Smith

    Poetry  and  Meter  

Types  of  Metrical  Feet  in  Poetry:  Understanding  how  Meter  Matters  
 
In  his  Glossary  of  Literary  Terms,  M.  H.  Abrams  gives  examples  of  the  four  most  common  feet:  
 
1.  Iambic  (iamb):  a  lightly  stressed  syllable  followed  by  a  heavily  stressed  syllable  u  /  (as  in,  
“collapse”)  
u/u/u/u/u/  The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day,  
u/u/u/u/u/  The  lowing  herds  wind  slowly  o'er  the  lea.  
-­‐-­‐Thomas  Gray,  "Elegy  Written  in  a  Country  Churchyard"  
u/u/u/u/u/  Was  this  the  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships  
-­‐-­‐Christopher  Marlowe,  Dr.  Faustus  
 
2.  Anapestic  (anapest):  two  light  syllables  followed  by  a  stressed  syllable  u  u  /  (as  in,  “but  of  
course!”)  
uu/u  u  /uu/uu/  The  Assyrian  came  down  like  a  wolf  on  the  fold  
uu/u  u  /  uu/uu/  And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple  and  gold.  
-­‐-­‐Lord  Byron,  "The  Destruction  of  Sennacherib"    
 
3.  Trochaic  (trochee):  a  stressed  followed  by  a  light  syllable  /  u  (as  in,  “pizza”)  
/  u/u/u/u/u  There  they  are,  my  fifty  men  and  women.  
-­‐-­‐Robert  Browning,  "One  Word  More"  
/  u/u/u/u/u  By  the  shores  of  Gitche  Gumee,  
/  u/u/u/u/u  By  the  shining  Big-­Sea-­Water,  
Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  “Song  of  Hiawatha”  
 
4.  Dactylic  (dactyl):  a  stressed  syllable  followed  by  two  light  syllables  syllables:  /  u  u  (as  in,  
“honestly”)  
/uu/uu  "Éve,  with  her  basket,  was  
/uu/uu  Deep  in  the  bells  and  grass."  
-­‐-­‐Ralph  Hodgson,  "Eve"  
 
Verbs  and  nouns  are  often  stressed;  prepositions  and  articles  are  often  unstressed.  Exceptions  
frequently  occur,  however.    Sometimes,  a  word  that  would  be  stressed  or  unstressed  in  normal,  
everyday  speech  becomes  the  opposite  in  poetry  in  order  to  match  the  surrounding  pattern  of  
words.  For  instance,  in  the  iambic  example,  the  verb  wind  might  be  unstressed  even  though  
verbs  are  usually  stressed.  Likewise,  in  the  dactylic  example  above,  the  verb  was  and  the  noun  
grass  are  unstressed.  Sometimes  Shakespeare  cheats  by  pronouncing  -­ed  as  a  separate  syllable:  
banishéd.  
 
If  you  have  trouble  remembering  which  type  of  foot  is  called  what,  memorize  the  following  
poem,  "Metrical  Feet."  This  little  ditty  by  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  illustrates  each  type  of  foot  
and  identifies  it  by  name.  
 
Metrical  Feet,  by  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  
 
Trochee  trips  from  long  to  short    
From  long  to  long  in  solemn  sort    
Slow  spondee  stalks;  strong  foot  yet  ill  able    
Ever  to  run  with  the  dactyl  trisyllable.    
Smith     Poetry  and  Meter  
Iambics  march  from  short  to  long.    
With  a  leap  and  a  bound  the  swift  anapests  throng.  
 
When  we  analyze  the  meter  of  Coleridge’s  poem,  we  can  see  that  each  section  that  talks  about  a  
specific  type  of  metrical  foot  actually  uses  that  foot.  
 
/u/  u/u/         Trochee  trips  from  long  to  short    
u/u/u/u/       From  long  to  long  in  solemn  sort  
/////////u       Slow  spondee  stalks;  strong  foot  yet  ill  able  
/uu/  u  u/uu/uu     Ever  to  run  with  the  dactyl  trisyllable.    
u/u/  u/u/       Iambics  march  from  short  to  long.  
uu/uu/  uu/uu  /     With  a  leap  and  a  bound  the  swift  anapests  throng.  
 
Iambs  and  anapests,  since  the  strong  stress  is  at  the  end,  are  called  "rising  meter";  trochees  and  
dactyls,  with  the  strong  stress  at  the  beginning,  are  called  "falling  meter."  Additionally,  if  a  line  
ends  in  a  standard  iamb,  with  a  final  stressed  syllable,  it  is  said  to  have  a  masculine  ending.  If  
an  extra  lightly  stressed  syllable  is  added  to  a  line,  it  is  said  to  be  feminine.  To  hear  the  
difference,  read  the  following  examples  out  loud  and  listen  to  the  final  stress:  
 
Masculine  Ending:    
'Twas  the  night  before  Christmas,  and  all  through  the  house,  
Not  a  creature  was  stirring,  not  even  a  mouse.  
 
