In poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order. This article is about the art form. ... For the popular Tamil film, see Rhythm (film). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Prosody is a more general linguistic term, that includes poetical meter but also the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or informal. The scansion of a poem is the analysis of its metrical structure. For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to everyday speech. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

Fundamentals

The meter usually depends only on general acoustic properties of the spoken words, such as the length or stress of their syllables, independently of their meaning. The sound attributes that determine the meter may vary from language to language, and sometimes also between poetic traditions. Look up Acoustic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For the study of sound, a branch of physics, see acoustics. ... Look up speech, speaking, utter, gab in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, the timing in a language comprises the rhythmic qualities of speech, in particular how syllables are distributed across time. ... For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system). ...

Feet

In most Western classical poetic traditions, the meter of a verse can be described as a sequence of feet, each foot being a specific sequence of syllable types --- such as stressed/unstressed (the norm for English poetry) or long/short (as in most classical Latin and Greek poetry). Occident redirects here. ... In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

For example, the most common meter in English poetry, the so-called iambic pentameter, is a sequence of five iambic feet or iambs, each consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one ("da-DUM") : Insert non-formatted text hereIambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. ... An iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ...

This approach to analyzing and classifying meters originates from the ancient Greek tragedians and poets such as Homer, Pindar, Hesiod, Sappho. Beginning of Homers Odyssey The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage of the Greek language[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Ancient Greece. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... For the PINDAR military bunker in London, please see the PINDAR section of Military citadels under London Pindar (or Pindarus, Greek: ) (probably born 522 BC in Cynoscephalae, a village in Boeotia; died 443 BC in Argos), was a Greek lyric poet. ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... For other uses, see Sappho (disambiguation). ...

Caesurae

Another component of a verse's meter are the caesurae (literally, cuts), which are pauses or other breaks inserted between certain syllables of the verse. In Latin and Greek poetry, a caesura is a break within a foot caused by the end of a word. In English poetry, a caesura refers to a break within a line. A caesura, in poetry, is an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. ...

Metric variations

Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern. A common variation is the inversion of a foot, which turns a iamb ("da-DUM") into a trochee ("DUM-da"). Another common variation is a headless verse, which lacks the first syllable of the first foot. A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ...

Meter in various languages

Greek and Latin

The metrical "feet" in the classical languages were based on the length of time taken to pronounce each syllable, which were categorized according to their weight as either "long" syllables or "short" syllables (also known as "heavy" and "light" syllables, respectively, to distinguish from long and short vowels). The foot is often compared to a musical measure and the long and short syllables to whole notes and half notes. In English poetry, feet are determined by emphasis rather than length, with stressed and unstressed syllables serving the same function as long and short syllables in classical meter. In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. ...

The basic unit in Greek and Latin prosody is a mora, which is defined as a single short syllable. A long syllable is equivalent to two moras. A long syllable contains either a long vowel, a diphthong, or a short vowel followed by two or more consonants. Various rules of elision sometimes prevent a grammatical syllable from making a full syllable, and certain other lengthening and shortening rules (such as correption) can create long or short syllables in contexts where one would expect the opposite. Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... In music, see elision (music). ...

The most important Classical meter is the dactylic hexameter, the meter of Homer and Virgil. This form uses verses of six feet. The first four feet are dactyls, but can be spondees. The fifth foot is almost always a dactyl. The sixth foot is either a spondee or a trochee. The initial syllable of either foot is called the ictus, the basic "beat" of the verse. There is usually a caesura after the ictus of the third foot. The opening line of the Æneid is a typical line of dactylic hexameter: Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ... A dactyl (Gr. ... Look up Spondee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A caesura, in poetry, is an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. ... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story...

Armă vĭ|rumquĕ că|nō, Troi|ae quī | prīmŭs ăb | ōrīs

("I sing of arms and the man, who first from the shores of Troy. . . ")

The first and second feet are dactyls; their first syllables, "Ar" and "rum" respectively, contain short vowels, but count as long because the vowels are both followed by two consonants. The third and fourth feet are spondees, the first of which is divided by the main caesura of the verse. The fifth foot is a dactyl, as is nearly always the case. The final foot is a spondee. A caesura, in poetry, is an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. ...

