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Meter???
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Meter??? |
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GothicCherry Member
since 2008-09-16
Posts 471TN |
Ok, I'm confused about this and I know it sounds silly, but can anyone explain to me how to use meter in my poems???? |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA |
Hi there GothicCherry You can start here in the workshop, where we worked on meter... da-DUM! da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM da-DUM Then you can enjoy reading Kit's expert advice... Playing With My Feet |
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GothicCherry Member
since 2008-09-16
Posts 471TN |
Thank you!! I understand what iambs are and the da/DUM thing. Now what are feet? Kit's words got mixed in my head and I couldn't make much sense of it all. It sounded very pretty though. Oh, and I really appreciate the help!  |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
A foot is described by the character and number of syllables it contains: in English, feet are named for the combination of accented and unaccented syllables; in other languages such as Latin and Greek, the duration of the syllable (long or short) is measured. (disregard my earlier ramblings...too much multi-tasking at the same time. Thanks, Nanners) [This message has been edited by Balladeer (02-16-2009 12:05 AM).] |
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Mysteria 
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328British Columbia, Canada |
Get out really? All this time I never asked.  I can't even get the da dums right, so didn't dare ask what a foot was. LOL, now I am finding this funny, but guess you have to be here.Well GothicCherry you came to the right place, Nan, Balladeer, and Kit do it "right!" |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA |
da-DUM - is an iambic foot. Each set of metered syllables comprises a foot in poetry. Iambic pentameter is a line of five iambic feet = da-DUM/da-DUM/da-DUM/da-DUM/da-DUM da-da-DUM/da-da-DUM/da-da-DUM = three anapestic feet... Does that make sense? |
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GothicCherry Member
since 2008-09-16
Posts 471TN |
Yes, a lot more sense than I'd made of it before. Thanks a million.  |
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Falling rain
since 2008-01-31
Posts 2178Small town, Illinois |
Maybe I'm just slow today but I'm still confused about it.. I don't know at all what you guys are talking about.. Can you break it all down into something more simple and vague? lol Please and thanks -Zach When I see your smile, and I know it’s not for me, that’s when I’ll miss you. |
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turtle Senior Member
since 2009-01-23
Posts 548Harbor |
Hi cherry, When I was trying to grasp meter I was just as confused as anyone else. Most of what I was trying to comprehend was college level material that used terms I wasn't familiar with. This was also presented in a way that assumed the reader had some previous understanding of what was being talked about. I found that if I looked up the terminology and rewrote an explanation in terms I could comprehend, it would instantly become clear. I ended up writing a brief explanation of the concepts of structured verse for the beginner, called: "Basics Of Rhyme" I've posted this on other sites and some people DID find that it helped them to grasp structured verse a little better. If it's okay, I'll post this in the workshop and maybe it well help some of you. /pip/Forum22/HTML/000990.html  [This message has been edited by turtle (02-16-2009 09:37 PM).] |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
All you need to do is study how stress works in words and then you will generally recognize how it is put into special patterns by poets, from which these half-useless terms such as "feet", "iambic" "trochaic" etc come. The stress of a word is generally the most pronounced syllable of a word, such as the hor- of horror. The first syllable hor- of horror has more pressure and vibration on it. That is the stress. You need to listen at least halfcarefully to recognize that pressure, and eventually after practice you naturally grow an ear to hear that similar "spot" in other words. If you are unsure of the correct pronunciation , then usually the dictionary may help. For example, at dictionary.com the pronunciation is given in brackets with the syllable that has the stress in bold type: "Horror [hawr-er, hor-]". Where people were saying "DUM" above, that is where the stresses of words generally go, where they were saying "da" that is where other syllables go. If a normal word has only one syllable that one syllable has the stress. But little words such as to, from, of, in, or, I, he, it, etc. don't have stress. The rest is a bunch of exceptions and variations that may be learned along the way. [This message has been edited by Essorant (02-17-2009 04:19 PM).] |
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GothicCherry Member
since 2008-09-16
Posts 471TN |
OH MY GOSH!! Thank you sooo much! That helps me a lot. It's all starting to make a lot more sense than it did before. I guess I'm not very good with the complicated words. Lol... |
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