Anapaestic pentameter
Five anapaests to the line, two light syllables then a stress. Below, what the metre is and how to recognise it, then every poem on Laurel measured as anapaestic pentameter, with how closely each keeps it.
What anapaestic pentameter is
Five beats to the line, two light syllables and then a heavy one: fifteen syllables or so. Rare, and hard to sustain.
da-da-DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM
How to tell
Fourteen or fifteen syllables with five beats and a swing.
Paste a poem of your own and Laurel will say whether it is in anapaestic pentameter, stanza by stanza. How to scan a line.
8 poems on Laurel in anapaestic pentameter
- The Deep-Sea Cables Rudyard Kipling, Verses 1889–1896 · 87%
- Sing a Song o’ Shipwreck John Masefield, Salt-Water Ballads · 89%
- A Consecration John Masefield, Salt-Water Ballads · 82%
- Sea-Change John Masefield, Salt-Water Ballads · 68%
- The Triumph Siegfried Sassoon, Counter-Attack and Other Poems · 76%
- The Middle Watch Jean Ingelow, Poems, Volume I · 88%
- On the Road Charles G. D. Roberts, New Poems · 86%
- Love Is a Mortal Disease Eleanor Hull, The Poem-Book of the Gael · 84%
Each poem's metre was measured from its own words by the method described here; the figure beside a poem is the share of its stressed syllables that fall on the beat. Forms are named from the rhyme scheme and line count together.