The dactylic hexameter was imitated in English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem Evangeline: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet whose works include Paul Reveres Ride, A Psalm of Life, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline. He also wrote the first American translation of Dante Alighieris Divine Comedy and was one of the five members... Statue of Evangeline - heroine of the Acadian deportation - Saint Martinville, Louisiana Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is a poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. ...

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic,

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Also important in Greek and Latin poetry is the dactylic pentameter. This was a line of verse, made up of two equal parts, each of which contains two dactyls followed by a long syllable, which counts as a half foot. In this way, the number of feet amounts to five in total. Spondees can take the place of the dactyls in the first half, but never in the second. The long syllable at the close of the first half of the verse always ends a word, giving rise to a caesura. Dactylic pentameter is a form of meter in poetry. ... A caesura, in poetry, is an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. ...

Dactylic pentameter is never used in isolation. Rather, a line of dactylic pentameter follows a line of dactylic hexameter in the elegiac distich or elegiac couplet, a form of verse that was used for the composition of elegies and other tragic and solemn verse in the Greek and Latin world, as well as love poetry that was sometimes light and cheerful. An example from Ovid's Tristia: For other uses, see Elegy (disambiguation). ... A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. ... Elegiac couplets consist of alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter: two dactyls followed by a long syllable, a caesura, then two more dactyls followed by a long syllable. ... For other uses, see Tragedy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Tristia (Sorrows) is a work of poetry written by the Roman poet Ovid some time after 8AD, during his exile from Rome. ...

Vergĭlĭ|um vī|dī tan|tum, nĕc ă|māră Tĭ|bullō

Tempŭs ă|mīcĭtĭ|ae || fātă dĕ|dērĕ mĕ|ae.

("I only saw Vergil, greedy Fate gave Tibullus no time for me.")

The Greeks and Romans also used a number of lyric meters, which were typically used for shorter poems than elegiacs or hexameter. One important line was called the hendecasyllabic, a line of eleven syllables. This meter 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 Catullus 51 (itself an homage to Sappho 31): // Lyric poetry refers to either poetry that has the form and musical quality of a song, or a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. ... The Hendecasyllabic verse is a quantitative metre used by Catullus. ... The Sapphic stanza is a poetic form spanning 4 lines. ... For other uses, see Sappho (disambiguation). ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ... Fresco from Herculaneum, presumably showing a love couple. ... For other uses, see Sappho (disambiguation). ...

Illĕ | mī pār | essĕ dĕ|ō vĭ|dētŭr;

illĕ, | sī fās | est, sŭpĕ|rārĕ | dīvōs,

quī sĕ|dēns ad|versŭs ĭ|dentĭ|dem tē

spectăt ĕt | audĭt

("He seems to me to be like a god; if it is permitted, he seems above the gods, he who sitting across from you gazes at you and listens to you.")

The Sapphic stanza was imitated in English by Algernon Charles Swinburne in a poem he simply called Sapphics: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Algernon Swinburne, detail of his portrait by Rossetti Algernon Charles Swinburne (April 5, 1837 – April 10, 1909) was a Victorian era English poet. ...

Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,

Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled

Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;

Saw the reluctant. . .

See also the list of classical meters. THIS WEBSITE SUCKS ASS...YOU FLIPPIN HOE-BAG The following meters were used in Greek poetry and borrowed into Latin poetry in the classical period: Dactylic hexameter Elegiac couplet, consisting of a line of dactylic hexameter and one of dactylic pentameter Iambic trimeter Hendecasyllabic Sapphic stanza Alcaeic stanza Glyconic Choliambic...

English

Old English

The metric system of Old English poetry was different from that modern English, and more related to the verse forms of most of the older Germanic languages. It used alliterative verse, a metrical pattern involving varied numbers of syllables but a fixed number (usually four) of strong stresses in each line. The unstressed syllables were relatively unimportant, but the caesurae played a major role in Old English poetry. Old English poetry is based upon one system of verse construction which was used for all poems. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ... Old English poetry is based upon one system of verse construction which was used for all poems. ...

