Types of Metrical Feet From most common to least common, the types of metrical feet are listed below. When these feet are combined into lines of poetry, they create more complex patterns. For example, if a line of poetry has five iambs then it’s known as iambicpentameter. Or, if four...
The English language has many words that can convey any emotion or feeling. Writing a good poem demands a good arrangement of words. There is a great range of methods and plans for arranging these words. These methods, or plans, are known as poeticdevices.These devices help in creating stro...
HeptameterHeptameter is a type of meter in which each line in a poem uses seven metrical feet for a total of fourteen syllables. HexameterHexameter refers to a meter commonly used in Greek and Latin epic poetry. It contains six feet and usually utilizes a combination of dactyls and spondees...
After the odes of the Greek lyric poet, Sappho, a poem with lines of eleven syllables in five feet, of which the first, fourth and fifth feet are trochees, the second a spondee, and the third a dactyl. The Sapphic strophe consists of three Sapphic lines followed by an Adonic. Sidelig...
The pattern of iambic pentameter—five feet, each containing a stressed and unstressed syllable—goes like this: ShallI|compARE|theeTO| aSUM| mersDAY? As well as theiamb, other meters include theanapest(unstressed, unstressed, stressed), thetrochee(stressed, unstressed) and thedactyl(stressed, ...
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of a whole, synecdoche is a poetic device that looks at a physical part of that whole. To say “give me a hand”, for instance, means “give me assistance” (which may or may not involve an actual hand), or “all hands on deck” to mean “all bodies, hands and feet included.”...
2 metric feet in a line. dipodic verse Verse written in lines with 2 heavy stresses and any number of unstressed syllables. dispondee Metric Pattern. Two spondees combined into a single foot. dissonance A sound element. Unharmonious syllables,words or phrases deliberately used to create a...
In many Western classical poetic traditions, the metre of a verse can be described as a sequence of feet, each foot being a specific sequence of syllable types — such as relatively unstressed/stressed (the norm for English poetry) or long/short (as in most classical Latin and Greek poetry...
Learn how to write a sonnet, including the difference between a Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet. Get guidelines for writing this poetic form and an example sonnet here.