English Poetry

• Meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a line.
• In English, the meter is usually determined by the patter of stressed syllables.
• A syllable is the phonological building blocks of words.
• Syllables usually have one vowel and zero or more consonants. E.g., "ee", "bee", or "bees".
• A foot is a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Stressed syllables are often denoted by a line. (Imagine a taught string.)
• Unstressed syllables are often denoted by a little "u". (Imagine a relaxed string.)
• An iamb goes ˘¯.
• An trochee goes ¯˘.
• A dactyl goes ¯˘˘.
• An anapest ˘˘¯.
• There are names for most combinations, but these are the most common. Here are a few more:
• An pyrrhic goes ˘˘.
• An spondee goes ¯¯.
• English meter is usually described as a sequence of feet.
• Shakespeare and Milton wrote most often in iambic pentameter whose lines usually have five iambs.