I'm actually doing English as an undergrad so I've been doing it for a while. The funny thing is I've gotten this far without really knowing about this stuff. In A levels, my teacher told me not to worry and just learn the basic iambic pentameter. Once I get to uni, however, I realized that people in my course could do this in their sleep whereas I struggled defining what an iambic pentameter was. I knew that I needed to sit down and learn these things but I was always intimidated by all the literary jargon - this video is a life saver. It takes me a while to learn things because I have to reduce it to very basic forms for me to understand - this was so easy to follow and for once it didn't take me hours and an emotional breakdown to understand something. I cannot thank you enough!

I'm a literature grad student and I still don't get this shit.

feel like i just got hit by a bus going 1000 miles an hour

I've never actually understood how meters, feet, stressed, and unstressed syllables worked until the 12th grade lmao. Never truly grasped the idea, since to me the sounds can be stressed or unstressed if a human being puts emphasis or lacks emphasis on a certain syllable. That and I've never needed to know this for a test/exam. Still, helpful though.

Just for fun, I've written poetry for over 20 years and never paid attention to any of this. Now, as I approach 40, I realize how much I don't know about my hobby. This was a fascinating video. Thank you

Excellent guide. Simple, not bloated with unnecessary extras or music. It told me exactly what I needed efficiently and eloquently.

Much better understanding than I've had in my six week, shortened Summer Intro to Lit class this Summer! Finally see what I've been doing wrong all along! Thank you!

Thanks for this! I'm a grade 9 student, so this really isn't needed, however, I'm a published writer and poet; I never really understood meter until now. To be honest, I help my 12th grade friends with this stuff. I identified "In Flanders Fields" to be an iambic tetrameter for a grade 12 friend who was struggling. This is a phenomenal video, it really helped me! Thank you!

This was incredibly helpful ^_^ I've been studying poetry at A-level and puzzling over how you can figure out the metre and rhythm of a poem, it was mentioned briefly at GCSE but I never understood it, a disadvantage when I then had the task to explain it to some English students. This articulates the process of determining rhythm and metre perfectly, so thank you!

This was super super helpful! I've a test on scansion tomorrow and this is the first time I've been able to almost successfully find rhythm and meter. THANK YOU!

Wow thank you. You literally broke it down. About the stress word and unstressed like PO-em. Po is not a stress word vs em is a stress word. Like this is my fourth video watching about meters and yours is far the best. Thank you

I am not a Lit grad, however, out of interest I have attempted to figure out the elements covered herein, and invariably ended up feeling lost and intimidated. But, this video has been such a solace...so effective. Adequate elucidation and annotations have done much to illuminate all that seemed perpetually Greek to me. I can't thank you enough. But, at this point, I would like do humbly suggest that if the pace of elucidation could be slowed down, it will spare non speakers of English as native language from rewinding a couple of times to catch a few words. All said, congratulations on this excellent piece of work! Please do come up with more. Wish you well!

This was a great help to an aged poetic neophyte! Thank you.

Interesting that you scan Browning's line as trochees. I doubt very much that he meant AS and AND to be stressed. I think it reads much more naturally when scanned as four-syllable feet with the stress on the third syllable: as for VEnice / and its PEOple, / merely BORN to / bloom and DROP (I've used slashes here to mark the foot divisions) - in this case too there's a caesura at the end of the line, no final unstressed syllable. There aren't recognized names for four-syllable feet in English (if there are do tell me what this one is called, it's one I use myself now and then) but that doesn't mean you can't write in such a metre. Reading more lines from the poem should enable us to tell which metre he's actually using. I looked up the line you used via Prof. Google who says it's from "A Toccata of Galuppi's" www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section7/ and while there are a few lines that scan well as trochees, most of the text definitely scans better using the four-syllable foot: xx/x. It trips along fast and light as befits the subject and treatment, whereas if scanned as trochees it becomes very "heavy".

Thank you so much for this video!! I have a modern poetry exam in college tomorrow and this helped so much!!!!

I thank my six years of Latin and two years of Attic Greek for my scansion ability! That, of course, and my instructor's persistence haha.

