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Meter in Poetry, a la Shmoop. If we told you to watch for iambs<<eye-ams>>,

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trochees<<tro-keys>>, spondees<<spahn-dees>>, anapests<<an-uh-pests>> and dactyls<<dack-tils>>...

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...you might cover your head with your hands and run screaming for the nearest shelter...

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...hoping against hope that none of them are hungry.

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But, in fact, these "fantastic five" are nothing more than types of poetic "feet." And those

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feet? They help add rhythm and meter to a line of poetry.

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Oh yeah... it's not just jazz musicians who need to lay down a funky beat.

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Poetry is big on beauty, and ideas, and feelings, sure... but in many cases, it also relies

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on meter to evoke a certain response from the reader.

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During poetry's humble beginnings...

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...meter was introduced not so much to make poems sing-songy...

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...but to simply help remember the dang things. Which way is easier to remember what you need

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to get at the grocery store?

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A list like this?

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Or a poem like this:

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The milk is gone And yogurt, too

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I need some Dawn And a new shampoo

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We're low on rye The eggs are out

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Could use some pie And sauerkraut.

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Catchy, no?

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And it's not just because the poem rhymes.

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It's because there is a natural flow... a rhythm... to the words.

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Let's take a look at a version of our shopping poem that is lacking in rhythm.

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The milk is gone And somebody polished off the last of the

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yogurt, too I need to get some Dawn

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And shampoo We're running low on our rye

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The eggs were eaten this morning and so they're just about out

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Since we don't have any dessert on hand it would be nice to stock up on pie

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And we should also probably get sauerkraut.

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Still rhymes. But yikes. Probably not something you'd see come out of poet laureate.

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Meter is absent in free verse poetry, but there is still rhythm.

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Not every line needs to have a certain number of syllables...

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...and you can switch up where you stress certain words...

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...but even free verse makes you feel as if there is some kind of music infused into the

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language. Try playing around with meter yourself, and

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see what happens.

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If all else fails, at least you won't run out of sauerkraut.

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