Poetry Meters

​There are four feet that utilize iambs in the first verse, but then the meter breaks at the last syllable. The last syllable in the first line is simply unstressed. This is allowed and is a technique used in poetry to create a certain effect!

Multiple Choice

What is the metric pattern of these verses, if the rhythm is trochaic?

Tell me / not in / mournful / numbers

By the / shores of / Gitche / Gumee,

By the / shining / Big-Sea- / Water

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha"

• Iambic Pentatmeter

• Trochaic tetrameter

• Dactylic monometer

• Spondaic dimeter

Multiple Choice

What is the metric pattern of these verses, if the rhythm utilizes tetrameter, and the first syllable is stressed, followed by an unstressed syllable?

The Grizz / ly Bear / is huge / and wild;

He has / devoured / an in / fant child.

The in / fant child / is not / aware

It has / been eat / en by / the bear.

- A. E. Housman's "Infant Innocence"

• Iambic Pentatmeter

• Spondaic dimeter

• Dactylic monometer

• Trochaic tetrameter

Multiple Choice

What is the metric pattern of these verses, if the rhythm is dactylic?

Cannon to/ right of them

Cannon to / left of them

Cannon in / front of them

Volley'd and/ thunder'd

- Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade "

• Iambic Pentatmeter

• Spondaic dimeter

• Dactylic dimeter

• Trochaic tetrameter

Multiple Choice

What is the metric pattern of these verses, if the rhythm is anapestic?

His eyes are /as green as/a fresh pick/led toad.

- Harry's Valentine from Harry Potter

• Anapestic trimeter

• Spondaic dimeter

• Dactylic dimeter

• Trochaic tetrameter

Open Ended

Provide a sentence that shows alliteration.

Open Ended

Provide a sentence that shows consonance.

Open Ended

Provide a sentence that shows assonance.

Open Ended

Provide a sentence that shows rhyming.

Open Ended

Provide an example of onomatopoeia.

Open Ended

If a poetry verse is pleasant to listen to, how do we describe it?

Open Ended

If a poetry verse is not pleasant to listen to, how do we describe it?