Meter in English poetry refers to the repetitive pattern of stressed (or accented) and unstressed syllables.²

They are usually named for the type of foot used and the number of feet in a verse, for example the iambic pentameter is made of five iambs so the verse’s rhythm is

da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM

Meters usually refer to the structure of individual verses, but can be extended to the whole poem. For example a whole poem can consist of nothing but dactylic hexameters.

Meters should also be distinguished from the form of a poem, which refer to its overall structure, including its use of various meters and rhyming.

Meters in English poetry

• Monometer
• Iambic monometer
• Dimeter
• Iambic dimeter
• Trimeter
• Tetrameter
• Pentameter
• Hexameter

This list is not exhaustive, as it is not possible to list the different combinations of feet and number of feet that can be used in a poem.

Modifying the meter

Catalexis: addition or removal of syllables or feet

Poets often remove or add syllables to specific meters for various effects.

For example, Shakespeare adds a syllable to the eight line of Sonnet 116:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, Lines 5-8

Shakespeare generally wrote his sonnets in iambic pentameter, i.e. 10 syllables a verse with even syllables stressed, but line 8 is written with an extra unstressed syllable:

Whose WORTH’S | unKNOWN, | alTHOUGH | his HEIGHT | be TAK | en

Such an addition of a syllable, or the addition of a whole foot, to a verse of a specific meter is known as hypercatalexis; the meter of line 8 can be called iambic pentameter hypercatalectic.

On the other hand, the removal of a syllable is known as catalexis and the removal of a foot is known as brachycatalexis.³

Addition or removal or a syllable or foot
Type	Adjective	Description
Catalexis	Catalectic	Removal of a syllable
Brachycatalexis	Brachycatalectic	Removal of a foot
Hypercatalexis	Hypercatalectic	Addition of a syllable or foot

Antipodia: exchanging feet

Another way poets alter the meter of their poems is to exchange one type of foot for another.³

A famous example is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Highlighting the accents and feet:

To BE, | or NOT | to BE:| THAT is | the QUES | tion

While the verse is generally in iambic pentameter, the fourth foot (”that is”) is changed to a trochee.

Scanning

Scanning¹ is the process of

1. dividing a verse of a poem into its constituent feet,
2. classifying syllables into stressed and unstressed syllables (for English poems), and
3. determining the nature of each foot

The meter of a verse is then the number and type of feet used.

References