Feminine  Ending:    
'Twas  the  night  before  Christmas,  and  all  through  the  housing,  
Not  a  creature  was  stirring,  not  even  a  mousing.  
 
We  name  metric  lines  according  to  the  number  of  "feet"  in  them.  If  a  line  has  three  feet,  it  is  
trimeter;  if  it  has  four  feet,  it  is  tetrameter.  If  a  line  has  five  feet,  it  is  pentameter.  If  it  has  six  
feet,  it  is  hexameter,  and  so  on.  Different  languages  tend  to  require  different  meter.  English  
verse  tends  to  be  pentameter,  French  verse  tetrameter,  and  Greek  verse  hexameter.  When  
scanning  a  line,  we  might,  for  instance,  describe  the  line  as  "iambic  pentameter"  (having  five  feet,  
with  each  foot  tending  to  be  a  light  syllable  followed  by  heavy  syllable).  Or  it  might  be  "trochaic  
hexameter"  (having  six  feet,  with  each  foot  tending  to  be  a  heavy  syllable  followed  by  a  light  
syllable).  
 
Iambic  pentameter  that  doesn't  rhyme  is  called  "blank  verse."  The  Earl  of  Surrey,  a  Renaissance  
writer  who  lived  just  before  Shakespeare,  introduced  blank  verse  into  English.  It  has  been  
popular  ever  since  because  it  maintains  strong  meter,  but  the  lack  of  rhyme  makes  it  more  
flexible  than  rhymed  verse,  and  it  also  doesn't  sound  so  artificial  or  contrived  when  used  in  plays  
like  those  of  Shakespeare.    
 
Often,  poetic  verse  varies.  For  instance,  iambic  pentameter  normally  would  have  ten  syllables  in  
each  line.  There  would  be  ten  syllables  contained  within  five  feet.  Each  foot  contains  one  
unstressed  syllables  and  one  stressed  syllables,  for  a  total  of  ten  (2  x  5)  syllables.  A  boring  but  
"perfect"  example  of  iambic  pentameter  would  look  like  this:  
 
With  hot  intent  the  flames  will  soon  expire.  
 
Smith     Poetry  and  Meter  
Reading  continuous,  perfect  meter  can  become  sing-­‐songy  and  irritating,  like  hearing  nursery  
rhymes  over  and  over.  But  the  rules  of  poetry  are  more  flexible  than  that.  To  prevent  this  
monotony,  poets  allow  metrical  substitution  of  one  foot  for  another.  For  instance,  a  spondee  
(LONG  LONG),  or  a  trochee  (LONG  short)  may  be  used  in  the  place  of  an  iamb  (short  LONG)  in  
one  or  more  feet  of  iambic  pentameter,  as  long  as  the  total  syllable  count  and  feet  remain  the  
same.  
 
/////uu/u/  Now,   cold   dead  weight   settles   on  ash   and  bone.  
 
When  you  notice  this  sort  of  substitution,  it  hints  that  there's  something  special  about  that  line.  
Perhaps  the  reader  should  speak  those  parts  with  special  intonation,  emphasis,  speed,  or  
slowness.  Maybe  that  substitution  marks  an  important  symbol.  For  whatever  reason,  the  poet  
went  to  the  trouble  of  altering  the  pattern  of  iambic  pattern.  Why?  Part  of  closely  reading  poetry  
is  noticing  changes  in  feet  and  meter,  and  thinking  about  what  that  change  means.  One  of  the  
most  common  places  for  metrical  substitution  is  the  final  foot.  Poets  frequently  tinker  with  that  
foot  in  order  to  create  either  masculine  or  feminine  verse.  At  other  times,  poets  may  insert  
spondees  in  perfectly  good  iambic  pentameter,  just  to  "slow  down"  the  verse.  Dactyls  can  be  
inserted  to  create  a  light,  tripping  meter  in  other  spots  of  a  poem.  
 
Nursery Rhyme and Very Regular Meter in Poetry

Generally speaking in adult poetry we look for places where meter breaks down, where an expectation
is subverted. In nursery rhymes and nonsense verse often the pleasure derives precisely from the
predictability of the verse: without even knowing the meaning of the words, we can often predict what
sound will come next. Metrical predictability aids in memorization, a key element of a lot of children's
poetry and older folk verse as well. Breaks in metrical pattern are sometimes used to comic effect in
children's poetry; when a rhythm is established, breaking it--especially in order to insert a humorous
word or concept--is often funny. Form and content, then, need to be considered together in order to
determine the effect of meter and rhyme: meter by itself means nothing. In reading the following
poem, you would first mark the stressed syllables as follows:

/--/--/
Hickory, dickory, dock,
/-/-/
The mice ran up the clock.
/-/
The clock struck one,
/-/
The mice ran down.
/--/--/
Hickory, dickory, dock.

As these markings will tell you, the verse alternates trimeter lines with dimeter: 2 trimeter, 2 dimeter,
then one trimeter again. You might also note that the middle three lines are quite strictly iambic, while
the first and last are strongly anapestic, but drop the unstressed syllables in the last foot.