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Poetic
Technique
Meter
by Ylena
Fygar
What makes a poem
memorable? Well, a good subject, clever rhymes, and evocative
word use certainly differentiate a good poem from a great one.
But one of the easiest ways to make your work stand apart from
everyone else's is to be aware of meter.
Meter is defined as the organization of speech rhythms (verbal
stresses) into regular patterns, in terms of both the arrangement
of stresses and their frequency of repetition per line of verse.
Good poetry is like music which is spoken. It has a beat to carry
it along. As with music, this beat can have syncopations
(stressing an off beat), rests (periods of quiet), and any other
type of variation.
You've probably found that the memorable poems, the ones that
stay in your thoughts for a long, long time, have a strong,
regular rhythm. Let's take a look at the different types of
meter.
There are three different types of duple (two-beat) meter:
iambic, trochaic, and spondaic.
They sound like this:
Iamb
da DUM
a MAN was WALKing IN the FORest BLACK
Trochee
DUM da
SING a SONG with HAPpy ENDings
Spondee
DUM DUM
GET LOST!
(Spondee is mostly used for special effects, as it's almost
impossible to create an entire poem of stressed syllables.)
There are also different triple meters: anapest, dactyl, and
amphibrach.
Anapest
da da DUM
so you WANT me, you NEED me, your LIFE is so DULL
Dactyl
DUM da da
LET your mind CRUMble, beCOME pure deLIGHT
Amphibrach
da DUM da
a MAN who is REAdy to BE a proVIder
Now, when used in poetry, these beat patterns become known as
feet. Meter is also determined by the number of feet in a line. A
line with five feet is called pentameter, so a line of five iambs
is known as "iambic pentameter."
The most common line lengths are:
trimeter: three feet
tetrameter: four feet
pentameter: five feet
hexameter: six feet (an "Alexandrine"
when iambic)
heptameter: seven feet (a "fourteener"
when iambic)
Let's take a look at the following verse and break it down.
Kobolds marching down the street.
Hear the tramp of kobold feet,
Stomping any foe they meet,
Marching, marching to the beat.
See the meter?
KObolds MARching DOWN the STREET
HEAR the TRAMP of KObold FEET...
It has a two-beat pattern, stress on the first syllable, so
that's trochaic, and it's got seven syllables per line - hmm.
When you speak it, don't you hear a silent syllable in there?
Kobolds MARching DOWN the STREET (rest)
HEAR the TRAMP of KObold FEET (rest)...
This little kobold ditty is a good example of trochaic
tetrameter.
I can hear you right now saying to yourself, "Ylena, um..
that's nice, and technical, and will make me sound very bright if
I tell my friends about it - but what does it mean to me?"
Well, for you performers who like to compete in festivals, most
judging is based in part on technical merit. Though no work is
ever perfectly metrical (because if it was, it would be really
boring), the closer you can stay to the meter you establish, the
higher your technical score is going to be. Of course, evocative
language and creative word choice also play a large part. The
performers who can choose language that creates mental pictures
as well as adheres to an established meter are the ones who
usually win.
For bards - your loresinging can be much more interesting for you
and your audiences if you take a bit of time to think about meter
for your songs.
FALchion, LEAther, ARmor - trochee. SCIM-i-tar - dactyl.
The creative possibilities are endless.