Laurel · Poems by form and metre

Dactylic dimeter

Two dactyls to the line, a stress then two light syllables. Below, what the metre is and how to recognise it, then every poem on Laurel measured as dactylic dimeter, with how closely each keeps it.

What dactylic dimeter is

Two beats to the line, a heavy syllable then two light ones: DUM-da-da DUM-da-da. Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade is in it.

DUM-da-da DUM-da-da

HALF a league, HALF a league
Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade; the beats in capitals

How to tell

Very short falling lines, five or six syllables, two beats.

Paste a poem of your own and Laurel will say whether it is in dactylic dimeter, stanza by stanza. How to scan a line.

29 poems on Laurel in dactylic dimeter

  1. May-Flower Emily Dickinson, Poems · 87%
  2. I went to heaven, — Emily Dickinson, Poems
  3. Poem Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues · 75%
  4. Theory Wallace Stevens, Harmonium · 93%
  5. The Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Tennyson, Poems · 94%
  6. Bannocks o’ Bear Meal Robert Burns, Poems and Songs · 96%
  7. Song of Hope Thomas Hardy, Poems of the Past and the Present · 96%
  8. The Challenge of Thor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 90%
  9. 604. His Prayer to Ben Jonson Robert Herrick, Hesperides · 93%
  10. 767. A Conjuration to Electra Robert Herrick, Hesperides · 93%
  11. In the Wilderness Robert Graves, Fairies and Fusiliers · 80%
  12. The Weary Wedding Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems and Ballads · 85%
  13. In Prison William Morris, The Defence of Guenevere · 85%
  14. Elegy for an Enemy Stephen Vincent Benét, Young Adventure · 90%
  15. The Song of the Sword W. E. Henley, Poems · 86%
  16. When you wake in your crib W. E. Henley, Poems · 86%
  17. To W. R W. E. Henley, Poems · 85%
  18. To A. J. H W. E. Henley, Poems · 84%
  19. To R. L. S W. E. Henley, Poems · 82%
  20. To J. A. C W. E. Henley, Poems · 82%
  21. AM the Reaper W. E. Henley, Poems · 81%
  22. The Fountain James Russell Lowell, Poems · 84%
  23. She Is Far from the Land Thomas Hood, Poems · 80%
  24. England My Mother II William Watson, The Poems of William Watson · 95%
  25. The Willow-Tree (Another Version) William Makepeace Thackeray, Ballads · 89%
  26. England My Mother III William Watson, The Poems of William Watson · 88%
  27. England My Mother IV William Watson, The Poems of William Watson · 88%
  28. England My Mother I William Watson, The Poems of William Watson · 87%

The first 28 of 29 poems, best-known poets first. The rest are reachable through their poets.

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.