Modern English

Most English meter is classified according to the same system as Classical meter with an important difference. English is an accentual language, and therefore beats and offbeats (stressed and unstressed syllables) take the place of the long and short syllables of classical systems. In most English verse, the meter can be considered as a sort of back beat, against which natural speech rhythms vary expressively.

The most common characteristic feet of English verse are the iamb in two syllables and the anapest in three. (See Foot (prosody) for a complete list of the metrical feet and their names.) An iamb or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ... An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ...

Metrical systems

The number of metrical systems in English is not agreed upon.^[1] The major four types^[2] are: accentual verse, accentual-syllabic verse, syllabic verse and quantitative verse. The alliterative verse of Old English could also be added to this list, or included as a special type of accentual verse. Accentual verse focuses on the number of stresses in a line, while ignoring the number of offbeats and syllables; accentual-syllabic verse focuses on regulating both the number of stresses and the total number of syllables in a line; syllabic verse only counts the number of syllables in a line; quantitative verse regulates the patterns of long and short syllables, this sort of verse is often considered alien to English.^[3] Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line or stanza regardless of the number of syllables that are present. ... Accentual-Syllabic Verse is an extension of Accentual verse which fixes both the number of stresses and syllables within a line or stanza. ... Syllabic verse is a poetic form having a fixed number of syllables per line or stanza regardless of the number of stresses that are present. ... Meter (British English spelling: metre) describes the linguistic sound patterns of a verse. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ...

It is to be noted, however, that the use of foreign metres in English is all but exceptional.^[4]

Frequently-used meters

The most frequently encountered line of English verse is the iambic pentameter^{[citation needed]}, in which the metrical norm is five iambic feet per line, though metrical substitution is common and rhythmic variations practically inexhaustible. John Milton's Paradise Lost, most sonnets, and much else besides in English are written in iambic pentameter. Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter are commonly known as blank verse. Blank verse in the English language is most famously represented in the plays of William Shakespeare, although it is also notable in the work of Milton and Tennyson (e.g. Ulysses, The Princess). Insert non-formatted text hereIambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Paradise Lost (disambiguation). ... The term sonnet derives from the Provençal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song. ... Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and is one of the most popular English poets. ... Ulysses is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, written in 1833 but not published until 1842. ...

A rhymed pair of lines of iambic pentameter make a heroic couplet, a verse form which was used so often in the eighteenth century that it is now used mostly for humorous effect (although see Pale Fire for a non-trivial case)^{[citation needed]}. The most famous writers of heroic couplets are Dryden and Pope. A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, particularly for epic and narrative poetry. ... This is a list of verse forms: ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Penguin Classics edition of Pale Fire Pale Fire (1962) is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, his fourteenth in total and fifth in English. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 19 {August 9 O.S.}, 1631 - May 12 {May 1 O.S.}, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles... For other uses, see Alexander Pope (disambiguation). ...

Another important meter in English is the ballad meter, also called the "common meter", which is a four line stanza, with two pairs of a line of iambic tetrameter followed by a line of iambic trimeter; the rhymes usually fall on the lines of trimeter, although in many instances the tetrameter also rhymes. This is the meter of most of the Border and Scots or English ballads. It is called the "common meter" in hymnody (as it is the most common of the named hymn meters used to pair lyrics with melodies) and provides the meter for a great many hymns, such as Amazing Grace:^[5] The ballad meter, commonly found in ballads, has stanzas of four iambic lines. ... Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. ... Iambic trimeter is an ancient metre consisting of three iambic metra (each consisting of two iambi) used in the spoken verses of the Greek tragedy and comedy. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... For other uses, see Hymn (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Amazing Grace (disambiguation). ...

Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me;

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

Emily Dickinson is famous for her frequent use of ballad meter: From the daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847. ...

Great streets of silence led away

To neighborhoods of pause;

Here was no notice — no dissent —

No universe — no laws.

A number of different Hymn meters are also in use. For other uses, see Hymn (disambiguation). ...

