Poetry 101 – Meter

In the Western poetic tradition, meters are customarily grouped according to a characteristic metrical foot and the number of feet per line. Thus, “iambic pentameter” is a meter comprising five feet per line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the “iamb.” This metric system originated in ancient Greek … Continue reading

Poetry 101 – Sestina

A sestina (also, sextina, sestine, or sextain) is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet (called its envoy or tornada), for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a … Continue reading