Honestly the most helpful video on KZfaq you can find about metre in poetry. The others where just awful... Except for the TedTalk one about iambic metre. Thank you!

thanks for your help! If it wasn't for you I would have never figured out what a poetic meter or poetic foot is or an iambic pentameter. thanks so much

This was a lifesaver! Very easy to understand and follow, thank you so much!

dang the reverb in whatever room you're in is glorious

I love poetry and how to write it! God bless this KZfaqr!

holy crap! THX DUDE!!! By watching this vid, I finally am really ready for my poetry test! I hate poetry :3

Actually feeling about 10% more ready for my exam in "ancient" literature now. Thanks. :)

omg i love this guy!! such a good poetry teacher

I've read about metrical feet a sextillion times and know it byheart, but do not have any idea of its applicability. I think most teachers/youtubers are missing out on something fundamental in the determination of stressed and unstressed syllable which needs to be given considerable emphasis; a great pedagogical challenge for a teacher of poetry. If at all I find that teacher, he/she shall be for me next only to God!

This is great! I have to write a poem with meter and was struggling with hearing meter. Now I think I can work on my poem.

Oh...I wish to share that my passion for English has found expression in the form of poems- 12 of them till date, all written in a span of 3 months.

I don't agree about the metric pattern of the line from Browning's A Toccata of Galuppi's. It's actually four feet of four syllables, with two unstressed syllables at the start and a big caesura at the end. That's how Browning wanted it to flow. Treating it as 8 x 2 syllables is clumsy and misses the rhythm of the phrasing.

SIKE I didn't learn anything

Thanks for the video I got a A+ in language class

Is Kip from Napoleon Dynamite narrating this video?

how would this work with lyric writing? more specifically, hip hop? I heard the iambic pentameter would fit to a 4/4 beat. Just wondered what your thoughts were on this matter?

Great structure and style. Please make many more videos on English language. I understood it eventhough English is my second language

Thanks,finally I understand some of our lesson.Thanks!!

Duuude! GREAT explanation! Thanks so much!

Nice video, helped me in my language class.

What is the metre of this poem?: This morning I vowed I would bring thee my Roses, They were thrust in the band that my bodice encloses, But the breast-knots were broken, the Roses went free. The breast-knots were broken; the Roses together Floated forth on the wings of the wind and the weather, And they drifted afar down the streams of the sea. And the sea was as red as when sunset uncloses, But my raiment is sweet from the scent of the Roses, Thou shalt know, Love, how fragrant a memory can be.

I still can't understand how I can know if a syllable is stressed or not. I'm not a native English speaker and in my language we don't have this kind of thing so I'm really struggling to have a grasp on this subject.

Ok thats great but what happens if there is not a consistent pattern of stressed and unstressed

THANK YOU!!! You've made this so simple to understand. Thank you!

Moriarty is that you?

Thank you!! You explained it beautifully. I’m going to practice. Fun stuff!!

Thank you! I'm writing poetry in my second language and while this is familiar, I have to learn it from scratch.

Great content and an even greater teacher. Respect 🙏.

Tell me if I got this right - “Sweet bird of sorrow - why complain, In such soft melody of Song, That Echo, am’rous of thy Strain, The ling’ring cadence doth prolong? Ah! tell me, tell me, why, Thy dulcet Notes ascend the sky, Or on the filmy vapours glide. Along the misty mountain side?” - Is this is a poem written in iambic pentameter??? - The poem has five metrical feet, it has the end rhyme scheme of abab. - let me know if this is correct or not - I just cannot figure it out-

Hi That Guy. A few questions. One, who came up with this mode of analysis of poetic rhythm? Do people use it when analyzing poetry in other languages? Was it applied to Classical Poetry in classical times? Also, does anyone ever talk about primary and secondary stresses in feet or lines of poetry? Thank you for your help.

That was really helpful. Can you point out some general instances to solve prosody?

“Okay, I need to teach something that’s a bit hard to understand, let me explain it at 5 words a second”

Thanks for this! you're really good at explaining scansion =)

Ur a legends with a velvet voice. Thanks for this video.

I’m low-key shocked that I’m in 9th grade ( year 8) and am forced to learn this and be able to use this in my poetry when a level and undergrad students are here

What happens when every line in the poem has only one word. And each para 4 words. What meter is that?

