Meter is a device that uses rhythmic patterns to get the attention of the reader/listener. Today we have poetry that is exclusively spoken in front of an audience, and at the other end of the spectrum we have poetry that is only read silently by solitary individuals from a page.  While the spoken-word artist’s use of meter may be more obviously vital, meter is just as important to the poet whose work will not ever be read aloud.

I have heard it said that when you read a poem aloud to an audience you give it a whole new life and I believe that is true.   Yet some poetry is not intended to be read aloud, but read silently by individuals from a printed page. This is a very intimate and special interaction as well.  Yet for a poet, reading their own poetry aloud (at least to themselves) is important so that they may hear how their poem is likely to sound in the reader's mind.   Reading a poem aloud should be an integral part of the process of its composition.  

What I urge in regard to meter is to learn the iamb, trochee, dactyl, etc., and then go to poetry readings and slams until you begin to understand where they all fit in.  Practice with a strictly metered form – maybe a villanelle or a pantoum - either selected from a text book, drawn from the work of an established poet or an original poem.  Again, in addition to writing and dissecting these forms, read them aloud as well.  In doing so poets learn to think in rhythmic patterns that will help to improve their poetry.

Meter is why nursery rhymes are so memorable – not just because they rhyme, but because of their catchy rhythm. Think about Shakespeare’s sonnets, ten syllables a line, stresses on every even syllable, every word immortal.

Like rhyme, meter is a very powerful tool. Once again, read your poetry aloud or hear it in your head and sense its rhythm:  its music. Ah, now you’re writing poetry.