Meter is the recurrence, in regular units, of a prominent feature in the sequence of speech-sounds of a language.
The four standard feet distinguished in English are:
(1) Iambic
(the noun is "iamb"): an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
(2) Anapestic
(the noun is "anapest"): two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.
(3) Trochaic
(the noun is "trochee"): a stressed followed by an unstressed
syllable.
Most trochaic lines lack the final unstressed syllable—in the technical term, such lines are catalectic.
(4) Dactylic
(the noun is "dactyl"): a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
A metric line is named according to the number of feet composing it:
monometer: one foot
dimeter: two feet
trimeter: three feet
tetrameter: four feet
pentameter: five feet
hexameter: six feet (an Alexandrine is a line of six iambic feet)
heptameter: seven feet (a fourteener is another term for a line of seven
iambic feet—hence, of fourteen syllables; it tends to break
into a unit of four feet followed by a unit of three feet
octometer: eight feet
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