Now what could I mean by that? Well, especially in traditional poetry, the foot is the unit of measure equal to two adjacent syllables. There are two types of syllables known to the English language: stressed, and unstressed. In your English class, you may remember reading a classic sonnet by William Shakespeare or John Keats, and hearing about iambic pentameter, and stressed and unstressed syllables. Well, if you were confused, this lesson should help you out just a little bit.
The symbols generally used are:
Stressed - U
Unstressed - /
Now what makes a syllable stressed or unstressed? Let's take the word "tonight". Read the word out loud; sometimes it helps to say it slowly, and clap your hands for each separate sound that you hear. If you say the word slowly, you can hear two syllables: to:NIGHT
Now which syllable do you "come down on"- that is stress, or say more heavily? It should be the second syllable (NIGHT). Still confused? Don't despair - it is pretty hard to distinguish stressed/unstressed in the hubbub of everyday life. I find that in this case the best resource is a dictionary. Look up a word that you want to use - in many dictionaries, a dot separates each syllable, and an accent mark (') is to the right of the stressed syllable.
The word "tonight"is what is referred to in poetic circles as an IAMB - an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. Other words like this include: create, inspire. Here are some other types of metric feet:
trochee: (stressed, unstressed) hungry, argue, snowman
dactyl: (stressed, unstressed, unstressed) longitude, messages, miracle
anapest: (unstressed, unstressed, stressed) by the edge, intertwine, in the end
spondee: (stressed, stressed) trapdoor, new shoes, blind pig
Two syllables make up a metric foot. A poem is made of lines, and a cluster of these lines together (in paragraph form, if you will) is called a stanza. A poem with one foot per line is called monometer. In addition, there are:
dimeter: two feet per line
trimeter: three feet
tetrameter: four feet
pentameter: five feet
hexameter: six feet
Both forms of terminology are then combined to describe the meter of the poet. You may have heard that Shakespeare's sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. This translates to 5 feet per linr, with each foot (iamb) consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by stressed. You can visualize it in this example:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
U / U / U / U / U /
Next Lesson: I go into rhyme, repetition, and an introduction to sonnets. Take care, and happy writing!
- J.D. Gabriel