Meter and Scansion

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

• beat

• metre

• poetry

• rhyme

A unified group of lines in poetry. This is often marked by spacing between sections of the poem. 

• verse
• alliteration
• stanza
• enjambment

anapest or anapestic ("un-der-stand")

• unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed

• unstressed unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed unstressed

trochee or trochaic ("high-way")

• unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed

• unstressed unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed unstressed

dactyl or dactyllic ("cer-tain-ly")

• unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed

• unstressed stressed stressed

• stressed unstressed unstressed

Iambic ("a-bove")

• unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed

• unstressed unstressed stressed

• stressed unstressed unstressed

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one ("GAR-den")

• anapest

• dactyl

• iamb

• trochee

A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one ("at-TEMPT")

• anapest

• dactyl

• iamb

• trochee

A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones ("PO-e-try")

• anapest

• dactyl

• iamb

• trochee

A metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one ("un-der-FOOT")

• anapest

• dactyl

• iamb

• trochee