Thanku so much it really helped me alot for my exams.. :)

Yeah, I think that I could really get it, but only if I had someone (an expert) by my side as I tried to analyze different poetic lines. I'm not stupid, so I'm pretty sure that this would do the trick. On the other hand, how important is it? Does knowing the definitions of the different feet help you to appreciate or write good poetry? Can't you tell what sounds good without knowing what pattern you are hearing? Well, I'm going to come back.Maybe after viewing it enough times, it will all come clear. I haven't reached that point yet, though.

In the table at the end, you have /u in front of trochee. Could you please clarify what this means? Does it mean that the last foot in the meter has a pause?

Thank you so much for the clarification. Well done.

I subscribed to you because you sound like Kyoya from Ohshc so i actually pay attention 😜🤟🏽😟🕺🏽💗🤌🏽‼️

4:38 Isn't that a catalexis rather than caesura?

Thank you for this; excellent explanation.

First of you seem like you know your stuff and the few things you said really help understand a little bit of the basics, so thank you. But my question is I try and break it down but I have a hard time knowing that I found the stressed and unstressed are right. how do I know if it is right, and can the poem be in different style of meter.

Thank you! My poetry test shouldn't be a problem now ^^

thank you so much 🥰 Even its 7yrs old this acc or tgis channel it's still helpful UwU have nc day creative

hi im doing a presentation on rhythm and meter. Can you please help me find the stressed and unstressed syllables in some lines of boots of Spanish leather by bob Dylan. its tomorrow so please help

I don't know if it was hard for me because I'm only in 6th grade learning this is class... but this really helped!

Thanks this was really helpful

Ijust can't identify poetic meter neither in my mother tongue german nor in english and i just can't figure out why!!! I just don't seem to be able to translate Intonation (which is easy for me to notice) into meter.

Thank you for the video, it's very helpful 😊

So helpful! Thanks! 😀

Thank you so much for helping

you video is great. i just have one question my daughter is studying A level english her teacher asked her to" comment on the metre in Goblin market" how detailed does this need to be. she's only 14 so didn't even know what the metre was to start. she asked him how long the answer should be to try and gauge how much information's needed. his reply as long as it needs to be . Any ides on this would be appreciated

Thank you for this and for not being an asshole and shaming people (I'm talking to you *RaSHIT Bansal*) who have to search this to learn or relearn this topic.

Thank you ! It helped me so much 😊

great explanaiton, i wish i knew where to find some materials to practice with

hi there how we can do the versification of the poem?

What to do if in a poem, there are different foot, how to identify meter

Why is there reverb on your voice?

As someone who's English is not her first language... It is quite hard to identify stressed syllables because ancient poems have a lot of strange? words and I do not know how to pronounce them correctly :( Well, even with common words it's very difficult. To identify stressed syllables in Spanish is WAAAY easier 😅☹

I write poetry but have no idea what meter I'm using. I just know it sounds good but not all of my poems are in the same meter. This is too technical and dry and boring.

Very helpful, Thank you.

Could u explain it slowly for non native english speakers?? Please!!!! So interesting but hard to follow😔

thank you. helpful if you could speak slowly, or just slow down a bit.

What's the u mean at the end in the meme about poetic meters

well done, good job, nice one, excellent

This is a line of heroic meter with four feet, not five as you mistake. Follow this from Poe's "The Poetic Principle":: and THEY / shall FETCH thee " JEW els / FROM the DEEP..iam, amphimecer (to-GETH-er) short-lon-short, trochee anipest : long-short - long (misspelled)

Thank you! Very helpful :)

This is gonna be on my eng II exam. Finding the stressed and unstressed is difficult

Thank you so much! Very helpful,god bless you! :)

Thank you so much.

Science brought me here.

I'm super stressed with all these STRESS

Super helpful thank you

Thank you

Great video

Cry, cry, troy burns William Shakespeare "Troilus and Cressida"pls help me

How come the Trochee uses a 'u' in the linked reference image, is that just a typo?

helpful thanks a lot broski

U're amazin

Very helpful! Like your screen name! LOL

Can i have some examples of "PYRRHIC FEET"

Thank you so much!