Meter: The number and type of feet within a line of verse.
Foot: The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. In scansion, a foot represents one instance of a metrical pattern (an iamb, a trochee, etc.)
Scan (scansion): the process of marking beats in a poem to establish the prevailing metrical pattern.
monometer = 1 foot per line
dimeter = 2 feet per line
trimeter = 3 feet per line
tetrameter = 4 feet per line
pentameter = 5 feet per line
hexameter = 6 feet per line
heptameter or septenary = 7 feet per line
octameter = 8 feet per line
ᑌ / Iamb (iambic): unstressed | stressed
/ ᑌ Trochee (trochaic): stressed | unstressed
ᑌ ᑌ / Anapest (anapestic): unstressed | unstressed | stressed. Also called "galloping meter."
/ ᑌ ᑌ Dactyl (dactylic): stressed | unstressed | unstressed
/ / Spondee: A two-syllable foot with two stressed accents, used for effect.
ᑌ ᑌ Pyrrhic foot: A two-syllable foot with two unstressed accents, used for effect. Also called an “empty foot.”
Extrametrical syllable: A syllable that exceeds the usual number of syllables in a given meter (not counted in metrical analysis)
Truncated foot: A foot that is missing a syllable
Iambic pentameter: A line of poetry with five iambs. The most natural and common kind of meter in English. Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter.
ᑌ / | ᑌ / | ᑌ / | ᑌ / | ᑌ /
Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare’s plays are written in blank verse.
Heroic couplet: two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter; the second line is usually end-stopped. Heroic couplets end the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet.