Editing Metre (poetry) (section)

===Greek and Latin===
{{main|Greek and Latin metre}}
{{further|Prosody (Latin)|Prosody (Greek)}}
The '''metrical "feet"''' in the classical languages were based on the length of time taken to pronounce each syllable, which were categorized according to their [[syllable weight|weight]] as either "long" syllables or "short" syllables (indicated as ''dum'' and ''di'' below).  These are also called "heavy" and "light" syllables, respectively, to distinguish from long and short vowels. The foot is often compared to a [[bar (music)|musical measure]] and the long and short syllables to whole notes and half notes. In English poetry, feet are determined by emphasis rather than length, with stressed and unstressed syllables serving the same function as long and short syllables in classical metre.

The basic unit in Greek and Latin prosody is a [[mora (linguistics)|mora]], which is defined as a single short syllable.  A long syllable is equivalent to two morae.  A long syllable contains either a long vowel, a [[diphthong]], or a short vowel followed by two or more consonants.  Various rules of [[elision]] sometimes prevent a grammatical syllable from making a full syllable, and certain other lengthening and shortening rules (such as [[correption]]) can create long or short syllables in contexts where one would expect the opposite.

The most important Classical metre is the [[dactylic hexameter]], the metre of Homer and Virgil.  This form uses verses of six feet.  The word ''dactyl'' comes from the Greek word ''daktylos'' meaning ''finger'', since there is one long part followed by two short stretches.<ref name="twsDecG15">{{cite news
|first=Barbara Weiden|last=Boyd
 |title= Vergil's Aeneid
 |publisher= Bolchazy-Carducci
 |quote=Dactyl is one long two short syllables from dactyl, meaning "finger" (Greek: daktylos).
 |year= 2008
|isbn=9780865165847
 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mfGycd-8lx0C&q=%22dactylic+hexameter%22&pg=PA314
 |access-date= 2010-12-07}}</ref> The first four feet are [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]]s (''daa-duh-duh''), but can be [[spondee]]s (''daa-daa'').  The fifth foot is almost always a dactyl. The sixth foot is either a spondee or a [[trochee]] (''daa-duh'').  The initial syllable of either foot is called the ''ictus'', the basic "beat" of the verse.  There is usually a [[caesura]]  after the ictus of the third foot.  The opening line of the ''[[Aeneid]]'' is a typical line of dactylic hexameter:

:Armă vĭ | rumquĕ că | nō, Troi | ae quī | prīmŭs ăb | ōrīs
:("I sing of arms and the man, who first from the shores of Troy...")

In this example, the first and second feet are dactyls; their first syllables, "Ar" and "rum" respectively, contain short vowels, but count as long because the vowels are both followed by two consonants. The third and fourth feet are spondees, the first of which is divided by the main [[caesura]] of the verse. The fifth foot is a dactyl, as is nearly always the case. The final foot is a spondee.

The dactylic hexameter was imitated in English by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] in his poem ''[[Evangeline]]'':

<blockquote>
:This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
:Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
:Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic,
:Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
</blockquote>

Notice how the first line:
:''This'' is the | ''for''-est pri | ''me''-val.  The | ''mur''-muring | ''pines'' and the | ''hem-locks''

Follows this pattern:
:dum diddy | dum diddy | dum diddy | dum diddy | dum diddy | dum dum

Also important in Greek and Latin poetry is the [[dactylic pentameter]].  This was a line of verse, made up of two equal parts, each of which contains two dactyls followed by a long syllable, which counts as a half foot. In this way, the number of feet amounts to five in total. Spondees can take the place of the dactyls in the first half, but never in the second.  The long syllable at the close of the first half of the verse always ends a word, giving rise to a [[caesura]].

Dactylic pentameter is never used in isolation.  Rather, a line of dactylic pentameter follows a line of dactylic hexameter in the [[elegy|elegiac]] [[distich]] or [[elegiac couplet]], a form of verse that was used for the composition of elegies and other [[tragedy|tragic]] and solemn verse in the Greek and Latin world, as well as love poetry that was sometimes light and cheerful.  An example from [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Tristia]]'':

:Vergĭlĭ | um vī | dī tan | tum, nĕc ă | māră Tĭ | bullō
::Tempŭs ă | mīcĭtĭ | ae || fātă dĕ | dērĕ mĕ | ae.

:("Virgil I merely saw, and the harsh Fates gave Tibullus no time for my friendship.")

The Greeks and Romans also used a number of [[Lyric poetry|lyric]] metres, which were typically used for shorter poems than elegiacs or hexameter.  In [[Aeolic verse]], one important line was called the [[hendecasyllabic verse|hendecasyllabic]], a line of eleven syllables.  This metre was used most often in the [[Sapphic stanza]], named after the Greek poet [[Sappho]], who wrote many of her poems in the form.  A hendecasyllabic is a line with a never-varying structure: two trochees, followed by a dactyl, then two more trochees.  In the Sapphic [[stanza]], three hendecasyllabics are followed by an "Adonic" line, made up of a dactyl and a trochee.  This is the form of [[Catullus]] 51 (itself an homage to [[Sappho 31]]):

:Illĕ mī pār essĕ dĕō vĭdētur;
:illĕ, sī fās est, sŭpĕrārĕ dīvōs,
:quī sĕdēns adversŭs ĭdentĭdem tē
::spectăt ĕt audit

:("He seems to me to be like a god; if it is permitted, he seems above the gods, who sitting across from you gazes at you and hears you again and again.")

The Sapphic stanza was imitated in [[English language|English]] by [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] in a poem he simply called ''Sapphics'':
<blockquote>
:Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,
:Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled
:Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;
::Saw the reluctant...
</blockquote>

[[File:Arabic-E-meters.gif|thumbnail]]