AUTHOR'S STYLE AUTHOR'S CHOICES: POETIC STRUCTURE
Meter in a poem is the pattern in which the beats—stressed and unstressed
syllables—are arranged. A foot is the basic unit of meter, and each metrical foot
typically has one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables. For
example, a foot with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable is
called an iamb. Today and protect are iambs. A foot that begins with a stressed
syllable followed by an unstressed one is called a trochee. Notebook and pencil
are trochees. The meter of a poem is named by how many feet there are in a line
plus how the beats are arranged in each foot. For example, a line with five iambic
feet is called iambic pentameter (pent means “five").
Enjambment is continuing a sentence, clause, or phrase from one line to the next
without end-of-line punctuation, so the complete thought continues from one line
to the next. Poets use enjambment to maintain the meter or to show relationships
between ideas. To identify enjambment, watch for a lack of punctuation at the end
of a line.
DIRECTIONS: Read the first and last stanzas from a poem about writing a poem.
Then answer the questions.
I have to write a sonnet for math class,
With fourteen lines and seven rhyming pairs.
Don't want to, but I must so I can pass.
What poet writes of circles, lines, and squares?
My sonnet's done, and now I understand
How math and poems Ian go hand-in-hand.
1. What is the meter of this poem? How do you know?
2. Which words in these stanzas end with a stressed syllable preceded by an
unstressed one?
3. Where is the enjambment in these stanzas? How do you know?