French

In French poetry, meter is determined solely by the number of syllables in a line. A silent 'e' counts as a syllable before a consonant, but is elided before a vowel (where "h aspiré" counts as a consonant). At the end of a line, the "e" remains unelided but is hypermetrical (outside the count of syllables, like a feminine ending in English verse). The most frequently encountered meter in French is the alexandrine, composed of two hemistiches of six syllables each. Classical French poetry also had a complex set of rules for rhymes that goes beyond how words merely sound. These are usually taken into account when describing the meter of a poem. French poetry is a category of French literature. ... An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ... A hemistich is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ...

Spanish

In Spanish poetry the meter is the determined by the number of syllables the verse has. Still it is the phonetic accent in the last word of the verse decides the final count of the line. If the accent of the final word is at the last syllable, then the poetic rule states that one syllable shall be added to the actual count of syllables in said line, thus having a higher number of poetic syllables than the number of grammatical syllables. If the accent lies on the second to last syllable of the last word in the verse, then the final count of poetic syllables will be the same as the grammatical number of syllables. Furthermore if the accent lies on the third to last syllable, then one syllables is subtracted from the actual count, having then less poetic syllables than grammatical syllables. Interestingly Spanish poetry uses poetic licenses, unique to romantic languages, to change the number of syllables by manipulating mainly the vowels in the line. For example: Spanish poetry is the poetic tradition of Spain. ...

Cuando salí de Collores,
fue en una jaquita baya,
por un sendero entre mayas,
arropás de cundiamores...

This stanza from Valle de Collores by Luis Llorens Torres, uses eight poetic syllables. Given that all words at the end of each line have their phonetic accent on the second to last syllables, no syllables in the final count is either added or subtracted. Still in the second and third verse the grammatical count of syllables is nine. Poetic licenses permit the union of two vowels that are next to each other but in different syllables and count them as one. "Fue en..." has actually two syllables, but applying this license both vowels unite and form only one, giving the final count of eight syllables. "Sendero entre..." has five grammatical syllables, but uniting the "o" from "sendero" and the first "e" from "entre", gives only four syllables, permitting it to have eight syllables in the verse as well. This license is called a synalepha (Spanish: sinalefa). There are many types of licenses, used either to add or subtract syllables, that may be applied when needed after taking in consideration the poetic rules of the last word. Yet all have in common that they only manipulate vowels that are close to each other and not interrupted by consonants. Luis Llorens Torres (May 14, 1876 - June 16, 1944) born in Juana Diaz, Puwerto Rico, was a poet, journalist, playwright, and politician. ... A synalepha is the elision of two syllables into one. ...

Some common meters in Spanish verse are:

• Septenary: A line with the seven poetic syllables
• Octosyllable: A line with eight poetic syllables. This meter is commonly used in romances, narrative poems similar to English ballads, and in most proverbs.
• Hendecasyllable: A line witth eleven poetic syllables. This meter plays a similar role to pentameter in English verse. It is commonly used in sonnets, among other things.
• Alexandrine: A line consisting of thirteen or more poetic syllables.

The Kalevala meter is the meter of the epic Finnish poem, Kalevala. ... Hendecasyllable verse (in Italian endecasillabo) is a kind of verse used mostly in Italian poetry, defined by its having the last stress on the tenth syllable. ... An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter. ...

Italian

In Italian poetry, meter is determined solely by the position of the last accent in a line. Syllables are enumerated with respect to a verse which ends with a paroxytone, so that a Septenary (literally, 'having seven syllables') is defined as a verse whose last accent falls on the sixth syllable: it may so contain eight syllables (Ei fu. Siccome immobile) or just six (la terra al nunzio sta). Moreover, when a word ends with a vowel and the next one starts with a vowel, they are considered to be in the same syllable: so Gli anni e i giorni consists of only four syllables ("Gli an" "ni e i" "gior" "ni"). Because of the mostly trochaic nature of the Italian language, verses with an even number of syllables are far easier to compose, and the Novenary is usually regarded as the most difficult verse. A trochee or choree, choreus, is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ...

