Poetry Guides
This page is a series of tips and explainers about poetry. It's more for my benefit so I don't visit the same Wikipedia articles again and again whenever I need to remember what a qualitative iambic pentameter is.
Meter
- is an unstressed or short syllable while / is a stressed or long syllable.
| Disyllables | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | pyrrhus, dibrach | ||
| - | / | iamb (or iambus or jambus) | ||
| / | - | trochee, choree (or choreus) | ||
| / | / | spondee | ||
| Trisyllables | ||||
| - | - | - | tribrach | |
| / | - | - | dactyl | |
| - | / | - | amphibrach | |
| - | - | / | anapaest, antidactylus | |
| - | / | / | bacchius | |
| / | - | / | cretic, amphimacer | |
| / | / | - | antibacchius | |
| / | / | – | molossus | |
| Tetrasyllables | ||||
| - | - | - | - | tetrabrach, proceleusmatic |
| / | - | - | - | primus paeon |
| - | / | - | - | secundus paeon |
| - | - | / | - | tertius paeon |
| - | - | - | / | quartus paeon |
| / | / | - | - | major ionic, double trochee |
| - | - | / | / | minor ionic, double iamb |
| / | - | / | - | ditrochee |
| - | / | - | / | diiamb |
| / | - | - | / | choriamb |
| - | / | / | - | antispast |
| - | / | / | / | first epitrite |
| / | - | / | / | second epitrite |
| / | / | - | / | third epitrite |
| / | / | / | - | fourth epitrite |
| / | / | / | / | dispondee |