Learning poets sometimes get themselves in a twist about this, but I hope you won’t! You see there’s no need to fear stresses, because it’s something that you use all the time. You see, in English, all meter (and indeed all rhythm) is built on patterns of stressed and unstressed words and syllables. In the beginning, there was stressed and unstressedīefore we get to meter though, I need to get you a little stressed. So this article is the first in a series where I will take you through what you need to know to about meter.
Likewise, learning meter can help you understand the sounds, feelings, and “textures” of the words you’re using, even if you never publish a line of iambic pentameter in your life. Drawing helps artists learn about shape, light, texture, and line, and that’s helpful even if they never exhibit a single drawing.
