Meter In Poetry: Definition & Examples

Meter, also known as metre, refers to  the arrangement of language in measured rhythmic patterns of sound. The word is derived from the Greek word for “measure” — metron. To understand how meter works, think of it as being composed of a specific number of syllables in a single line of verse. These syllables can be organized into sets of two or three beats, which are also referred to as feet. 

Feet can be described as units of stressed and unstressed syllables, with stressed syllables typically being referred to as accented. In short, every line of verse has a specific number of feet. Meter refers to the number of feet used in a line of verse. Poets use various strategies when employing meters in a poem. They can either choose to be consistent and follow traditional metrical schemes, such as the iambic pentameter of the sonnet. 

They can also choose to vary the meter or not stick to any meter at all, which is typically the strategy used in free verse poetry. Iambic pentameter is one of the more common traditional metrical forms used in English poetry. It consists of five beats per line of one unstressed and one stressed syllable per line of verse, known as a rising meter. 

Here is an example from John Keats’ “Ode to Autumn” (published in 1819):

When I do count the clock that tells the time

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

Iambic pentameter may well be the most iconic in the history of English poetry. However, there are many other types of meters that we will take a brief look at in this article. 

Image of a metronome.

Types of meter in poetry

The type of meter is determined by the metrical unit, otherwise known as a foot. A foot can either be two or three syllables. The table below shows the different types of feet in poetry:

Name of Foot	Definition	Example
Iamb	A metrical foot consisting of two syllables: the first unstressed, the second stressed	today
Trochee	A foot with two syllables: the first stressed, the second unstressed	matter
Spondee	A foot with two equally stressed syllables	A.I.
Anapest	A foot with three syllables: the first two unstressed, the third stressed	un-a-ware
Dactyl	A foot with three syllables: the first stressed, the next two unstressed	Waverly

The meter is named according to the number of feet that can be found in a single line. The convention of Greek suffixes denoting numbers is used. For example, monometer refers to one foot (or one beat per line), dimeter to two feet (or two beats per line), pentameter to five feet (or five beats per line). The table below provides examples: 

Type of Meter	Definition	Example (One Line of Poetry)	Citation
Monometer	A line of poetry with one metrical foot	Thus I	Herbert, “The Altar” (1633)
Dimeter	A line with two metrical feet	The dust / of snow	Frost, “Dust of Snow” (1923)
Trimeter	A line with three metrical feet	We romped / until / the pans	Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz” (1948)
Tetrameter	A line with four metrical feet	I wan / dered lone / ly as / a cloud	Wordsworth, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807)
Pentameter	A line with five metrical feet	Shall I / compare / thee to / a sum / mer's day?	Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18” (1609)
Hexameter	A line with six metrical feet (also called Alexandrine)	This is / the for / est prim / eval. The / murmur / ing pines...	Longfellow, “Evangeline” (1847)
Heptameter	A line with seven metrical feet	And all / the air / a sol / emn still / ness holds / to-night.	Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751)
Octometer	A line with eight metrical feet	Once up / on a / mid-night / drear-y, / while I / pon-dered, / weak and / wear-y	Poe, “The Raven” (1845)

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Meter in free verse

Free verse,despite the name, doesn’t mean an abandonment of meter in modern poetry. Instead, with free verse, the focus is on treating the line or stanza as units of organization as opposed to simply relying on traditional meter. 

Ezra Pound famously wrote in describing his Imagist Movement that the point of free verse “As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.” A metronome is a device used by musicians that marks time at a selected rate by giving a regular tick.

By this, Ezra Pound meant abandoning the rigid tradition of metrical forms such as the sonnet or iambic pentameter in favor of a musical phrase, whose music closely followed the conversational patterns of human speech. 

Let’s take a look at one of Pound’s most famous poems: “In a Station at the Metro” (published in 1913): 

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:

Petals on a wet, black bough.

This poem lacks a clear dominating metrical structure. The first line begins with iambs, that is, stressed and then unstressed syllables: 

The app- | ari- | tion of | these fa- | ces in | the crowd

The second line is more dynamic in that it includes more stressed syllables. It appears to begin with a trochee (i.e., a stressed-unstressed foot). This is then followed by an anapest (i.e., a pattern of unstressed-unstressed-stressed), and a spondee (i.e., two equally accented syllables):

Petals | on a wet, | black bough.

The difference in metrical form between the two lines works because a dramatic contrast is being made between the industrial and urban setting of the train station and the natural setting of flowers on a bough. Pound, by resorting to literary devices such as consonance and alliteration in this line, as well as the extra stresses, is giving more power to the image associated with nature. 

Mixed use of meter in modern poetry

In modern poetry, some poets combine the use of free verse with metered verse to achieve various effects. A good example of this is W.H. Auden's poem "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" (published in 1939). The poem is an elegy in honor of W.B. Yeats. The poem s written in three parts. The first section is written in free verse, announcing the death of the poet:

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,

An afternoon of nurses and rumours;

The provinces of his body revolted,

The squares of his mind were empty,

Silence invaded the suburbs,

The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

"He became his admirers" is a subtle way of saying that Yeats has turned into one of the famous dead poets who inspired him. The first stanza, as it were, gives us the facts of the poet's death using beautiful poetic language. In the second stanza, he explores the nature of the relationship between politics and poetry. He thinks poets, despite their eloquence, have little effect on politics. As Auden says, "For poetry makes nothing happen."

This would be particularly true for Yeats, whose conservative politics were at odds with political developments in Ireland and went largely ignored:

You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:

The parish of rich women, physical decay,

Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,

For poetry makes nothing happen:

This part of the poem is written in regular meter, in particular, in hexameter or six beats per line that are unrhymed. This type of lengthy meter can be described as narrative in terms of the tone that it uses. It is explaining or telling a story. In the third part of the poem, the poet switches to a much shorter meter, namely a kind of trochaic tetrameter with rhyming couplets:

Earth, receive an honoured guest:

William Yeats is laid to rest.

Let the Irish vessel lie

Emptied of its poetry.

This part of the poem more closely resembles a song in terms of the rhyme and the effects of the short meter. There is method to how the poet moves through the three different metrical forms. The prosaic death of the poet (albeit in poetic language) is announced in Part I of the poem in free verse. Part 2 contemplates the meaning of the poet's death in terms of the disconnect between literature and politics. In Part 3, the poet celebrates the role of the poet in general and that of Yeats' in particular with lines like "With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse."

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, July 19). Meter In Poetry: Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/meter-in-poetry-definition-examples