what is a "meter"?

Question

I have to write a poem with the about doom's day & it has to have the same meter as this poem from Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire
some in in ice
from what i've tasted of desire
i hold with those who favor fire
but if it had to perish twice
i think i know enough of hate
to say that for destruction of ice
is also great
and would suffice.




what is a "meter" & can someone help me start of my poem, if possible.

all help is GREATLY appreciated. =]

Answer 1

This poem uses the iambic foot, which is an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. In this example, I'll CAPITALIZE the accented syllables in line 1:

"Some SAY the WORLD will END in FIRE"

Most of the lines in this poem are eight syllables long (four iambic feet). This makes the meter IAMBIC TETRAMETER.

If you write a poem with most lines having the same number of syllables as the first line of this one, with the accented and accented syllables in the same places, you'll have it!

Possible first lines of your poem, following the above rules:

The moon rode high among the stars
The night we saw the school burn down

You'll notice that in the Frost poem, there is also a rhyme scheme - the first line rhymes with the third and fourth line, etc. This is not meter, but rather a rhyme scheme; however, you may get extra credit if you also copy his rhyme scheme.

Some extra info follows. Good luck!




"METER or METRE
A measure of rhythmic quantity; the organized succession of groups of syllables at basically regular intervals in a line of poetry, according to definite metrical patterns. In classic Greek and Latin versification, meter depended on the way long and short syllables were arranged to succeed one another, but in English the distinction is between accented and unaccented syllables. The unit of meter is the foot. Metrical lines are named for the constituent foot and for the number of feet in the line: monometer (1), dimeter (2), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7), and octameter (8); thus, a line containing five iambic feet, for example, would be called iambic pentameter. Rarely does a metrical line exceed six feet."

"FOOT
A unit of rhythm or meter; the division in verse of a group of
syllables, one of which is long or accented. For example, the line,
"The boy | stood on | the burn | ing deck," has four iambic metrical feet. The fundamental components of the foot are the arsis and the thesis. The most common poetic feet used in English verse are the iamb, anapest, trochee, dactyl, and spondee, while in classical verse there are twenty-eight different feet. "

Answer 2

Meter is the "pattern" of the words in a poem. To find it you determine the number of syllables in each line, and then figure out which sylables have emphasis on them. Then you figure out how many emphasized syllables there are in the sentence and whether or not it is the first or second part of a word that is empasized. See the link attached for definitions of iambic, pentameter and other terms and how they are used in poetry.

http://www.frostfriends.org/meter.html


Robert Frost is notorious for always using meter. Although his meter can very within a poem (meaning he might emphasize the first syllable one time, the second syllable in the next sentence, then have two words empasized in one sentence, and in the next have four words, there is almost always some meter to it, not just free formed. He also used small easy words so the common man could read his works more easily.

First seperate your syllables (I put a hash mark after the end of each one for you)

| | | | | | | |
So, read the first line " Some say the world will end in fire"

Then read it out loud and mark which ones would be emphasized (that could vary from person to person depending on how you read it :-)




So, read the first line out loud and mark the syllables.


SOME say the WORLD will END in FIRE
OK, so you have 4 syllables that you emphasised in that sentence (I am NOT an english teacher and I might make some typos in my explanation, I am not gonna worry about it :-)

so, according to the definitions this is "Tetrameter because the line has four feet

Then you figure out if the first or second or both syllables have emphasis on them-

see the link again for terms and definitions

Trochee | Iambic |Iambic |Iambic |
SOME say the WORLD will END in FIRE

Next what you do is go through each sentence and figure them out the same way as the first sentence.

Then write your poem with the same emphasis on each line that he does, and make it rhyme, since his poems do.

So for the first line, emphasize the same syllables that he does

something like this:

DOGS are the BEST of FRIENDS to HAVE

Hope this helps. good luck and just enjoy the journey learning to do something new--- remember you can never know too much (even if the only way you'll ever use this in the future is to be an English teacher or to play on Jeopardy)

** The more I think about it, This is IAMBIC Pentameter- definitely the most common, and I think there are 5 emphasis words, not 4. hope you did not turn this in yet, but she probably knows meter is a little bit in the "ear" of the beholder anyway. take care

Answer 3

All of the above answers are related to math not poetry. I'm pretty sure that meter has something to do with how many syllables in each line of the poem. Get a copy of Robert Frost's poem and count out how many syllables there are in each line.

Answer 4

meter, which one are you refering to? please show us the sentence with the word meter in it.
meter can refer to a few things, such as a 100 centimeters. or it can mean a meter such as parking meter..etc

as for the starting of your poen, i'm sorry technically we can only give you suggestions, if not wouldn't be your poem anymore, and credits would be given.

Answer 5

A 'meter' in this instance refers to the number of rhyming endings.

Notice the 'ire' in fire and desire, #1
the 'ice' in twice, ice, and suffice. #2
and the rhyming endings in great and hate. #3

1,2,1,1,2,3,2,3,2

Notice the pattern?

Answer 6

a meter is accually 3.2 feet in distance. i didnt know there was another menaing how bout u use the dictionary. its agreement in words

Answer 7

A mesuring lenght about 1 foot.

Answer 8

a meter is an accurate measurement of my dingdong

Answer 9

do your own homework