Meter (Rhythm) and Rhyme

Verse is generally distinguished from prose as a more compressed and more regular rhythmic form of statement.

Meter is the means by which rhythm is measured and described. In the classical languages, meter was established on a quantitative basis by the regular alteration of long and short syllables (that is, syllables classified according to the time taken to pronounce). This system has never proven congenial to English, which distinguishes, instead, between stressed and unstressed, or accented and unaccented syllables. The meter of poetry -- that is, its rhythm -- is ordinarily built up out of a regular recurrence of accents.

The unit which is repeated to give steady rhythm to a poem is called a poetic foot; in English it usually consists of accented and unaccented syllables in one of five simple patterns.

The iambic foot (or iamb) consists of an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (unite, repeat, insist). Most English verse falls naturally into the iambic pattern.

The trochaic foot (trochee) inverts this first order. It is a stressed followed by and unstressed syllable (unit, reaper, instant).

The anapestic foot (anapest) is two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable ( intercede, disarrange).

The dactylic foot (dactyl) is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (Washington, Ecuador).

The spondaic foot (spondee) is most commonly used in compound words; it is two stressed syllables ( heartbreak, headline, Cashmere).

We also count the number of poetic feet in each line, or, more properly, verse -- since a single poetic line is generally called a "verse." Verse lengths are conventionally described in terms derived from the Greek.

The number of feet in a verse determines the meter.

monometer-- one foot (very rare) dimeter -- two feet (rare) trimeter -- three feet tetrameter -- four feet pentameter -- five feet (most common) hexameter -- six feet heptameter -- seven feet octometer -- eight feet

Definition: The similarity of sounds existing between accented syllables occupying corresponding positions within two or more lines of verse

The corresponding sound is based on the vowels and succeeding consonants of the accented syllables, which must, for a perfect rhyme, be preceded by different consonants (example -- fan, ran).

Rhyme is classified by two different means:

1. position the rhymed syllables within the line of verse [end rhyme, internal rhyme, beginning rhyme (very rare)]

2. the number of syllables in which the similar sound occurs (masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, triple rhyme).

end rhyme: most common type, occurs in the last syllables in a line of verse

internal rhyme: occurs when a word within the poetic line rhymes with a word occurring later in the same line (many times at the end of the line)

beginning rhyme: occurs in the first syllables of the poetic line

masculine rhyme: sound is restricted to the final accented syllable, generally a more forceful vigorous sound

feminine rhyme: corresponding sounds in the last two consecutive syllables, the second of which is unstressed (lighting, fighting)

triple rhyme: corresponding sounds in three consecutive syllables (glorious, victorious)

eye rhyme: words used as rhymes which look alike but actually sound different ( alone, done; remove, love)

off rhyme: also called partial, imperfect or slant rhymes) occasionally the result if pressing exigencies or lack of skill, but are also, at times, used deliberately by modern poets for special effects.

Definition: the pattern or sequence in which the rhyme sound occurs in a stanza or a poem, usually presented by giving each similar sound in the stanza the same letter in the alphabet.