Editing Metre (poetry) (section)

===Metrical systems===
The number of metrical systems in English is not agreed upon.<ref>{{Citation|author-link=Robert Wallace (poet)|first=Robert|last=Wallace|year=1993|title=[[Meter in English (essay)]]}} asserts that there is only one metre in English: Accentual-Syllabic.  The essay is reprinted in {{Citation|editor-link=David Baker (poet)| editor-first=David|editor-last=Baker|title=[[Meter in English, A Critical Engagement]]|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|year=1996|isbn=1-55728-444-X}}.</ref> The four major types<ref>{{Citation|author-link=Paul Fussell|first=Paul|last=Fussell|title=[[Poetic metre and Poetic Form]]|publisher=McGraw Hill|orig-year=1965|year=1979|isbn=0-07-553606-4}}.</ref> are: [[accentual verse]], [[accentual-syllabic verse]], [[syllabic verse]] and [[quantitative verse]].{{Sfn|Hollander|1981 |p=5}}  The [[alliterative verse]] found in Old English, Middle English, and some modern English poems can be added to this list, as it operates on somewhat different principles than accentual verse. Alliterative verse pairs two phrases (half-lines) joined by alliteration; while there are usually two stresses per half-line, variations in the number of stresses do occur.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cable |first=Thomas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.9783/9781512803853 |title=The English Alliterative Tradition |date=1991-12-31 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |doi=10.9783/9781512803853 |isbn=978-1-5128-0385-3}}</ref> Accentual verse focuses on the number of stresses in a line, while ignoring the number of offbeats and syllables; accentual-syllabic verse focuses on regulating both the number of stresses and the total number of syllables in a line; syllabic verse only counts the number of syllables in a line; quantitative verse regulates the patterns of long and short syllables (this sort of verse is often considered alien to English).<ref>{{Citation|author-link=Charles O. Hartman|first=Charles O.|last=Hartman|quote=[quantitative metres] continue to resist importation in English|title=[[Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody]]|year=1996|publisher=Northwestern University Press, 1980|isbn=0-8101-1316-3|page=34}}.</ref> The use of foreign metres in English is all but exceptional.<ref>{{Citation|author-link=Leonardo Malcovati|first=Leonardo|last=Malcovati|title=Prosody in England and Elsewhere: A Comparative Approach|publisher=Gival Press|year=2006|isbn=1-928589-26-X|quote=[very] little of it is native}}.</ref>