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comic meter

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A metrical pattern traditionally associated with comedy or satire, often featuring light, rapid rhythms like anapests or amphibrachs.

Detailed Definition
Comic meter refers to rhythmic patterns in poetry specifically chosen or adapted to produce humorous effects, often through irregularity, bathos, or incongruity between form and content; examples include limericks with anapestic trimeter or mock-heroic couplets that undercut grand themes with trivial subjects.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Ogden Nash’s “The Cow,” irregular meter (“The cow is of the bovine ilk; / One end is moo, the other, milk”) creates comic meter through surprise; In Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” anapestic tetrameter with nonsense words produces comic meter; In Wendy Cope’s “Strugnell’s Haiku,” mock-serious tone clashes with light meter for comic effect; In Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry,” iambic looseness mimics casual speech for gentle humor; In A.E. Stallings’ “Sestina: Like,” teenage slang in strict form creates comic meter through dissonance.
Additional Notes
comic meter|The use of a metrical pattern, such as certain dactyls or anapests, that lends itself naturally to a humorous, light, or rapid tone; often associated with light verse and limericks.
Also Known As
humorous meter comic rhythm jocular cadence
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