Laurel · Poems by form and metre

Dactylic pentameter

Five dactyls to the line, a stress then two light syllables; in classical verse it alternates with the hexameter in the elegiac couplet. Below, what the metre is and how to recognise it, then every poem on Laurel measured as dactylic pentameter, with how closely each keeps it.

What dactylic pentameter is

Five beats to the line, a heavy syllable then two light ones. In classical verse it alternates with the hexameter to make the elegiac couplet; in English it is rare on its own.

DUM-da-da DUM-da-da DUM-da-da DUM-da-da DUM-da-da

How to tell

Falling lines of thirteen or fourteen syllables. If they alternate with longer lines, the poem is in elegiac couplets.

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

34 poems on Laurel in dactylic pentameter

  1. Maud III Alfred Tennyson, Poems · 82%
  2. Carmen LXXXI: To Juventius Catullus, The Carmina · 88%
  3. Carmen LXXIII: Of an Ingrate Catullus, The Carmina · 87%
  4. Carmen LXXII: To Lesbia the False Catullus, The Carmina · 87%
  5. Carmen XCV: On the "Zmyrna" of the Poet Cinna Catullus, The Carmina · 85%
  6. Carmen LXXXVII: To Lesbia Catullus, The Carmina · 84%
  7. Carmen CVIII: On Cominius Catullus, The Carmina · 82%
  8. Carmen LXV: To Hortalus Lamenting a Lost Brother Catullus, The Carmina · 81%
  9. Carmen LXIX: To Rufus the Fetid Catullus, The Carmina · 79%
  10. Carmen LXVI: (Loquitur) Berenice's Lock Catullus, The Carmina · 78%
  11. Carmen LXVIII: To Manius on Various Matters Catullus, The Carmina · 75%
  12. Carmen CVII: To Lesbia Reconciled Catullus, The Carmina · 71%
  13. Carmen LXXXVIII: To Gellius Catullus, The Carmina · 71%
  14. The Song of the Sons Rudyard Kipling, Verses 1889–1896 · 88%
  15. Elegiac Verse Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 78%
  16. Elegiac Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 76%
  17. Tristia, Book Iii., Elegy XII Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 75%
  18. Part II, Section IV Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 75%
  19. Tristia, Book Iii., Elegy X Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 73%
  20. Part II, Section V Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poetical Works · 72%
  21. Part II, Section V Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline · 71%
  22. Part II, Section IV Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline · 70%
  23. Claude to Eustace,—from Bellaggio Arthur Hugh Clough, Amours de Voyage · 77%
  24. Claude to Eustace,—from Florence Arthur Hugh Clough, Amours de Voyage · 75%
  25. Claude to Eustace Arthur Hugh Clough, Amours de Voyage · 72%
  26. Canto V Arthur Hugh Clough, Amours de Voyage · 71%
  27. Orient-Born Louise Imogen Guiney, Songs at the Start · 81%
  28. The Desolate City Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Poems · 79%
  29. Poems William Dean Howells · 73%

The first 29 of 34 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.