METER RULES

While in prose the accent of syllables is allowed to fall at random in accordance with the speaker's emphasis, in rhyming poetry every second or third syllable is usually accented.

A gouping of syllables, including the accented syllable, is called "meter", with each unit of meter being called a foot - or metric foot.

There are four kinds of meter.

- Iambic		2 syllables with accent on second
- Trochaic		2 syllables with accent on first
- Anapestic	3 syllables with accent on third
- Dactyllic		3 syllables with accent on first

The length of any line is measured by the metric foot count, or number of accents per line.  These are titled:

	     # of metric feet

- Monometer	one
- Dimeter		two
- Trimeter		three
- Tetrameter	four
- Pentameter	five
- Hexameter	six
- Heptameter	seven
- Octometer	eight

The most common line form in dramatic poems is the Iambic Pentameter.

The length of lines in a poem generally follow a pattern, either all being the same or varying in lengths in a regular fashion in each succeeding verse, ie/  4,5,4,5  /  4,5,4,5  /  4,5,4,5.


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