"foot are inverted. Line 81 is particularly noteworthy, as it contains inversions of the first, second and fourth feet: The twelve syllable, six stress line—also known as the alexandrine—only appears in the lyrical sections of the poem. Milton breaks with the traditional entirely regular caesura between syllables six and seven (that is, the 6 + 6 line). Bridges lists Milton's breaks: Bridges goes on to remark that some of these lines could be regarded as iambic pentameter with two extra-metrical syllables at the end, such as: Bridges' analysis of Milton's later work In his book ""Milton's Prosody"", Robert Bridges continues"
"Hexameter Hexameter 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 genres of composition include Horace's satires, Ovid's ""Metamorphoses,"" and the Hymns of Orpheus. According to Greek mythology, hexameter was invented by Phemonoe, daughter of Apollo and the first Pythia of Delphi. In classical hexameter, the six feet follow these rules: A short syllable (υ) is a syllable with a short vowel and no consonant at the end. A long syllable (–) is a syllable"
"Long metre Long Metre or Long Measure, abbreviated L.M. or LM, is a poetic metre consisting of four line stanzas, or quatrains, in iambic tetrameter with alternate rhyme pattern ""a-b-a-b"". The term is also used in the closely related area of hymn metres. When the poem is used as a sung hymn, the metre of the text is denoted by the syllable count of each line; for long metre, the count is denoted by 8.8.8.8, 88.88, or 88 88, depending on style. It is similar to common metre (for poems or melodies denoted as 8.6.8.6, 86.86, or 86 86) which"
"with seemingly trifling content. This poem is written in hendecasyllabic verse, a meter in which each line has eleven syllables and four poetic feet. Consistent with other ancient Greek and Latin works, the feet are not defined by stressed and unstressed syllables as they are in English poetry. Rather, they are marked by long (L) and short (s) forms of the vowels. Thus, a typical hendecasyllabic line has the meter However, there is some flexibility in this pattern, particularly in the first and last feet. An example of English hendecasyllabic verse has been provided by Tennyson <poem> </poem> Other artful"
"Common metre Common metre or common measure—abbreviated as C. M. or CM—is a poetic metre consisting of four lines which alternate between iambic tetrameter (four metrical feet per line) and iambic trimeter (three metrical feet per line), with each foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The metre is denoted by the syllable count of each line, i.e. 8.6.8.6, 86.86, or 86 86, depending on style, or by its shorthand abbreviation ""CM"". Common metre has been used for ballads such as ""Tam Lin"" and hymns such as ""Amazing Grace"" and the Christmas carol ""O Little Town"
"Anisometric verse Anisometric verse, known also as heterometric stanza, is a type of poetry where the stanza is made up of lines having unequal metrical length. The number of syllables within the individual lines do not correspond, nor do the number of feet. In poetry, a foot is a group of syllables where one of the syllables is accented or stressed more than the others. Traditionally, poetry uses isometric stanza, each line having the same number of syllables and the same number of feet. Before the 20th century, anisometric verse was rarely seen. Two exceptions are William Wordsworth's ""Ode: Intimations"
"syllabified as ""ak-si-o-ses-ti"". The ancient prosodists divided lines of verse into 'feet', each foot consisting usually of 3 or 4 syllables (but sometimes 2 or 5). These can be seen as roughly equivalent to bars in a line of music. The different varieties of feet were given different names, as follows: ""Macron and breve notation:"" "" = long syllable, = short syllable"" Non-lyric meters are those used for narrative, funeral elegies, the dialogue of tragedies, pastoral poetry, and didactic poetry. A characteristic of these metres is that every line is the same length throughout the poem (except for the elegiac"
"English poets. Notes Sources Decasyllable Decasyllable (Italian: ""decasillabo"", French: ""décasyllabe"", Serbian: ""десетерац"",""deseterac"" ) is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual verse), it is the equivalent of pentameter with iambs or trochees (particularly iambic pentameter). Medieval French heroic epics (the ""chansons de geste"") were most often composed in 10 syllable verses (from which, the decasyllable was termed ""heroic verse""), generally with a regular caesura after the fourth syllable. (The medieval French romance (""roman"") was however most often written in 8 syllable (or ""octosyllable"") verse.) Use of the"
