Qualitative Versus Quantitative Meter in Poetry
A sonnet can contain numerous components to give it structure. Rhyme is maybe the most widely recognized of these components: endless idyllic works, from limericks to epic poems to pop verses, contain rhymes. Yet, similarly significant is meter, which forces explicit length and accentuation on a given line of poetry.
Meter is the fundamental musical structure of a line inside a work of poetry. Meter comprises of two parts:
The quantity of syllables
An example of accentuation on those syllables
A line of poetry can be broken into “feet,” which are singular units inside a line of poetry. A foot of poetry has a particular number of syllables and a particular example of accentuation.
Qualitative meter is described by focused on syllables coming at customary stretches, for example, the steady progression of five iambs in a line of a Shakespearean piece.
Quantitative meter, paradoxically, is based on examples dependent on syllable weight instead of stress. For example, in quantitative meter, a line that is in fact written in dactylic hexameter could contain dactyls (DUH-duh-duh) yet in addition a spondee (DUH-DUH). What makes a difference isn’t the “stress” on a syllable yet rather the “length” of a syllable.