METER Meter is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem Foot – 1 unit of meter Iamb – unstressed, stressed [u/] Trochee – stressed, unstressed [/u] Pentameter – (penta=5) 5 units(feet) of stress patterns Iambic Pentameter – 5 units of iambs in 1 line of poetry [u/][u/][u/]
TERMS Stanza – section of lines (like a poetry paragraph) Octet – 8 line stanza Sestet – 6 line stanza Quatrain – 4 line stanza Tercet – 3 line stanza Couplet – 2 line stanza Shakespearean Sonnets are comprised of 3 consecutive quatrains that lead like stepping stones to the couplet The couplet acts as the “turn of thought” in the English Sonnet, where it summarizes or concludes the poem In the Petrarchan Sonnet, which is 1 octet followed by 1 sestet, the “turn” (volta, Italian word for “turn of thought”) occurs at line 9, or the beginning of the sestet