"Iambic tetrameter Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. The word ""tetrameter"" simply means that there are four feet in the line; ""iambic tetrameter"" is a line comprising four iambs. Some poetic forms rely upon iambic tetrameter: triolet, Onegin stanza, In Memoriam stanza, long measure (or long meter) ballad stanza. The term originally applied to the quantitative meter of Classical Greek poetry, in which an ""iamb"" consisted of a short syllable followed by a long syllable. The term was adopted to describe the equivalent meter in accentual-syllabic verse, as composed"
"(p. 224). In a more extended analysis (pp. 231–2), he comments: The medial break in the alexandrine, though it may do well enough in French, becomes intolerable in a language with such a tyrannous stress-accent as ours: the line struts. The fourteener has a much pleasanter movement, but a totally different one: the line dances a jig. The poets Surrey, Tuberville, Gascoigne, Balassone, Golding and others all used the Poulter's Measure, the rhyming fourteener with authority. Fourteener (poetry) In poetry, a fourteener is a line consisting of 14 syllables, which are usually made of seven iambic feet for which the"
"can use the shorter metres, but more frequently use longer metres of 14, 15, or 16 syllables (less often 13 syllables). Since it would be difficult to use the same rhyme throughout a long poem, sometimes poems were written in stanza form, in the same metre throughout but with each stanza using a different rhyme. At the end of each stanza is a rhyming couplet of a different rhyme again. This kind of poem was known as a ""tarji'-band"" (if the couplets ending the stanzas are all the same throughout the poem) or a ""tarkib-band"" (if the couplets are all"
"Hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable is a line of eleven syllables. The term ""hendecasyllabic"" is used to refer to two different poetic meters, the older of which is quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry and the newer of which is accentual and used in medieval and modern poetry. The classical hendecasyllable is a quantitative meter used in Ancient Greece in Aeolic verse and in scolia, and later by the Roman poets Catullus and Martial. Each line has eleven syllables; hence the name, which comes from the Greek word for eleven. The heart of the line"
"Tribrach (poetry) A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse. In quantitative meter (such as the meter of classical verse), it consists of three short syllables; in accentual-syllabic verse (such as formal English verse), the tribrach consists of three unstressed syllables. According to some sources, another name for this meter is choree, from the Greek choreus. Other sources categorize the choree as a metrical foot containing two unstressed syllables, or one accented followed by one unaccented foot. The existence of the tribrach has been contested by some writers and its entry in the"
"a number of lyric metres, which were typically used for shorter poems than elegiacs or hexameter. In Aeolic verse, one important line was called the hendecasyllabic, a line of eleven syllables. This metre was used most often in the Sapphic stanza, named after the Greek poet Sappho, who wrote many of her poems in the form. A hendecasyllabic is a line with a never-varying structure: two trochees, followed by a dactyl, then two more trochees. In the Sapphic stanza, three hendecasyllabics are followed by an ""Adonic"" line, made up of a dactyl and a trochee. This is the form of"
"Decasyllable Decasyllable (Italian: ""decasillabo"", French: ""décasyllabe"", Serbian: ""десетерац"",""deseterac"" ) is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual verse), it is the equivalent of pentameter with iambs or trochees (particularly iambic pentameter). Medieval French heroic epics (the ""chansons de geste"") were most often composed in 10 syllable verses (from which, the decasyllable was termed ""heroic verse""), generally with a regular caesura after the fourth syllable. (The medieval French romance (""roman"") was however most often written in 8 syllable (or ""octosyllable"") verse.) Use of the 10 syllable line in"
"Asclepiad (poetry) An Asclepiad (Latin: Asclepiadeus) is a line of poetry following a particular metrical pattern. The form is attributed to Asclepiades of Samos and is one of the Aeolic metres. As with other Aeolic metrical lines, the asclepiad is built around a choriamb. The Asclepiad may be described as a glyconic that has been expanded with one (Lesser Asclepiad) or two (Greater Asclepiad) further choriambs. The pattern (using ""-"" for a long syllable, ""u"" for a short and ""x"" for an ""anceps"" or free syllable, which can be either - or u) is: West (1982) designates the Asclepiad as"
