American Literature / Unit 1 AML 0008 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Meter: Counting Stress, Not Syllables Alone
Captions available
The idea
Meter is the rhythmic pattern of a poem, measured in feet, and an English foot is built from stressed and unstressed syllables rather than long and short ones. Naming a meter means naming the foot and counting how many fall in a line. Both halves of the name matter.
In practice
Name the foot, then count the feet.
Where people slip
English meter counts stress, not length.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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