Poetry

====Meter====
{{Main|Scansion}}
[[File:Alkaios Sappho Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2416 n2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Attica|Attic]] [[red-figure]] ''kathalos'' painting of [[Sappho]] from c. 470 BCE<ref>{{Citation |last=McClure |first=Laura K. |title=Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World: Readings and Sources |date=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W742ZLpdLBoC&q=Glyptothek+Sappho+and+Alcaeus&pg=PA38 |page=38 |place=Oxford, England |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |isbn=978-0-631-22589-8 }}</ref>]]
In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristic [[Foot (prosody)|metrical foot]] and the number of feet per line.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=24}}</ref> The number of metrical feet in a line are described using Greek terminology: [[tetrameter]] for four feet and [[hexameter]] for six feet, for example.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=25, 34}}</ref> Thus, "[[iambic pentameter]]" is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the "[[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]]". This metric system originated in ancient [[Greek poetry]], and was used by poets such as [[Pindar]] and [[Sappho]], and by the great [[Tragedy|tragedians]] of [[Athens]]. Similarly, "[[dactylic hexameter]]", comprises six feet per line, of which the dominant kind of foot is the "[[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]]". Dactylic hexameter was the traditional meter of Greek [[epic poetry]], the earliest extant examples of which are the works of [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]].<ref name="greek">{{Cite web |url=http://aoidoi.org/articles/meter/intro.pdf |title=Introduction to Greek Meter |last=Annis |first=William S. |date=January 2006 |publisher=Aoidoi |pages=1–15}}</ref> Iambic pentameter and dactylic hexameter were later used by a number of poets, including [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unibl.eu/pdf/examples_metrical_systems.pdf |title=Examples of English metrical systems |publisher=Fondazione Universitaria in provincia di Belluno |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308211254/http://www.unibl.eu/pdf/examples_metrical_systems.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2012 |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref> The most common metrical feet in English are:<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=23–24}}</ref>

[[File:Homer British Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Homer]]: Roman bust, based on Greek original<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=460092&partId=1 |title=Portrait Bust |website=britishmuseum.org |publisher=The British Museum}}</ref>]]
* [[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]] – one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g. des-'''cribe''', in-'''clude''', re-'''tract''')
* [[trochee]]{{mdash}}one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g. '''pic'''-ture, '''flow'''-er)
* [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] – one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g. '''an'''-no-tate, '''sim'''-i-lar)
* [[anapaest]]{{mdash}}two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (e.g. com-pre-'''hend''')
* [[spondee]]{{mdash}}two stressed syllables together (e.g. '''heart'''-'''beat''', '''four'''-'''teen''')
* [[pyrrhic]]{{mdash}}two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end dactylic hexameter)

There are a wide range of names for other types of feet, right up to a [[choriamb]], a four syllable metric foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables and closing with a stressed syllable. The choriamb is derived from some ancient [[Greek literature|Greek]] and [[Latin poetry]].<ref name=greek/> Languages which use [[vowel length]] or [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] rather than or in addition to syllabic accents in determining meter, such as [[Metre (poetry)#Ottoman Turkish|Ottoman Turkish]] or [[Vedic meter|Vedic]], often have concepts similar to the iamb and dactyl to describe common combinations of long and short sounds.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kiparsky |first=Paul |date=September 1975 |title=Stress, Syntax, and Meter |journal=Language |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=576–616 |doi=10.2307/412889 |jstor=412889}}</ref>

Each of these types of feet has a certain "feel," whether alone or in combination with other feet. The iamb, for example, is the most natural form of rhythm in the English language, and generally produces a subtle but stable verse.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=John |title=The Founding of English Meter |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1961 |page=36}}</ref> Scanning meter can often show the basic or fundamental pattern underlying a verse, but does not show the varying degrees of [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], as well as the differing pitches and [[vowel length|lengths]] of syllables.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pinsky|1998|pp=11–24}}</ref>

There is debate over how useful a multiplicity of different "feet" is in describing meter. For example, [[Robert Pinsky]] has argued that while dactyls are important in classical verse, English dactylic verse uses dactyls very irregularly and can be better described based on patterns of iambs and anapests, feet which he considers natural to the language.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pinsky|1998|p=66}}</ref> Actual rhythm is significantly more complex than the basic scanned meter described above, and many scholars have sought to develop systems that would scan such complexity. [[Vladimir Nabokov]] noted that overlaid on top of the regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse was a separate pattern of accents resulting from the natural pitch of the spoken words, and suggested that the term "scud" be used to distinguish an unaccented stress from an accented stress.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |url=https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/9 |title=Notes on Prosody |publisher=[[Bollingen Foundation]] |year=1964 |isbn=978-0-691-01760-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/notesonprosodyon0000nabo/page/9 9–13]}}</ref>