"Molossus (poetry) A molossus () is a metrical foot used in Greek and Latin poetry. It consists of three long syllables. Examples of Latin words constituting molossi are ""audiri, cantabant, virtutem"". In English poetry, syllables are usually categorized as being either stressed or unstressed, rather than long or short, and the unambiguous molossus rarely appears, as it is too easily interpreted as two feet (and thus a metrical fault) or as having at least one destressed syllable. The title of Tennyson's poem ""Break, Break, Break"" is sometimes cited as a molossus, but in context it can only be three separate"
"verse, which included couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line. A hexameter line contains six metrical feet while a pentameter line contains five metrical feet. Dating back to the 7th century BC, the elegy was used to write about various topics, including love, lamentation, and politics. This form of poetry was widely used by poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, Tytraeus, Catullus, and Ovid. In English literature, it was not until the 16th century that the term “elegy” began to refer to the content of the poem as opposed to the metrical form of the poem. Since"
"not mean an 8-syllable meter. Romance (meter) The romance (the term is Spanish, and is pronounced accordingly: ) is a metrical form used in Spanish poetry. It consists of an indefinite series (""tirada"") of verses, in which the even-numbered lines have a near-rhyme (assonance) and the odd lines are unrhymed. The lines are octosyllabic (eight syllables to a line); a similar but far less common form is hexasyllabic (six syllables to a line) and is known in Spanish as romancillo (a diminutive of ""romance""); that, or any other form of less than eight syllables may also be referred to as"
"Spondee A spondee (Latin: ""spondeus"") is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek σπονδή, ""spondḗ"", ""libation"". The spondee typically does not provide the basis for a metrical line in poetry. Instead, spondees are found as irregular feet in meter based on another type of foot. For example, the epics of Homer and Vergil are written in dactylic hexameter. This term suggests a line of six dactyls, but a spondee can be substituted in most positions. The first line"
"Cretic A cretic (; also Cretic, amphimacer and sometimes paeon diagyios) is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long (– u –). In Greek poetry, the cretic was usually a form of paeonic or aeolic verse. However, any line mixing iambs and trochees could employ a cretic foot as a transition. In other words, a poetic line might have two iambs and two trochees, with a cretic foot in between. Words which include a cretic (e.g. Latin ""cīvitās"" and its various inflections) cannot be used in works composed in dactylic hexameter or dactylic pentameter. In Latin, cretics were"
"say ""I'm stuck here, unfortunately the rest won't come into my mind,"" and it will be an impeccable hexameter in Hungarian: ""Itt elakadtam, sajnos nem jut eszembe a többi."" Due to this feature, hexameter has been widely used both in translated (Greek and Roman) and in original poetry up to the twentieth century (e.g. by Miklós Radnóti). Hexameter Hexameter 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 genres of composition include Horace's satires, Ovid's"
"Rictameter A rictameter is a nine-line syllabic structure typically used in poetry. The lines start at two syllables, incrementing upward by two to ten in the fifth line and ending with the same two syllable word as the first line. Because this form involves a fixed syllabic count, it is a natural accompaniment with haiku and other fixed-syllabic poetry forms. Created in the early 1990s by two cousins, Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford, Jr., for a poetry contest that was held as a weekly practice of their self-invented order, The Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery. The order was"
"cretic measures. English Renaissance songs employed cretic dimeter fairly frequently (e.g. ""Shall I die? Shall I fly?"" attributed to William Shakespeare). Because the cretic, in stress-based prosody, is natural for a comparison or antithesis, it is well suited to advertising slogans and adages. Annie Hall's often-quoted line from the movie of that name is spoken as a cretic: ""La-di-dah!"" Cretic A cretic (; also Cretic, amphimacer and sometimes paeon diagyios) is a metrical foot containing three syllables: long, short, long (– u –). In Greek poetry, the cretic was usually a form of paeonic or aeolic verse. However, any line"
"""Endymion:"" ""A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."" Hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable is a line of eleven syllables. The term ""hendecasyllabic"" is used to refer to two different poetic meters, the older of which is quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry and the newer of which is accentual and used in medieval and modern poetry. The classical hendecasyllable is a quantitative meter used in Ancient Greece in Aeolic verse and in scolia, and later by the Roman poets Catullus and Martial. Each line has eleven syllables; hence the name, which comes from"
