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Hi all, I'm having trouble understanding metre/meter of poetry or iambic pentameter or whatever that is. It's something I keep coming across but can not understand. I have no idea about it whatsoever. So can someone please explain this in simple words.
Your help is much appreciated. Thank you. :)
Take this phrase: I looked inside the house and saw a dog
Ask yourself: "which of these words do I put stress/emphasis on, and which ones do I not?" Most people will read it like (capitalization represents stress): i LOOKED inSIDE the HOUSE and SAW a DOG
If you count the total number of syllables in that sentence you'll see there are 10. What's more, you notice, looking at the pattern of stressed words and non-stressed words, that the pattern is: unstressed/stressed. You see this pattern recur 5 times: i LOOKED (1) inSIDE (2) the HOUSE (3) and SAW (4) a DOG (5). "Iambic" simply means a pattern of unstressed/stressed syllables, while "pentameter" means that there are 5 ("penta") per line. This is how all meter is labeled. EG, Trochaic tetrameter would mean a pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables ("trochees") with 4 ("tetra") per line. Some examples (with capitalization indicating stresses and "/" indicating the breaks between each "foot"):
i LOOKED / inSIDE / the HOUSE / and SAW / a DOG (iambic pentameter)
GOing / HOME is / NICE and / WARMing (trochaic tetrameter)
DIGging in / YARDS is a / FUN thing to / DO when you're / BORED out of / CONsciousness (Dactylic hexameter)
in the EVE- / ning a BIRD'S / taken FLIGHT (anapestic trimeter)
The best way I've seen of "explaining" meter is in Atrridge's Poetic Rhythm, where he makes the distinction between "double time" (iambs and trochees) and "triple time" (dactyls and anapests), and then between "rising" (unstressed/stressed or unstressed/unstressed/stressed) and "falling" (stressed/unstressed or stressed/unstressed/unstressed). This creates the link between poetic rhythm and music, which is quite analogous. For example, if you've ever counted "ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three" to the time of a waltz, then you understand dactylic rhythm, which is the same.
Thank you loads. This is so great. :)
Could you also explain foot and meter? I tried google, but I'm just getting confused.
You're welcome.
As for you "foot/meter" question: In the above example, "I looked inside the house and saw a dog," each unstressed/stressed pairing is a foot. So "I LOOKED" is one foot, "inSIDE" is the second foot, "the HOUSE" is the third foot, "and SAW" is the fourth foot, and "a DOG" is the fifth foot. Meter what you call the combination of feet and number of feet per line. "Iambs" are feet of unstressed/stressed syllables, and there are five in that line, so it's "Iambic (which describes the foot) Pentameter ("penta" meaning five, describing the number of iambs in the line). So, using another example, "trochaic tetrameter" means a line of 4 (tetra) trochees (stressed/unstressed feet), or "dactylic hexameter" means a line of 6 (hexa) dactyls (stress/unstress/unstress).
Thank you. This is much more simple than a hundred links on google. :)
Glad I could help. :)