Metrical Feet Iamb (iambic) destroy Anapest (anapestic) intervene Trochee (trochaic) topsy Dactyl (dactylic) merrily Spondee (spondaic) hum-drum Pyrrhic the sea / son of / mists
Line Lengths octameter = 8 feet tetrameter = 4 feet heptameter = 7 feet trimeter = 3 feet hexameter = 6 feet dimeter = 2 feet pentameter = 5 feet monometer = 1 foot
Some Other Metrical Concerns caesuras end-stopped vs. enjambed lines rhyme
************************************ "It is not meters, but a meter-making argument that makes a poem." Emerson
"[Meter] can't be merely a careless dash off, with no grip and no real hold to the words and sense." Pound ***********************************
According to Paul Fussell in Poetic Meter & Poetic Form, there are three principles of expression that metric variations convey:
1 A succession of stressed syllables without the expected intervening unstressed syllables can reinforce effects of slowness, weight, or difficulty;
2 A succession of unstressed syllables without the expected intervening stressed syllables can reinforce effects of rapidity, lightness, or ease;
3 An unanticipated reversal in rhythm implies a sudden movement, often of discovery or illumination; or a new direction of thought, a new tone of voice, or a change or intensification of poetic address.
1 Some Examples
Listen! / you hear / the gra / ting roar /
Of peb / bles which / the waves / draw back, / and fling, /
At their / return, / up the / high strand, /
Begin, / and cease, / and then / again / begin / . . . . (Arnold, "Dover Beach")
. . . . through many a dark and dreary Vale
They pass'd, and many a Region dolorous,
O'er many a Frozen, many a Fiery Alp,
Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death. (Milton, Paradise Lost)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. (E. B. Browning)
2 She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! (George Gordon)
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