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Teachable Terms
Number of feet – The proper terminology for the number of feet in a line is
as follows:
Monometer: one foot Pentameter: five feet
Dimeter: two feet Hexameter: six feet
Trimeter: three feet Heptameter: seven feet
Tetrameter: four feet Octometer: eight feet
Free verse – AKA “vebs libre.” Non-metrical verse. Poetry written in free
verse is arranged in lines that emphasize the rhythmic cadences of the language but
it has no fixed metrical pattern or expectation. Much of Walt Whitman’s “Song of
Myself” is in free verse. Most of contemporary poetry is written in free verse. (Free
verse may or may not employ a rhyme scheme.)
Enjambment – Syntax that runs over the end of a line of verse and reaches
a pause within the next line, as in:
Deep in the seas, deep in the southern seas
The coral palace of Te Tuna lies
Beneath an ocean. Far above, the breeze…
“The Legend of Te Tuna” by Richard Adams
Poetry Appendix:
Teachable Terms
End stopped line -- A line that ends with a natural speech pause, often
marked by punctuation.