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15 Fundamental Metrical Form in Poetry



The basic unit of measurement of the accentual-syllabic meter. A foot usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable. The standard types of feet in English poetry are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee, and pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables).

  • Spondee: A spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters or two stressed syllables in modern meters.

  • Pyrrhic: The meaning of PYRRHIC is a metrical foot consisting of two short or unaccented syllables.

  • Amphinacer: A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable between two accented syllables.

  • Choriambus: A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, the first and last are long, and the others short; a choreus, or trochee, united with an iambus.

  • Trochaic: In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one. In this respect, a trochee is the reverse of an iamb.

  • iamb: An iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable.

  • Anapaest: An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. Classical quantitative meters consist of two short syllables followed by a long one; accentual stress meters, it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl.

  • Dactyl: A dactyl is a foot in poetic meter. In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. The best-known use of dactylic verse is in the epics attributed to the Greek poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

  • Foot: The basic unit of measurement of the accentual-syllabic meter. A foot usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable. The standard types of feet in English poetry are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee, and pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables).

  • Free Verse: lines are unrhymed, and there are no consistent metrical patterns. But, that doesn’t mean it is entirely without structure.

  • Tetrameter: In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. The particular foot can vary, as follows:

  • Pentameter: It is a poetic meter. А poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have a length of five feet, where a 'foot' is a combination of a particular number of unstressed syllables and a stressed syllable. Depending on the pattern of the feet, pentameter can be iambic or dactylic.

  • Hexameter: It is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Its use in other composition genres includes Horace's satires, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the Hymns of Orpheus.

  • Enjambment: In poetry, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped. The word's origin is credited to the French word enjamber, which means 'to straddle or encroach'.

  • Caesura: A caesura, also called cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends, and another begins. It may be expressed by a comma (, ), a tick, or two lines, either slashed or upright.





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