English Literature / Unit 1 ENL 0038 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Hearing Meter in a Passage Under Time
The idea
The exam gives no time for slow scansion, so meter questions are answered by ear and by elimination. First, read one line in your head at speaking pace and listen for the pulse: two-beat units rising or falling, or three-beat gallops. A rising two-beat pulse means iambic; a gallop with two light syllables before each stress means anapestic. Second, count beats in that one line, not syllables: five beats with a rising pulse is iambic pentameter, the likeliest answer for anything from Shakespeare to Wordsworth. Third, check two more lines to confirm the pattern holds. Fourth, use the answer choices: if only one choice names the foot you heard, take it, and if two remain, count feet in a second line to separate them. The Milton opening, "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit," is iambic pentameter by this method, its unrhymed run making it blank verse.
In practice
Hear the pulse, count beats, check, eliminate.
Where people slip
Do not count syllables alone, because elision and light syllables change the count. Five beats matter more than ten syllables.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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