This is the second and final part to my discussion on meter. In Part 1 we discussed Syllables and how they extend into Feet. Those two components are, by far, the most important aspect to understanding poetic meter. However, mores comes out as we extend these feet into Lines and then further into Stanzas. As such, this blog will focus on those, rounding out our overview of meter.

Line Length

As learned in the previous article, there are many different types of syllable patterns, which we have called feet. As we extend these, we can also account for how long a line of poetry is, as measured by how many feet the line contains. We were previously using some of Tennyson's lines to help us examine meter. I will include these lines below along with the appropriate scansion marks:

    -        /     -     /     -     /   -      /
The splendor falls on castle walls,
   -       /     -     /     -     /    -     /  -
And snowy summits old in story:

We can now start counting. How many feet are in the Tennyson lines above? Recall that those lines were written with the iambic foot ( - / ), so count how many groups of unstressed-stressed syllables there are in each line. I've done that below by grouping the scansion marks with parenthesis.

 ( -        / ) ( -     / ) ( -     / ) ( -      / )
The splendor falls on castle walls,
 ( -       / ) ( -     / ) ( -     / ) ( -     / ) - 
And snowy summits old in story:

There are four feet in each line, so this would be classified as a tetrameter line (the final line ends in an extra unstressed syllable known as a tag, which is not counted). The names for different line lengths are perhaps a little easier to remember; they are simply the word -meter with the corresponding prefix attached. See the table below.

The most common of these is the pentameter (used in sonnets, blank/heroic verse, etc.), followed closely by tetrameter.

The poetic line is one of the core units of a poem, one of the main things that identifies something as a poem. Yet, does the length of the line make much difference to the poetry overall? Would it change anything if we indented the lines to be shorter? As before, the answer is a hearty Yes. The length of the line can have a strong impact on the overall music of the poem. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Since we will typically pause at the end of each line, the length of that line sets the limit for our breath. Shorter lines feel faster paced and longer lines feel more drawn out. Interestingly, tetrameter and pentameter are likely to be the most popular because they most naturally match our lung capacities.

2. The length of the line is also important since it sets the distance between each rhyme (for rhymed poetry). Shorter lines will have more rapid-fire rhyming, whereas longer lines may begin to stretch your “ears-memory” for actually hearing the rhyme.

3. The length of the line operates much the same as the time signature on a sheet of music. Any musician can tell you that a song written in 4/4 (four beats per measure: “common time”) will have a much different rhythm than something written in 3/4 (three beats per measure - used in waltzes). In the same way, line lengths set the cadence of the poetry; it orders the dance of the words.

4. Along these lines (pun intended), the evenness versus oddness of the line length has a significant impact on how the line reads. Units that are multiples of 2 (dimeter, tetrameter, octameter, etc.) have a certain niceness to them. They are neat and complete. However, units with odd lengths (such as trimeter) can sometimes feel unsettling or disjointed. Two is a happy marriage. Three is both too much and too little. Notice these subtle effects as you read poems of different line lengths.

Example of Line Lengths

Below are some popular examples for various lengths of line. As you read them, note the pace at which the different line lengths force you to read. Notice the points where you are forced to stop and the other points that flow smoothly.

Thus I
Pass by,
And die :
As one
Unknown
And gone :
I'm made
A shade,
And laid
I' th' grave :
There have
My cave,
Where tell
I dwell.
Farewell.

I love the jocund dance,
The softly breathing song,
Where innocent eyes do glance,
And where lisps the maiden's tongue.
  
I love the laughing vale,
I love the echoing hills,
Where mirth does never fail,
And the jolly swain laughs his fill.
  
I love the pleasant cot,
I love the innocent bow'r,
Where white and brown is our lot,
Or fruit in the midday hour.
  
I love the oaken seat,
Beneath the oaken tree,
Where all the old villagers meet,
And laugh our sports to see.
  
I love our neighbors all,
But Kitty, I better love thee;
And love them I ever shall;
But thou art all to me.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
  
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
            Only this and nothing more.”

Stanza Length

While the foot and the line length are the chief ways to characterize a poem, there is also designation regarding how many lines are within a stanza. The names for each type of stanza can be found below.

Of these stanzas, the quatrain is likely to be the most popular, used in ballads, hymns, and many other forms.

There is not much to note here besides a few points that are similar to those mentioned above. The evenness and oddness of stanza lengths plays a similar role as it does for line lengths. Couplets feel very complete while tercets feel excessive. Interestingly, the sestet has the paradoxical effect of feeling both complete and incomplete - a result of the fact that 6 = 2 x 3. I will list only a few examples below for you to consider.

Examples of Stanza Lengths

Brown lived at such a lofty farm
  That everyone for miles could see
His lantern when he did his chores
  In winter after half-past three.
  
And many must have seen him make
  His wild descent from there one night,
’Cross lots, ’cross walls, ’cross everything,
  Describing rings of lantern light.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

Bringing it all together

Now that you’ve learned the three basic components of Meter, you are now fully equipped to classify a poem’s form. As previously mentioned, one of the most popular poetic forms is iambic pentameter. You should now be able to understand what this means! “Iambic” means that the prevailing foot in the poem is an iamb ( - / ). “Pentameter” means that there are five (penta) feet per line.

Classifying a poem’s meter always involves this type of formula: <foot>ic <line>meter. With this in mind, try returning to some of the poems previously given and attempting to classify them! I’ve provided the correct classifications at the bottom of each poem for you to check your answers by.

What about the poems that don’t have a perfect meter?

So you’ve heard that almost all Classical English poetry is written with a set meter. You’ve now learned the rules for determining that meter. Yet, upon going back to some of these old poems, you’re confused to find that they don’t actually have perfect meter. The poem may be largely written in iambs, but some lines just don’t seem to scan that way. Note this line from the Shakespeare sonnet given above:

   -        /       -      /     -      -    -    /   -     /      -
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

The iambic pattern is broken up by a series of unstressed syllables in the middle. What’s going on?

We must be careful to not begin thinking that meter equals poetry. I’ve gone through this “cage-stage” formalism before, looking down on lines that don’t scan with a perfect meter. It is true that a poet that does not have a good grasp on meter may write broken lines that could be improved. But it is also true that the meter of a line may be skillfully broken for a number of reasons.

Breaking the meter may allow for a line to flow in a more natural, speech oriented direction. Breaking the meter can force the reader to pause on specific words that are significant. Breaking the meter can actually produce very surprising moments, introducing something unexpected in the middle of the music. Just as a jazz musician (or classical for that matter) may "break the rules" to add to the musical progression, poets will do the same. In fact, the better the poet, the better understanding they will have over meter and how to use it for their purposes.

Conclusion

Learning these rules had a huge impact on my understanding and appreciation of poetry. It helped me to grasp more of what each poet was doing in their work. It gave me words to describe the musical effects that I was subconsciously hearing. It freed me to generate my own opinions on what poetry I liked. I hope that these articles have done the same for you.