Some common meters in Italian verse are:

• Septenary: A line whose last stressed syllable is the sixth one.
• Octosyllable: A line whose last accent falls on the seventh syllable. More often than not, the secondary accents fall on the first, third and fifth syllable, especially in nursery rhymes for which this meter is particularly well-suited.
• Hendecasyllable: A line whose last accent falls on the tenth syllable. It therefore usually consists of eleven syllables; there are various kinds of possible accentations. It is used in sonnets, in ottava rima, and in many other works. The Divine Comedy, in particular, is composed entirely of hendecasyllables.

The Kalevala meter is the meter of the epic Finnish poem, Kalevala. ... Hendecasyllable verse (in Italian endecasillabo) is a kind of verse used mostly in Italian poetry, defined by its having the last stress on the tenth syllable. ... For other uses see The Divine Comedy (disambiguation), Dantes Inferno (disambiguation), and The Inferno (disambiguation) Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino...

Arabic - Turkish

In the Arabic, the structures of the poetic foot (تفعل tef'ile) and of poetic meter (وزن vezin) were indirectly borrowed from the Arabic poetic tradition through the medium of the Persian language. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Arabic poetry is poetry composed and written down in the Arabic language either by Arab people or non-Arabs. ... Farsi redirects here. ...

Ottoman poetry, also known as Dîvân poetry, was generally written in quantitative, mora-timed meter. The moras, or syllables, are divided into three basic types: To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A scale for measuring mass A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured. ... In every language, speech emission is based on a sequence of elementary sound units; some of them play a specific part: through their isochronic recurrence, they produce the rhythm of the sentences. ... Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages. ...

• Open, or light, syllables (açık hece) consist of either a short vowel alone, or a consonant followed by a short vowel
  • Examples: a-dam ("man"); zir-ve ("summit, peak")
• Closed, or heavy, syllables (kapalı hece) consist of either a long vowel alone, a consonant followed by a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by a consonant
  • Examples: Â-dem ("Adam"); kâ-fir ("non-Muslim"); at ("horse")
• Lengthened, or superheavy, syllables (meddli hece) count as one closed plus one open syllable and consist of a vowel followed by a consonant cluster, or a long vowel followed by a consonant
  • Examples: kürk ("fur"); âb ("water")

In writing out a poem's poetic meter, open syllables are symbolized by "." and closed syllables are symbolized by "–". From the different syllable types, a total of sixteen different types of poetic foot—the majority of which are either three or four syllables in length—are constructed, which are named and scanned as follows: In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... Michelangelos Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel. ... In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. ...

These individual poetic feet are then combined in a number of different ways, most often with four feet per line, so as to give the poetic meter for a line of verse. Some of the most commonly used meters are the following:

• me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün / me fâ’ î lün
  . – – – / . – – – / . – – – / . – – –

—Bâkî (1526–1600)

• me fâ i lün / fe i lâ tün / me fâ i lün / fe i lün
  . – . – / . . – – / . – . – / . . –

Bâkî (1526–1600) Bâkî (باقى) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of the poet Mahmud Abdülbâkî (محمود عبد الباقى) . Considered one of the greatest contributors to Turkish literature, Bâkî came to be known as Sultânüş-şuarâ (سلطانوششعرا), or Sultan of poets. Life Bâkî was born to a...

—Şeyh Gâlib (1757–1799)

• fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lâ tün / fâ i lün
  – . – – / – . – – / – . – – / – . –

—Nedîm (1681?–1730)

• fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lâ tün / fe i lün
  . . – – / . . – – / . . – – / . . –

Nedîm (ﻥﺪیﻢ) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of one of the most celebrated Ottoman poets. ...

—Fuzûlî (1483?–1556)

• mef’ û lü / me fâ î lü / me fâ î lü / fâ û lün
  – – . / . – – . / . – – . / – – .

Fuzûlî (1483?–1556) Fuzûlî (فضولی) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: mahlas; ﻡﺨﻠﺺ) of the poet Muhammad ibn Suleyman (محمد بن سليمان) (c. ...

