A foot is the combination of a strong stress and the associated weak stress(es) that make up the recurrent metric unit of the line. Meter refers to the underlying pattern of stress and/or duration in a text, while rhythm refers to the actual disposition of stress and/or duration.

Feet of Two Syllables

Iamb (or Iambus)          [^x´]

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.

Trochee          [´^x]

Tyger, tyger burning bright

Spondee          [´´]

Good strong thick stupefying incense smoke

Pyrrhus (or Pyrrhic Foot)          [^xx]

My way is to begin with the beginning.

Feet of Three Syllables

Anapest          [^xx´]

As I walked to the store my umbrella unfurled.

Dactyl          [´^xx]

Eve, with her basket, was
Deep in the bells and grass.

Amphibrach          [^x´^x]

Amphimacher          [´^x´]

Bacchius          [^x´´]

Antibacchius          [´´^x]

Feet of Four Syllables

(First) Paeon          [´^xxx]

Choriamb (or Choriambus)          [´^xx´]

Although there are names for any number of feet, the most common are tetrameter (four-stress), pentameter (five-stress), and hexameter (six-stress). An iambic hexameter line is commonly referred to as an Alexandrine. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry; unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. (Shakespeare's plays employ a great deal of blank verse.) Free verse is unrhymed, and has no metre and a variable rhythm.

Often several weak stresses can be crowded into a single foot.

How to scan a line:

1. One-syllable nouns, verbs and adjectives usually receive a strong stress, although common words like "here" and "still" may vary, depending on the context.

2. One-syllable prepositions (in, at, on, etc.), articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (and, or, so) and the "to" in infinitives are normally not stressed.

3. "Not" is usually not stressed, nor are words that can be contracted, like "not." Auxiliary verbs (am, will, have) are not usually stressed, nor are modals (should, could, may).

4. Pronouns are usually not stressed.

5. Meaning affects the stress. generally, new information is stressed, and thus can force stress onto words that normally do not have it. Consider the stress in this sentence: "The book is in the desk, not on it."

6. Multisyllabic words are usually stressed as in speech. Check your dictionary for help.

7. The established rhythm of a poem may force words into a stressed position, even though they are not normally stressed and do not convey new information. This effect occurs in bad poems by accident and in comic poems on purpose.

assonance: repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds

consonance: repetition of similar or identical consonant sounds

alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words or stressed syllables. (This is really a form of rhyme, using initial rather than final sounds.)

rhyme: Traditional rhyme occurs at the end of a line, and may consists of either of one-syllable words (as in "late/fate) or of two-syllable words (hollow/follow). With masculine rhyme the line ends with a stressed syllable, while with feminine rhyme the line ends with an unstressed syllable. Internal rhyme occurs within a line. Terms like half-rhyme, slant rhyme, near rhyme all refer to imperfect rhymes like "hair/near."

End-stopped lines end with the natural closure of the sentence, phrase or clause. Those that do not are called run-on lines, and exhibit what is known as enjambement.

A strong pause within a line is called a caesura, and is marked // .

Try scanning the following short poems: how do the poets achieve certain effects of sound and rhythm in a very short space?

 

I am his Majesty's dog at Kew. Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?                     (Alexander Pope)

Cuckoos live Bohemian lives: They fail as husbands and as wives, Therefore they cynically disparage Everybody else's marriage.                     (Ogden Nash)