Home › Glossary › Letter P

Poetic measure

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

The structured pattern of rhythm and syllabic stress that governs a line of verse

Detailed Definition
Poetic measure denotes the metrical system governing a poem’s rhythm, whether based on stress (accentual-syllabic), syllable count (syllabic), or quantity (quantitative); it encompasses feet, line length, and stanzaic patterns, providing the sonic architecture that shapes pacing, emphasis, and emotional resonance in verse composition.
Example
Example in poetry:
Iambic pentameter in Shakespeare: “But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?”; Anapestic tetrameter in Byron: “Twas the night before the Christmas-day”; Dactylic hexameter in Longfellow’s “Evangeline”; trochaic tetrameter in Poe’s “The Raven”: “Once upon a midnight dreary…”.
Additional Notes
Poetic measure encompasses all aspects of a poem’s rhythm—meter, line length, caesura, and cadence—not just strict metrical feet; essential for understanding musicality beyond scansion.
Also Known As
Verse rhythm metrical design prosodic structure lyrical cadence Articulated unit Structural measure rax
Skip to main content