A Reading Meter in Poetry

Poetry is associated with music. As it has musicality, the rhythm matters a lot in the poetry. For the study of the rhythm of the poetry, there is metrical study in the poem. In common word, it is called as meter. Rhythm structured in regular unity is called meter. There are four types of meter in English poetry. They are Accentual, Accentual syllabic, the syllabic and quantitative.

1.  Accentual Meter: A metrical system that is based only on stressed syllabus in the line of the poetry. The toal number of syllabus varies in the line of the poetry. It is generally used in German poetry and old English Poetry.

2.  Accentual syllabic Meter: A meter system in the verse, which is determined by the number of stress and unstressed syllabus.  The feet is very important component in accentual syllabic meter. It is an English version of classical metrical composition. It was quite popular in 14^th century. There are four types of accentual syllabic meter. They are:

a.   Iambic meter: An iamb is a literary device that can be defined as a foot containing unaccented and short syllables, followed by a long and accented syllable in a single line of a poem (unstressed/stressed syllables). It is most commonly used in blank verse and heroic couplet. The renaissance poets has used iambic meter as it produces the usual rhythm of natural speech. It is quite soft.

b.  Trochaic meter: The trochee, though, begins with a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed, or weak, syllable. This makes it the mirror image of the iamb, which follows the pattern weak-stressed. Think of the word 'trouble. It  sounds forceful and more appealing or dominating.

c.   Anapestic meter: Anapest is a poetic device defined as a metrical foot in a line of a poem that contains three syllables wherein the first two syllables are short and unstressed, followed by a third syllable that is long and stressed. since anapest ends in a stressed syllable, it makes strong rhyming lines that create music in a poem. It plays a very important role in poetry, and the most common role in verse is that of a comic meter, which is, the foot used in the limerick for comical effects.

d.  Dactylic meter: Dactyl is a metrical foot, or a beat in a line, containing three syllables in which the first one is accented, followed by second and third unaccented syllablest gives the lines a jerky movement. The major purpose of dactylic rhythm is to create lilting movement and a break. 

These four metrical patterns are commonly used in English poetry. However, there are two other pattern in accentual syllabic meter. They are:

i.  Spondaic meter: A spondee is a unit of meter comprised of two stressed syllables. The spondee is an irregular metrical foot, unlike the trochee or iamb, and is not used to compose full lines of poetry

ii.  Pyrrhic meter: A metrical unit consisting of two unstressed syllables, in accentual-syllabic verse, or two short syllables,

3.  Syllabic Meter: The pattern of meter that is determined by the total number of syllables per line rather than the number of the stresses is called syllabic meter. It mainly advocates for same number of syllable in the line.

4.  Quantitative Meter: The dominant metrical system in Classical Greek and Italian poetry, in which the rhythm depends not on the number of stresses, but on the length of time it takes to utter a line.