Poetry often moves to a measurable beat. Meter is the rhythmic pattern created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Iambic pentameter—five feet of unstressed-stressed pairs—has been a dominant meter in English verse for centuries. Other meters (trochaic, anapestic, dactylic) produce different effects of speed, weight, or lightness.

Scansion is the practice of marking the stresses and dividing the line into feet. Perfect regularity is rare; skilled poets vary the pattern to avoid monotony and to emphasize particular words. The tension between the expected meter and the actual spoken rhythm is part of the expressive power of verse.

Free verse dispenses with regular meter, yet even free verse often retains rhythmic phrasing. Understanding meter helps readers hear the music of traditional poetry and appreciate the choices poets make. It is a technical tool, but its ultimate purpose is aesthetic: to shape the experience of the line as it is read aloud or silently heard in the mind.