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Poetics

Tom Spencer

Meter in Poetry

A meter is a unit of measure. However, in poetry, meter serves the purpose of unifying the verse to make it sound smooth and to flow in a manner which impresses itself on the mind as a word song. A well-metered poem is much easier to read and remember than a hodgepodge of words in helter-skelter arrangement. In what follows, I am going to attempt to explain meter and how it is used in poetry.

Any of us who have studied poetry have heard the term "Iambic Pentameter" used in reference to poetic structure. But, iambic is only one form of pentameter.

To illustrate the different forms of pentameter, let us visualize a drill team. The team has five teenage troupers dressed in snappy outfits of colorful consonants and vowels. We will line the troupers up on a hardwood stage. They are pentameters because they have ten feet. Their feet will make the rhythm of their movement. Each trouper has two feet with wooden heeled boots. The first trouper takes two steps, slapping each foot hard on the floor followed by the next trouper doing the same stomp and the next until we have heard ten stomps of boots on wood. If we consider each foot a syllable we will have heard the sound of Spondee pentameter. It will sound like this: "Clop, clop-clop, clop-clop, clop-clop, clop clop, clop"

Next we will have the troupers take off their left boots. We then line them up for the same drill. Each steps off on their right foot making the wood on wood sound followed by their left foot making the soft sound of a stockinged foot. They are still pentameters because there are five of the troupers. They now have a new sound, or rhythm, which is called a combined sound meter or Trochaic Pentameter. It will sound like this: "Clop, pat-clop, pat-clop, pat-clop, pat-clop, pat"

We tell the troupers to put their boots back on. As the last one ties his laces, we order them to take off their right boots. After a little protest they comply and remove their right boots. We now have them repeat the drill stepping off one at a time with their right foot and taking two steps. They all smile for they know they have found Iambic pentameter, the sound of the English sonnet. It will sound like this: "Pat, clop-pat, clop-pat, clop-pat, clop-pat, clop"

In the sonnet there are fourteen lines and usually those lines contain two syllable feet that are pentameter. In iambic pentameter you have five feet of two syllables of soft-hard.

The foot that dominates the line is the foot for which the meter is named. There can be many variations of metric feet as shown below:

• Monometer - one foot two syllables
• Dimeter - two feet four syllables
• Trimeter - three feet six syllables
• Tetrameter -four feet eight syllables
• Hexameter -six feet twelve syllables
• Heptameter - seven feet fourteen syllables
• Octameter - eight feet sixteen syllables

It is very difficult to keep one meter going for an entire poem. Your audience may fall asleep with the repetition of the same meter. Poets want to keep their audience awake so they often mix meters. The meter that is most used in the poem is the meter that the poem is considered to have.

Quite often the drill team is doing fine with creating feet of iambs and trochees along with a few spondees here and there. However, a good spondee or trochee in the middle of a bunch of iambs will really make that foot stand out. Although the majority of poems start in iambic meter there are many that start in Trochaic. (Poe's "Raven" is one excellent example.)

There are many other varied rhythms that poets may use. But they all consist of hard sounds and soft sounds and a multitude of mixed hard and soft sounds.

Until next time, write something every day. Poets learn that way.