—Neşâtî (?–1674)

Neşâtî (نشاطى) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of an Ottoman poet. ...

Sanskrit

Main article: Vedic meter

Classical Sanskrit and Vedic Sanskrit use meters for most ancient treatises that are set to verse. Prominent Vedic meters include Gayatri, Ushnik, Anushtupa, Brhati, Pankti, Tristubh and Jagati. The basic meter for epic verse is the Sloka. Sanskrit meter is quantitative, following the same general principles as classical Greek and Latin meter. The verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. ...

The Bhagavad Gita is mainly written in anustupa (with some vasanta-tilaka sections) interspersed with some tristupa. For example, when Krishna reveals his divinity to Arjuna the meter changes to tristupa. Tristupa is the most prevalent meter of the ancient Rigveda, accounting for roughly 40% of its verses. Bhagavad Gīta भगवद्गीता, composed ca the fifth - second centuries BC, is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, located in the Bhisma-Parva chapters 23–40. ... This article is about the Hindu deity. ... For other uses, please see Arjun. ... Rig veda is the oldest text in the world. ...

History

Further information: History of poetry

Although no doubt dating far into prehistoric times, metrical texts are first attested in early Indo-European languages. The earliest known unambiguously metrical texts, and at the same time the only metrical texts with a claim of dating to the Late Bronze Age, are the hymns of the Rigveda. That the texts of the Ancient Near East (Sumerian, Egyptian or Semitic) should not exhibit meter is surprising, and may be partly due to the nature of Bronze Age writing. There were, in fact, attemtps to reconstruct metrical qualities of the poetic portions of the Hebrew Bible, e.g. by Gustav Bickell^[9] or Julius Ley^[10], but they remained inconclusive^[11] (see Biblical poetry). The history of poetry as an art form predates literacy. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consisted of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. ... Rig veda is the oldest text in the world. ... Overview map of the ancient Near East The terms ancient Near East or ancient Orient encompass the early civilizations predating classical antiquity in the region roughly corresponding to that described by the modern term Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria), during the time roughly spanning... Writing systems evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of neolithic proto-writing. ... This article is about the term Hebrew Bible. For the Jewish scriptures see Tanakh. ... Gustav Bickell ((7 July 1838–15 January 1906) was a German orientalist. ... This article is concerned with Biblical poetry, specifically poetry in the Hebrew Bible. ...

Early Iron Age metrical poetry is found in the Iranian Avesta and in the Greek works attributed to Homer and Hesiod. See Avesta Municipality for the Swedish town Yasna 28. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived...

Latin verse survives from the Old Latin period (ca. 2nd c. BC), in the Saturnian meter. Persian poetry arises in the Sassanid era. Tamil poetry of the early centuries AD may be the earliest known non-Indo-European metrical texts (with the possible exception of the Chinese Shi Jing). The oldest surviving fragment of Germanic poetry is the verse on one of the Gallehus horns (ca. AD 400). Irish and Arabic poetry both have early records dating from about the 6th century. Latin poetry was a major part of Latin literature during the height of the Latin language. ... For the Old Latin Bible used before the Vulgate, see Vetus Latina. ... The tomb of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, erected around 150 BC, contains an Old Latin inscription in Saturnian metre. ... Persian literature is literature written in Persian, or by Persians in other languages. ... Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ... Shī Jīng (Chinese: 詩經), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ... Copies of the Golden Horns exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark. ... Arabic poetry is poetry composed and written down in the Arabic language either by Arab people or non-Arabs. ... The 6th century is the period from 501 - 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

