This document defines poetic meter as the basic rhythmic structure of verses. It discusses prosody as the study of meter and scanning as marking stressed and unstressed syllables. It outlines common stress patterns like iamb, trochee, spondee, anapest and dactyl defined by stressed and unstressed syllables. Each pattern is called a foot, and poems are categorized by the number of feet like monometer, dimeter, trimeter, and pentameter. Examples are given of different stress patterns and feet.

1. Poetic Meter

2. Stressed & Unstressed Syllables
 METER: the basic rhythmic structure of a
verse or lines in verse
 PROSODY: the study of meter
 SCAN: to mark the stressed & unstressed
syllables in a poem
 STRESSEDsyllables: /
 UNSTRESSED syllables: U

3. Stress Patterns
 IAMB:
U/
 TROCHEE: / U
 SPONDEE: / /
 ANAPEST: U U /
 DACTYL: / U U
 Each unit is called a FOOT

4. Number of Feet
 MONOMETER: 1 foot
 DIMETER: 2 feet
 TRIMETER: 3 feet
 TETRAMETER: 4 feet
 PENTAMETER: 5 feet
 HEXAMETER: 6 feeet
 HEPTAMETER: 7 feet
 OCTAMETER: 8 feet

5. Putting It Together
 Iambic Pentameter U / U / U / U / U /
UU/UU/UU/
/U/U/U/U/U/U/U
////////
/UU/
U/U/U/U/UU/