and/or the student of English Literature. The teacher of poetry could well do to acquaint him/herself with an understanding of metre to enhance her/his comprehensive presentation of poetry and its meaning and purpose.]

Metre literally means "measure" and the unit of this measure is called " foot". To understand metre one must always view it as a precise and regular rhythmic pattern which the poet imposes on his verse. He/she has determined that a set number of syllables will occur in a line in a stressed and unstressed arrangement which is divided into what is termed poetic feet. It is not a haphazard arrangement. Feet may be either disyllabic or trisyllabic. There is no doubt that such a decision gives the poet a firm control over the way the message is being transmitted in terms of impact and energy.

There are several kinds of metre:

iambic - an iamb is an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one:
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
The plow/man home/ward plods/ his wea/ry way

(Thomas Gray's "Elegy written in a country churchyard")
(In The Progress of Poetry (1965). C.J. Horne & M. O'Brien (Eds.). Melbourne: Heinemann.)

In the above line of poetry there are five iambs to a line. This arrangement is known as iambic pentameter, that is, five short/long feet in a line. This is the most commonly used form of metre and gives a rising musical effect in the line. The etymology of the word, iamb, is unknown but it simply refers to a metrical unit of a short syllable followed by a long. The iambic rhythm was thought to be the rhythm closest to ordinary speech. (Preminger, 1975).
trochaic - a trochee is an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one.
/ ^ / ^ / ^ / ^
Honour/ riches/, marriage/-blessing

(From William Shakespeare's The Tempest 4.1.106.
In R. Gibson (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

In the above line of poetry there are four trochees. Such a line is called trochaic tetrameter. It gives a falling musical effect in the line.
dactyllic - a dactyl is an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones
/ ^ ^ / ^ ^
Touch her not/ scornfully

(Thomas Hood's "The Bridge of sighs")
(In The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood. W. Jerrold. (Ed.). London: Frowde: Oxford University Press.)

Such a line is called a dactyllic dimeter. It contains two dactyllic feet and gives a lilting effect. There is movement, and in this line, a sense of gentleness. ("Dactyl" comes from the Greek meaning "finger".)
spondaic - a spondaic foot is made up of two long syllables. It is not always easy to recognise the spondaic foot and there has been considerable dispute among scholars as to whether English poetry does actually have true spondees. If present, they are mixed in with other forms of metre such as: the iamb, dactyl, trochee:
^ / / / ^ / / /
The long/ day wanes;/ the slow/ moon climbs

(Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses")
(In Poetry An Introduction (1981). R. Miller & R.A. Greenberg (Eds.). New York: St Martin's Press.)
.
Two heavy sounds together obviously give a pounding effect. This metre was derived from a gloomy double stamp of the foot Greek mourners made to arouse a dead hero to drink the libations (spondae) poured out for him.
anapestic - an anapestic foot is made up of two short syllables and one long syllable and produces a sense of speed:
^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ /
And the sheen/ of their spears/ was like stars/ on the sea

(From Lord Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib")
(In The Progress of Poetry (1981). C.J. Horne & M. O'Brien (Eds.). Melbourne: Heinemann.)

The above line is an example of an anapestic tetrameter.
amphibrachic - foot is made up of one short, one long and one short syllable. It produces a tripping, maybe, even frivolous musical effect and is often found in limericks:
^ / ^ ^ / ^ ^ / ^
There once was/ a man from/ Nantucket

(Limerick)
(In Creative Writing Forms and Techniques (1990). L Mueller & J.D. Reynolds. Lincolnwood, Ill: National Textbook Company.)

The above line is an example of an amphibrachic trimeter

So, from the above explanations, you have probably realised that poets can use lines of varying feet according to the effect they wish to achieve. Also, a skilful poet can choose to keep the totality of the poem in a single metre or use a variation of metre to fit in with a meaning he/she wishes to communicate.

Types of poetic lines

Please note that:

a line of one foot is a monometer; of two feet is a dimeter; of three feet is a trimeter; of four feet is a tetrameter; of five feet is a pentameter; of six feet is a hexameter; of seven feet is a heptameter; of eight feet is an octameter.

Below is a humorous way two poets have shared their insights on metre. Perhaps what they have to say may yet give you a further insight into metre and its function.

Poem One: Metrical Feet

Trochee trips from long to short,
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks, strong foot yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactyl trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long.
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1806)
(In Coleridge Poetical Works (1969). E.H. Coleridge (Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.)

Poem Two:

Iambic feet are firm and flat
And come down heavily like THAT.

Trochees dancing very lightly
Sparkle, froth and bubble brightly.

Dactylic daintiness lilting so prettily
Moves about fluttering rather than wittily.

While for speed and for haste such a rhythm is the best
As we find in the race of the quick anapest.

Bigfoot Spondee thumps down,
Stone slab, dead weight, lead crown.

There came an old Amphibrach tripping,
And fell in a basin of dripping.

Marjorie Boulton
(In The Anatomy of Poetry (1953). Marjorie Boulton. London: Routledge Paper.)

Poetry Support

3.1.7 Metre

Types of poetic lines