Digging Deeper into Poetic Meter - Part 1 of 4: Iambic Meter

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​Do you have a favorite picture book that you LOVE to read aloud to the little ones in your life? It’s one with beautifully constructed elements and perfect rhythm and meter! The lines sound magical and musical! What makes that verse so special? How exactly was it crafted? If you want to understand more about writing in rhyme, becoming familiar with the poetic foot is imperative. Just like your own foot can tap out the rhythm of a song, the poetic foot delivers the precise rhythm of your writing.

​What’s a poetic foot? A poetic foot is a basic rhythmic unit of stressed and unstressed syllables that repeats in a line of verse. The most common feet are the two-syllable iamb and trochee, and the three-syllable anapest and dactyl.
 
Poetic meter is the rhythm structure within a line of poetry. A poem is broken into lines, and each line contains a certain number of poetic feet. Poetic meter (sometimes called metrical pattern) results from the number of feet in each line plus their stress patterns. The length of poetic meter is described using Greek suffixes:

​For the next four months, I’ll do a deeper dive into each of the four most commonly used poetic feet. We’ll begin with iambic feet. Iambic meter is the most commonly used pattern in English poetry. In many poems, iambs mimic the natural rhythm of speech.
 
iamb – (pronounced “I-am”) In an iamb foot, the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. Think:  da-DUM. An example is the word undo. Iambic meter is referred to as a “rising meter” because it moves from an unstressed syllable to a stressed syllable.  I will diagram stressed and unstressed syllables using UPPERCASE (stressed) and lowercase (unstressed) letters.

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Well-known iambic lines:
 
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (William Shakespeare)
shall I com-PARE thee TO a SUM-mer’s DAY?
 
O little town of Bethlehem (Lewis Redner and Phillips Brooks)
o LI-ttle TOWN of BETH-le-HEM
 
A well-known poetic meter is iambic pentameter, which contains five iambs per line. Iambic pentameter is the rhythm of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in which every even syllable is stressed, with five iambic feet per line.
But soft, what light from yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
but SOFT, what LIGHT from YON-der WIN-dow BREAKS?
it IS the EAST and JUL-iet IS the SUN

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​Now let’s take a closer look at iambic meter in a poem for children. I used iambic meter in my poetry collection, THE SUPERLATIVE A. LINCOLN: Poems About Our 16th President (Illustrated by Dave Szalay).

 
Here is an excerpt from the poem, “Strongest Conviction, Signing the Emancipation Proclamation”, a poem which shares more information about what Lincoln considered to be one of the most important achievements of his administration—issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
 
A little historical background is also shared on the page with the poem, repeated here to provide context: Lincoln was exhausted after shaking hands for hours at a New Year’s Day reception at the White House. He noticed his hand was quivering as he prepared to sign the proclamation. “Now, this signature is one that will be closely examined,” he said, “and if they find my hand trembled, they will say ‘he had some compunctions.’” He firmly and carefully signed his full name. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.” The poem I penned shares this story (and more history leading up to that day) and follows an iambic pattern.   Excerpt:
 
Crowds streamed in past the White House gates to greet the president.
He stood for hours to shake each hand, express acknowledgement.
When guests were gone, he grasped his pen and sat up straight and tall.
He s-l-o-w-l-y, firmly signed his name. Now liberty for ALL.
 
crowds STREAMED in PAST the WHITE house GATES to GREET the PRES-i-DENT.
he STOOD for HOURS to SHAKE each HAND, ex-PRESS ack-NOW-ledge-MENT.
when GUESTS were GONE, he GRASPED his PEN and SAT up STRAIGHT and TALL.
he SLOW-ly, FIMR-ly SIGNED his NAME. now LIB-er-TY for ALL.
  
There are seven iambs in each line of this poem, so the poetic meter is iambic heptameter. See if you can identify and beat out iambic meter in any of the books in verse in your library! Check back next month as we continue this deeper dive into poetic feet and meter.
 
Eileen Meyer, Rhyme Doctor