• Iamb (adj. : iambic) – one stressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable: e.G. Away;

• trochee (adj. trochaic) – one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable : e.g. father;

• anapest (adj. anapestic) – two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable: e.g. in the light;

• dactyl (adj. dactylic) – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: e.g. over there.

• monosyllable (adj. monosyllabic) – one stressed syllable: e.g. sky;

• spondee (adj. spondaic) – two stressed syllables: e.g. rainbow.

Analyzing metre is called scansion. When we scan a poem we first count the number of syllables and identify the position of the stresses or accents. We then divide the line into feet and determine the metrical length of the line. :

monometer – one foot

dimeter – two feet

trimester – three feet

tetrameter – four feet

pentameter – five feet

hexameter – six feet

heptameter – seven feet

octameter – eight feet

When we have identified the kind of feet and the line length, we combine the two to give the metre a name, for example iambic pentameter, trochaic hexameter, anapestic heptameter. Iambic pentameter is the metrical form that most closely resembles natural speech and it is the most widely used metre in English poetry. The following are examples of the scansion of a line of iambic pentameter and a line of anapestic tetrameter. The feet are marked by vertical lines, the unstressed syllables by  and the stressed syllables by ´.

Metre is not a straightjacket and in most poems there are deviations from the principal pattern. When scanning a poem it is important to identify the prevailing metre, but also to notice variations.

The analysis of metre is meaningful only if it contributes to our understanding of a poem. The rhythm may establish an atmosphere or create a tone, and deviations from the predominant metrical pattern may highlight key elements.

Other rhythmic devices

When a pause occurs naturally at the end of a line we refer to it as an end-stopped line:

The trees are in their autumn beauty,

The woodland paths are dry,

(The Wild Swans at Coole, W.B. Yeats)

Enjambement or run-on line are the terms we use when the sense of the sentence extends into the next line:

The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was

Spawning snow and pink roses against it

(Snow, Louis MabNeice)

If a strong break occurs in the middle of a line it is referred to as a caesura:

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness

(Endimion, John Keats)

Enjambement and caesura give their own particular rhythm to poetry.

Questions to ask when analyzing sound features

• What is the rhyme of a poem? Is it regular throughout? Are there any examples of internal rhymes?

• Does the poem containalliteration or assonance?

• Are there any examples of onomatopoeia?

• How would you define the rhythm of the poem? Is there a predominant metrical structure? Does the rhythm of the poem reinforce the meaning?

• Are there any run-on lines or caesura in the poem? How do they affect the rhythm of the poem?

6. Two or more verse lines make a stanza (also called a 'strophe'). If the syllable is the shortest unit of prosody in general, the foot is the smallest unit of metre in versification. The next unit is the line: it shows metrical patterns. Finally, the largest unit in verse is the stanza. The stanza is the largest unit in verse. It is composed of a number of lines having a definite measure and rhyming system, which is repeated throughout the poem.

There are many widely recognized stanza patterns in English poetry:

1. The heroic couplet – a stanza that consists of two lines of iambic pentameter with the rhyming pattern aa, bb, cc, etc.

2. The Spencerian stanza, named after Edmund Spencer, the 16^th century poet who first used this type of stanza in his 'Fairy Queen'. It consists of nine lines, the first eight of which are iambic pentameters and the ninth is one foot longer that is an iambic hexameter. The rhyming scheme is ababbcbcc.

3. The stanza named ottava rima has also peen popular in English poetry. It is composed of eight lines of eightiambic pentameters, the rhyming scheme being abababcc. This type of stanza was borrowed from Italian poetry and was widely used by Phillip Sidney and other poets of the 16^th century.

4. A looser form of stanza is the ballad stanza. It is characteristic of folk ballads. The stanza consists of four lines. This is generally an alliteration of iambic tetrameters with iambic dimeters (or trimeters) and the rhyming scheme is abcb.

