in literature, what is the difference between a foot and a meter?

Question

I've looked around the web and it seems that both refer to "the basic rhythmic unit in poetry" or a "pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables." i hope that they are not the same thing (i doubt they are) because i have an exam on these terms and both are on the exam, and it'll be kinda hard to identify something as meter or foot if i don't know the difference. thanks!

Answer 1

Ok - this is from memory:

There are four basic types of feet - iamb, dactyl, spondee, trochee. These have to do with the stressed and unstressed syllables (accented or not accented). If x=unstressed and /=stressed, iambic is x / . That is one unstressed followed by one stressed. Similarly, dactylic is / x x, trochaic / x, and spondaic x x /.

Now, once you establish the accent pattern, the next questionis how many are there in a line of the poem? That's the meter, and the number of feet determines the name, using Greek suffixes followed by "meter"

Tetameter = 4 feet
Pentameter = 5 feet
Hexameter = 6 feet

And so on.

Looking at a well-known poem (stressed in CAPS):

ONCE upON a MIDnight DREARy, WHILE i PONdered WEAK and WEARy

These all go accented/unaccented, so the FEET are Trochees. Now count them - you will see there are eight stressed/unstressed sets. This tells you the meter - eight feet per line, or Octameter.

This poem is written in Trochaic Octameter.

Answer 2

verse and poet or verse and poem? a poet is someone who writes poetry (poems, it extremely is). A poem is an entire written piece. social gathering: The more beneficial Loving One by technique of W. H. Auden looking up on the celebrities, i recognize fairly properly That, for all they care, i am going to flow to hell, yet on the earth indifference is the least we could dread from guy or beast. How could we like it were stars to burn With a interest for us shall we no longer go back? If equivalent affection can't be, enable the more beneficial loving one be me. Admirer as i imagine i'm Of stars that do not supply a rattling, i can't, now I see them, say I ignored one extraordinarily all day. were all stars to vanish or die, I could locate the thanks to ascertain an empty sky And experience its entire darkish elegant, in spite of the undeniable fact that this can take me somewhat time. A verse is a line in a poem. social gathering: And experience its entire darkish elegant,