Foot, the smallest metrical unit of rhythm, composed of a stressed element and one or more unstressed elements (or a pause), [49] ff.
Free-verse, irregular rhythms, not conforming to a fixed metrical pattern, [150] ff.
Headless Line, acephalous; and see Truncation.
Hendecasyllable, a 5-stress line with feminine ending, thus making ordinarily eleven syllables; usually referring to a special metre used by Catullus and others (as in Tennyson's imitation, 'O you chorus of indolent reviewers'), [162].
Heroic Line, a 5-stress iambic line.
Hexameter, classical or dactylic, the standard line of Greek and Latin poetry, composed of six feet, the fifth of which is nearly always a dactyl, the sixth a spondee or trochee, the rest either dactyls or spondees; imitated in English with more or less success by substituting stress for quantity, [159] ff.
Hiatus, unexpected absence of elision.
Hold, pause on a word or syllable, [62] f.
Hovering Accent, a term sometimes used for the coordination of the metrical rhythm ◡ _̷ ◡ _̷ with the prose rhythm ◡ ◡ _̷ _̷ as in "and serene air" (Comus, l. 4); the accent is thought of as 'hovering' over the first syllable of serene, [182].