Meter means “measurement,” and in poetry, meter refers to the repeating pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of a poem. The unit of measurement in poetry is called a metrical foot. A metrical foot is a set of syllables, usually two or three, with only one receiving a strong stress.

Scanning is the name for the technique of determining the metrical foot and meter of a poem. When scanning poetry, we use an ictus (') to mark a strong stress, and a breve (˘) to mark weaker stress. Another way to describe a metrical foot is to say that each metrical foot is made up of a particular pattern of strong and weak stresses.

Each metrical foot has a name. Here are the main metrical feet with a description and example for each.

The trochee, iamb, dactyl, and anapest are the metrical feet in English that are most likely to form the main body of feet in a poem. The spondee and the amphimacer are generally found as occasional substitutes for an odd foot here or there in a poem that is mainly composed of one of the four other feet mentioned.

One way to help recall each major metrical foot is to connect each to a poem in which it predominates. For example, trochee is the primary metrical foot in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Hiawatha,” in which the hero is introduced with the lines:

Iamb is the principal metrical foot in William Shakespeare’s plays, an example from Julius Caesar being:

Dacytls are used to begin the Mother Goose rhyme:

And anapests are well-known by many from the poem generally attributed to Clement Moore and titled “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” but also commonly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”: