Editing Metre (poetry) (section)

==Characteristics==
An assortment of features can be identified when classifying poetry and its metre.

==={{anchor|Qualitative metre}}{{anchor|Quantitative metre}}Qualitative versus quantitative metre===
The metre of most poetry of the Western world and elsewhere is based on patterns of syllables of particular types. The familiar type of metre in English-language poetry is called '''qualitative metre''', with stressed syllables coming at regular intervals (e.g. in [[iambic pentameter]]s, usually every even-numbered syllable). Many [[Romance languages]] use a scheme that is somewhat similar but where the position of only one particular stressed syllable (e.g. the last) needs to be fixed. The [[Alliterative verse|alliterative metre]] of the old [[Germanic poetry]] of languages such as [[Old Norse]] and [[Old English]] was radically different, but was still based on stress patterns.

Some classical languages, in contrast, used a different scheme known as '''quantitative metre''', where patterns were based on [[syllable weight]] rather than stress. In the [[dactylic hexameter]]s of [[Classical Latin]] and [[Classical Greek]], for example, each of the six [[Foot (prosody)|feet]] making up the line was either a [[Dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] (long-short-short) or a [[spondee]] (long-long): a "long syllable" was literally one that took longer to pronounce than a short syllable: specifically, a syllable consisting of a long vowel or diphthong or followed by two consonants. The stress pattern of the words made no difference to the metre. A number of other ancient languages also used quantitative metre, such as [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Old Church Slavonic]] and [[Classical Arabic]] (but not [[Biblical Hebrew]]).

Finally, non-stressed languages that have little or no differentiation of syllable length, such as French or Chinese, base their verses on the number of syllables only. The most common form in French is the {{lang|fr|[[Alexandrin]]}}, with twelve syllables a verse, and in classical Chinese five characters, and thus five syllables. But since each Chinese character is pronounced using one syllable in a certain [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]], [[classical Chinese poetry]] also had more strictly defined rules, such as thematic parallelism or tonal antithesis between lines.

===Feet===
{{further|Metron (poetry)}}
In many [[Western World|Western]] classical poetic traditions, the metre of a verse can be described as a sequence of ''[[foot (prosody)|feet]]'',<ref name="twsDecG11">{{cite news|last=Cummings|first=Michael J.|title= metre in Poetry and Verse: A Study Guide|publisher= Cummings Study Guides|quote= metre is determined by the type of foot and the number of feet in a line. Thus, a line with three iambic feet is known as iambic trimeter. A line with six dactylic feet is known as dactylic hexameter.|year=2006|url=http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xmeter.html|access-date=2010-12-07}}</ref> each foot being a specific sequence of syllable types&nbsp;– such as relatively unstressed/stressed (the norm for [[English language|English]] poetry) or long/short (as in most classical [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] poetry).

[[Iambic pentameter]], a common metre in English poetry, is based on a sequence of five ''[[Iamb (foot)|iambic feet]]'' or ''iambs'', each consisting of a relatively unstressed syllable (here [[Scansion#2-level notations|represented]] with "˘" above the syllable) followed by a relatively stressed one (here [[Scansion#2-level notations|represented]] with "/" above the syllable)&nbsp;– {{Nowrap|1="da-DUM"="˘ /":}}

<pre style="border:none;background-color:transparent;margin-left:1em">
 ˘  /   ˘   /   ˘    /      ˘  /     ˘   /
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
 ˘  /    ˘      /   ˘     /   ˘     /    ˘   /
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
</pre>

This approach to analyzing and classifying metres originates from [[Ancient Greek]] tragedians and poets such as [[Homer]], [[Pindar]], [[Hesiod]], and [[Sappho]].

However some metres have an overall rhythmic pattern to the line that cannot easily be described using feet. This occurs in Sanskrit poetry; see [[Vedic metre]] and [[Sanskrit metre]]. It also occurs in some Western metres, such as the [[hendecasyllable]] favoured by [[Catullus]] and Martial, which can be described as:

x x — ∪ ∪ — ∪ — ∪ — —

(where "—" = long, "∪" = short, and "x x" can be realized as "— ∪" or "— —" or "∪ —")

{{Metrical feet|all=yes}}

If the line has only one foot, it is called a ''[[monometer]]''; two feet, ''[[dimeter]]''; three is ''[[trimeter]]''; four is ''[[tetrameter]]''; five is ''[[pentameter]]''; six is ''[[hexameter]]'', seven is ''[[heptameter]]'' and eight is ''[[octameter]]''. For example, if the feet are iambs, and if there are five feet to a line, then it is called an [[iambic pentameter]].<ref name="twsDecG11" /> If the feet are primarily ''dactyls'' and there are six to a line, then it is a [[dactylic hexameter]].<ref name="twsDecG11" />

In classical Greek and Latin, however, the name "[[iambic trimeter]]" refers to a line with six iambic feet.

===Caesura===
Sometimes a natural pause occurs in the middle of a line rather than at a line-break.  This is a [[caesura]] (cut).  A good example is from ''[[The Winter's Tale]]'' by [[William Shakespeare]]; the caesurae are indicated by '/':

<blockquote>
:It is for you we speak, / not for ourselves:
:You are abused / and by some putter-on
:That will be damn'd for't; / would I knew the villain,
:I would land-damn him. / Be she honour-flaw'd,
:I have three daughters; / the eldest is eleven
</blockquote>

In Latin and Greek poetry, a caesura is a break within a foot caused by the end of a word.

Each line of traditional Germanic [[alliterative verse]] is divided into two half-lines by a caesura. This can be seen in [[Piers Plowman]]:

<blockquote>
:A fair feeld ful of folk / fond I ther bitwene—
:Of alle manere of men / the meene and the riche,
:Werchynge and wandrynge / as the world asketh.
:Somme putten hem to the plough / pleiden ful selde,
:In settynge and sowynge / swonken ful harde,
:And wonnen that thise wastours / with glotonye destruyeth.
</blockquote>

===Enjambment===
{{main|Enjambment}}
By contrast with caesura, enjambment is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation. Also from Shakespeare's ''The Winter's Tale'':

<blockquote>
:I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
:Commonly are; the want of which vain dew
:Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have
:That honourable grief lodged here which burns
:Worse than tears drown.
</blockquote>

===Metric variations===
Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern. A common variation is the ''inversion'' of a foot, which turns an [[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]] ("da-DUM") into a [[trochee]] ("DUM-da"). A second variation is a ''headless'' verse, which lacks the first syllable of the first foot. A third variation is [[catalectic|catalexis]], where the end of a line is shortened by a foot, or two or part thereof&nbsp;– an example of this is at the end of each verse in Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci":
<blockquote>
:And on thy cheeks a fading rose (4 feet)
:Fast withereth too  (2 feet)
</blockquote>