Meter

[neoeno]

Myself and poetic meter have never been formally introduced. For the benefit of myself and other members, would anyone care to explain what exactly it is, and how to use it? Either that, or offer other resources.

[evilfuzzymonster]

This explanation may be biased in favor of my musical background. It probably wouldn't get an A+ on a creative writing tests for an exact definition of meter, but it'll get the point across.

The meter of a poem is the rhythm in which the words flow. If they create a consistent rhythm, then the poem feels coherent and well put-together. In a metered poem, the lines are like measures, with the phrases being like notes -- they fit together in a certain pattern to create that whole.

For example, In a poem like a Shakespearean sonnet, a phrase is an unaccented syllable and then an accented one (da-DA, da-DA, da-DA), and that means they're iambic; pentameter means there are five phrases in a line ("Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer's DAY?/Thou ART more LOVEly AND more TEMperATE/Rough WINDS do SHAKE the DARling BUDS of MAY/and SUMmer's LEASE hath ALL too SHORT a DATE ...")

This poem (one of my all-time favorites) is really useful for learning about meter. Each line is written in the meter it describes.

Trochee trips from long to short
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow spondee stalks, strong foot, yet ill able
Ever to come up with dactyl trisyllable
Iambics march from short to long
With a leap and a bound the swift anapests throng.

Pronounciation Note:
Trochee - "TRO-shay"
Spondee - "SPAWN-day"

Just read that aloud a few times, paying attention to how the words are accented, and maybe exaggerating them a little, and you'll start really feeling the rhythm of the different sorts of meter.

For the record, the hard ones to tell apart are anapests/trisyllable, and iambics/trochee. The difference is whether the poem's lines start with an accented syllable (trochee, trisyllable) or the unaccented ones leading up to it (iambic, anapests).

~~~

Now, apply this to a poem like ... ummm ... "The Night Before Christmas."

"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Rewrite/say it as:

"Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas and ALL through the HOUSE
Not a CREAture was STIRring, not EVen a MOUSE."

See how that's similar to the line "With a LEAP and a BOUND the swift ANapests THRONG"? Two unaccented, one accented, da-da-DA da-da-DA da-da-DA ... Just like a 6/8 measure of 8th notes with a two-eighth-note pickup. But I digress.

Then, you divide the line into its phrases, broken up based on how the meter works, like this:

"Twas the NIGHT/before CHRIST/mas and ALL/through the HOUSE,
Not a CREA/ture was STIR/ring not EV/en a MOUSE."

Four phrases per line, so that makes it quadrameter ... and ta-da! Anapestic quadrameter!


~~~


See? It's easy.

[neoeno]

Mmm, I kind of understood that bit. But how does one determine what is an accented syllable and what isn't? Language mechanics and higher-end maths is something the education systems lacks over here it seems.

[evilfuzzymonster]

It's not technically language mechanics ... and trust me, if it had anything to do with math, I wouldn't understand it.

Ummm, I'm not ... sure ... what you mean. Asking which syllables are accented. I mean, can't you tell? :-/ I don't get it.

[guitarchicka]

So, I've never taken a creative writing class, and I know very little about poetic elements and such.. But how would one go about writing in a meter? Like, would you start by selecting a meter and filling in words to fit, or by writing and adjusting the words to fit a meter? I don't think I've ever written an officially metered poem before, I'd like to try.

[neoeno]

It's not technically language mechanics ... and trust me, if it had anything to do with math, I wouldn't understand it.

Ummm, I'm not ... sure ... what you mean. Asking which syllables are accented. I mean, can't you tell? :-/ I don't get it.

I can't tell. In candle, I don't know whether can or dle is accented.

[evilfuzzymonster]

CANdle. It's the one you emphasize more. Think about jokes like "I put the emPHASis on the wrong syllABle" and stuff, and you should start to feel it. I pronounce your username NEE-o-EE-no. My name is TANith, or EVilFUZzyMONster. If you speak French, that might explain the difficulty a little bit, because a lot of French words actually have both syllables equally accented (for example, people who argue about TAR-ot and tar-OT are irritating, because it's a French word, and they pronounce it with no emphasis on either). You know how, in Spanish or other Latin-based languages, there are sometimes accents over syllables, so you feel that they're more emphasized? That's what it's like, you just notice natural accents where they already are in words.

For writing in meter, I just generally write the first line of a poem however I feel like, and adjust it a little bit to make it consistent, do whatever feels good ... and write the rest of the poem to fit that. Some people find some meters easier than others -- I write in iambic pentameter a lot (because I'm a Shakespeare whore), and because I've done it so much, I can actually improvise poetry or even conversation in that meter. You get used to it.

[Kluny]

So, I've never taken a creative writing class, and I know very little about poetic elements and such.. But how would one go about writing in a meter? Like, would you start by selecting a meter and filling in words to fit, or by writing and adjusting the words to fit a meter? I don't think I've ever written an officially metered poem before, I'd like to try.

If you want to write a poem that's rhythmic or "in meter", try drumming a rhythm with your hands. Put words in that match the rhythm. Hmmm, that may not make sense. Take a song that you like and try to imitate the rhythm of words without thinking about what the words actually are. Use your own words. Evilfuzzymonster mentioned the night before christmas. Another good one is Auld Lang Syne. or try The Clash lyrics.

Once you've got some lyrics in the same kind of format, go ask evilfuzzymonster what meter you have used. Presto, trochaic hexameter. Or whatever.

[aslidsiksoraksi]

yeah, its really easy to feel meter (at least for me, though I do have some musical training). At least in iambic iambic penatmeterer, which is what most of it is. other than that, you can take an example of something in that meter, and sort of write something. You'll be able to tell just be comparing.