"Triadic-line poetry Triadic-line poetry or stepped line is a long line which ""unfolds into three descending and indented parts"". Created by William Carlos Williams, it was his ""solution to the problem of modern verse"" and later was also taken up by poets Charles Tomlinson and Thom Gunn. Williams referred to the prosody of triadic-line poetry as a ""variable foot"", a metrical device to resolve the conflict between form and freedom in verse. Each of the three staggered lines of the stanza should be thought of as one foot, the whole stanza becoming a trimeter line. Williams' collections ""Journey to Love"""
"Pyrrhic A pyrrhic (; ""pyrrichios"", from πυρρίχη ""pyrrichē"") is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of two unaccented, short syllables. It is also known as a dibrach. Tennyson used pyrrhics and spondees quite frequently, for example, in ""In Memoriam"": When the blood creeps and the nerves prick. ""When the"" and ""and the"" in the second line may be considered as pyrrhics (also analyzable as ionic meter). Pyrrhics alone are not used to construct an entire poem due to the monotonous effect. Poe observed that many experts rejected it from English metrics and concurred:The pyrrhic is rightfully dismissed."
"Trochaic octameter Trochaic octameter is a poetic meter that has eight trochaic metrical feet per line. Each foot has one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Trochaic octameter is a rarely used meter. The best known work in trochaic octameter is Edgar Allan Poe's ""The Raven"", which utilizes five lines of trochaic octameter followed by a ""short"" half line (in reality, 7 beats) that, by the end of the poem, takes on the qualities of a refrain. Another well-known work is Banjo Paterson's ""Clancy of the Overflow"", which uses four lines of trochaic octameter for each verse throughout. Other"
"Paeon (prosody) In prosody a paeon (or paean) is a metrical foot used in both poetry and prose. It consists of four syllables, with one of the syllables being long and the other three short. Paeons were often used in the traditional Greek hymn to Apollo called paeans. Its use in English poetry is rare. Depending on the position of the long syllable, the four peaons are called a first, second, third, or fourth peaon. The cretic or amphimacer metrical foot, with three syllables, the first and last of which are long and the second short, is sometimes also called"
"is such a natural meter for the language that one could actually form continually ones' everyday speech in political verse, if one wished to do so. Political verse Political verse (Greek: ""politikós stíkhos"", πολιτικός στίχος), also known as decapentasyllabic verse (from Greek: ""dekapentasyllabos"", δεκαπεντασύλλαβος, lit. '15-syllable'), is a common metric form in Medieval and Modern Greek poetry. It is an iambic verse of fifteen syllables and has been the main meter of traditional popular and folk poetry since the Byzantine period. The name is unrelated to the modern English concept of politics and does not imply political content; rather, it"
"a 'sixth' line. Concrete Poetry / i.e. Shape poems Lanterne (poem) A lanterne is a cinquain form of poetry, in which the first line has one syllable and each subsequent line increases in length by one syllable, except for the final line that concludes the poem with one syllable. Its name derives from the lantern shape that appears when the poem is aligned to the center of the page. Each line of the lanterne is able to stand on its own, and while the poem may or may not be given a title, the title of a lanterne sometimes functions"
"more frequently encountered as one-half of the common meter, which consists of alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter lines: Another example, from the American poetess Emily Dickinson: Iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units (each of two feet) per line. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ""metra"". Each ""metron"" consists of the pattern | x – u – |, where ""–"" represents a long syllable, ""u"" a short one, and ""x"" an ""anceps"" (either long or short)."
"Iambic trimeter The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units (each of two feet) per line. In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ""metra"". Each ""metron"" consists of the pattern | x – u – |, where ""–"" represents a long syllable, ""u"" a short one, and ""x"" an ""anceps"" (either long or short). Resolutions were common, especially in the first two metra of the line, so that any long or ""anceps"" syllable except the last could be replaced by"