The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers

by Unknown

◡	—	◡	—	◡	—	◡	—
I	wan	dered	lone	ly	as	a	cloud
(Iambic tetrameter)

—	◡	— ◡	—	◡	— ◡
Heard	the	lapping	of	the	water
(Trochaic tetrameter)

—	◡	◡	— ◡	◡	— ◡	◡	— ◡ ◡	—	◡	◡	— ◡
This	is	the	forest	pri	meval;	the	murmuring	pines	and	the	hemlocks
(Dactylic hexameter)

◡	—	◡ ◡ —	◡	◡	—	◡	◡	—
Oh,	young	Lochinvar	is	come	out	of	the	West
(Anapestic tetrameter)

—	◡	◡	— ◡ ◡
One	more	un	fortunate
(Dactylic dimeter)

◡	—	◡	—	◡	—	◡	—	◡	—
This	was	the	no	blest	Ro	man	of	them	all
(Iambic pentameter)

At some place within a long line, pentameter or hexameter, occurs a natural pause, called the cæsura. The continual varying of the place of the cæsura is one means of breaking up the monotony to which blank verse (Iambic pentameter unrhymed) tends.

Stanzas.—The next step of procedure as the combination of poetic elements goes on from the single verse, is some form of stanza structure.

The simplest approach to the stanza, employed principally in what is called Heroic verse, is the couplet (also called the Heroic couplet), two lines, Iambic pentameter, rhymed, and generally pausing at the end of the second line. They form only partially a stanza, however, because these couplets go on, according to the requirements of the thought, to group themselves in paragraphs after the manner of prose. Pope is the great master of the heroic couplet.

Sometimes, if the lines are long, a poem is made up of couplet stanzas, as in Tennyson’s Locksley Hall.