5. One of the most popular stanzas, which bear the name of stanza only conventionally, is the sonnet. It is a complete independent work of a definite literary jenre. The English sonnet is composed of fourteen lines (iambic pentameters) with the following rhyming sceme: ababcd cdefefgg, that is three quatrains with cross rhymes and a couplet at the end.

6. The limerick is used mainly for nonsense verse. It consists of five lines, two longer ones (trimeter), two shorter ones (dimeter) and another trimester. Edward Lear, one of the most famous limerick- and nonsense verse writers, insisted that the 1^st and the 5^th line of the limerick should end with the same word, usually a place name.

7. Blank verse is a non-rhyming iambic pentameter. It is the most common metrical pattern in English because it recreates most successfully the rhythm of ordinary speech.

Free verse

Verse remains classical if it remains its metrical scheme.

There are however types of verse, which are not classical. The most popular is what is called verse libre, which is the French term for free verse. Free verse does not use any particular pattern of stress or number of syllables per line. It is a type of verse that has been widely used only since the 20^th century. Free verse is recognized by lack of strictness in its rhythmical design. We shall use the term free verse to refer only to those varieties of verse, which are characterized by:

1. a combination of various metrical feet in the line;

2. absence of equilinoarity;

3. stanzas of varying length.

Rhyme, however, is generally retained.

7. Layout (Delaney, D.)

Layout refers to the visual form a poem takes on apage. It is important because it helps the reader's understanding by indicating, for example, where he should pause or where a new line of thought begins. Certain conventions have been established in the lay-out of poems. The lines:

• Do not cover the full page as they do in prose;

• Are usually grouped together into units called verses;

• Are occasionally grouped into units that repeat the same number of lines, the same metre and the same rhyming scheme. These units are called stanzas.

In what is referred to as concrete poetry, the visual form of the poem is almost as important in conveying meaning as the verbal communication. Here is an example:

Love

By Roger McGough

middle	aged
couple	playing
ten	nis
when	the
game	ends
and	they
go	home
the	net
will	still
be	be
tween	them.

The first differentiating property of verse is its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic arrangement of the utterances. The rhythmic aspect calls forth syntactical and semantic peculiarities, which also fall into a more or less strict orderly arrangement: rhythm and rhyme are immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic substyle provided they are wrought into compositional patterns.

The most observable and widely recognized compositional patterns of rhythm, making up classical verse, are based on:

• A natural pause at the end of the line, the line being a more or less complete semantic unit;

• Identity of stanza pattern;

• Established patterns of rhyming.

English versification is called qualitative, in contradiction to the old Greek verse, which being sung, was essentially quantitative. In English verse is called syllabo-tonic. Two parameters are taken into account in defining the measure: the number of syllables (syllabo) and the distribution of stresses (tonic).

English metrical patterns:

• Iambic metre, in which the unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one;

• Trochaic metre, where the order is reversed, a stressed syllable is followed by unstressed one;

• Dactylic metre – one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed.

• Anapaestic metre – two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed.

These arrangements of qualitatively different syllables are the unit of the metre, the repetition of which makes verse. One unit is called a foot. The number of feet in a line varies, but it has its limit; it rarely exceeds eight.

If the line consists of only one foot it is called a monometer; a line consisting of two feet is a demeter, three – trimeter, four – tetrameter, five – pentameter, six – hexameter, seven – septameter, eight – octameter. Thus a line that consists of four iambic feet, is called iambic tetrameter correspondingly a line consisting of eight trachaic feet will be called trochaic octameter, and so on. English verse is predominantly iambic.

Of the units of verse rhythm the following have been named: the syllable, the foot, the line and finally the stanza (a fixed number of verse lines arranged in a definite metrical pattern).

Accented verse is a type of verse in which only the number of stresses in the line is taken into consideration. The number of syllables is not constituent. Accented verse is not syllabo-tonic but only tonic. In its extreme form of lines have no pattern of regular metrical feet not fixed length, there is no notion of stanza, and there are no pattern of regular metrical feet nor fixed length, there is no notion of stanza, and there are no rhymes.

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