Medieval poetry was metrical without exception, spanning traditions as diverse as European Minnesang, Trouvère or Bardic poetry, Classical Persian and Sanskrit poetry, Tang dynasty Chinese poetry or the Japanese Heian period Man'yōshū. Renaissance and Early Modern poetry in Europe is characterized by a return to templates of Classical Antiquity, a tradition begun by Petrarca's generation and continued into the time of Shakespeare and Milton. Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious, helping to preserve it. ... Walther von der Vogelweide (Codex Manesse, ca. ... Trouvère is the Northern French (langue doïl) version of troubador (langue doc), and refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadors but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France. ... Bardic Poetry refers to the writings of poets trained in the Bardic Schools of Ireland and the Gaelic parts of Scotland, as they existed down to about the middle of the 17th century, or, in Scotland, the early 18th century. ... Persian literature is literature written in Persian, or by Persians in other languages. ... Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to the Early Middle Ages (roughly the 3rd to 7th centuries AD). ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ... Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong Hand-painted Chinese New Years duilian (對聯 couplet), a by-product of Chinese poetry, pasted on the sides of doors leading to peoples homes, at Lijiang City, Yunnan Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in ancient China. ... The following text needs to be harmonized with text in the article History of Japan#Heian Period. ... ManyōshÅ« , Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) is the oldest existing, and most highly revered, collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime in the Nara or early Heian periods. ... From the c. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ...

Dissent

Not all poets accept the idea that meter is a fundamental part of poetry. Twentieth Century American poets Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and Robinson Jeffers, were poets who believed that meter was imposed into poetry by man, not a fundamental part of its nature. In an essay titled "Robinson Jeffers, & The Metric Fallacy"^[1], poet/critic Dan Schneider echoes Jeffers' sentiments: "What if someone actually said to you that all music was composed of just 2 notes? Or if someone claimed that there were just 2 colors in creation? Now, ponder if such a thing were true. Imagine the clunkiness & mechanicality of such music. Think of the visual arts devoid of not just color, but sepia tones, & even shades of gray." Jeffers called his technique "rolling stresses". (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Marianne Moore photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Marianne Moore (December 11, 1887 - February 5, 1972) was a Modernist American poet and writer. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. ... John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. ... Dan Schneider (born 1965) is a United States poet, critic, essayist, and fiction writer best known for his criticism and literary website Cosmoetica. ...

Moore went even further than Jeffers, openly declaring her poetry was written in syllabic form, and wholly denying meter. These syllabic lines from her famous poem "Poetry" illustrate her contempt for meter, and other poetic tools (even the syllabic pattern of this poem does not remain perfectly consistent):

nor is it valid

to discriminate against "business documents and

school-books": all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction

however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry

Williams tried to form poetry whose subject matter was centered on the lives of common people. He came up with the concept of the variable foot. Williams spurned traditional meter in most of his poems, preferring what he called "colloquial idioms." Another poet that turned his back on traditional concepts of meter was Britain's Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins' major innovation was what he called sprung rhythm. He claimed most poetry was written in this older rhythmic structure inherited from the Norman side of the English literary heritage, based on repeating groups of two or three syllables, with the stressed syllable falling in the same place on each repetition. Sprung rhythm is structured around feet with a variable number of syllables, generally between one and four syllables per foot, with the stress always falling on the first syllable in a foot. The Best ideal is the true/ And other truth is none. ... Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. ...

Notes

David Baker may refer to: David J. Baker (1792–1869), US Senator from Illinois David Baker (composer) (born 1931), American symphonic jazz composer David Baker (biochemist), American biochemist David H. Baker (food chemist), American food chemist C. David Baker, American commissioner of the Arena Football League J David Baker (born... Paul Fussell (born 1924, Pasadena, California) is a cultural historian and a professor emeritus of English literature of the University of Pennsylvania. ... Poetic Meter and Poetic Form is a book by Paul Fussell, published by McGraw Hill in 1965, and later as a revised edition in 1979 (ISBN 0075536064). ... The ballad meter, commonly found in ballads, has stanzas of four iambic lines. ... For other uses, see Amazing Grace (disambiguation). ... For the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) video game, see The Adventures of Gilligans Island. ... The House of the Rising Sun is a United States folk song. ... The Mickey Mouse Club was a long-running American variety television series that began in the 1950s, produced and televised by Walt Disney Productions and featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

See also

• Foot (prosody)
• Meter (music)

In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem. ... Particularly, this article is not about Hymn meters, as often found on hymn tunes Meter (UK spelling: metre) is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western music notation by a symbol called a time signature. ...