What is Meter?
Introduction
"Scansion" and "Meter" are probably terms you've heard a lot. But what are they? And how do they work?
First, if you've ever spoken a word - congratulations! You've used meter!
In this tutorial, we're going to use scansion, which is the study of meter.
First, if you've ever spoken a word - congratulations! You've used meter!
In this tutorial, we're going to use scansion, which is the study of meter.
Vocabulary
- Scansion: The study of meter
- Meter: The interplay of rhythm and beat
- Beat: The strong pulse of a line or sentence, which creates a foot
- Rhythm: The interplay of accented syllables over the beat
- Foot: A single unit of one (1) beat and the rhythms over it
So what is meter?
Meter is the interplay of rhythm and beat. That means that when we study (scan) meter, we're asking three questions in this order:
All of these questions tell us:
- How many strong beats do we feel on a single line of verse? This tells us how many metric feet are on a line of verse. This is what we will study on this page.
- How many syllables are on each metric foot (beat)? This is called syllabic rhythm.
- Which syllables are stressed on each metric foot? And what pattern do they create? This is called accentual rhythm.
All of these questions tell us:
- How many beats are on a line of verse
- How many metric feet are on a line of verse
- How many syllables are on a line of verse
- What rhythmic pattern is on a line of verse
Let's look at an example, using music
If we scan (the verb of scansion) the line, we see that:
In this case, we're going to presume a single line of verse equals a single measure.
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Metric Feet
A metric foot will always have one (1) strong beat and a rhythm over it. Depending on how many metric feet (beats) are on a line of verse, we have different names. Here are a few common names:
- Monometer: When there's only one (1) foot. Example: "Yes."
- Dimeter: When there are two (2) feet. Example: "Go there."
- Trimeter: When there are three (3) feet. Example: "I love you."
- Tetrameter: When there are four (4) feet. Example: "Will you help me?"
- Pentameter: When there are five (5) feet. Example: "Take the keys with you."
- Hexameter: When there are six (6) feet. Example: "I'll take your coat now, please."
- Heptameter: When there are seven (7) feet. Example: "Take a left, then just go straight."
- Octameter: When there are eight (8) feet. Example: "I left the dog at home with Bill"...and so on
Putting it together
So, in our example of "Three blind mice" above, if we were to scan (study) the meter, we would see that:
- Because there are three (3) strong beats
- That means that the line has three (3) feet
- So we would call it trimeter
Next up!
We've named the type of metric feet according to beat...but what about rhythm?
