More Poetry To Improve Your Flow

In poetry, a “foot” is a word that has one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable.

Iambs, which we talked about in the last lesson, are one of the standard types of “feet”. It can help to understand different forms of feet and meter (the basic structure of the rhythm in a verse) that are used in poetry. These are all determined by the stressing pattern.

Trochee

A trochee is a foot that has one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable:

• DA-dum (PER-son)

Spondee

A spondee is a food that has two stressed syllables:

• DA–DUM (RED–CAT)

Anapest

An anapest is a foot that has two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable:

• da-da-DUM (like-a-WOLF)

Dactyl

A dactyl is a foot that has one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables:

• DA-da-DUM (BEAT-it-UP)

Pyrrhic

A pyrrhic is a foot that has two short syllables:

• da-dum (and-the) (ing-the)

Types Of Meters

Iambic and anapestic meters are called rising meters because their movement rises from unstressed syllable to stressed; trochaic and dactylic meters are called falling. In the twentieth century, the bouncing meters–anapestic and dactylic–have been used more often for comic verse than for serious poetry.

Spondee and pyrrhic are called feet, even though they contain only one kind of stressed syllable. They are never used as the sole meter of a poem; if they were, it would be like the steady impact of nails being hammered into a board–no pleasure to hear or dance to.