BELESARIO

AND
FACINABAO

HORIZONTAL
MEASURE
The number of
syllables or
metrical feet
within a line.
MONOSYLLABIC
 A line which has
one syllable, such
as the line in a
nonet or the first
line in an etheree.
 EXAMPLE
•M-an
•O-wl
•N-et
•O-ld
DISYLLABIC
 A line which has
two syllables, such
as the penultimate
line in a nonet or
the second line in
an etheree.
 EXAMPLE

•Dou-ble
•Ice-cream
•Sil-ver
 “Nature”
There’s a life curled in the
darkness
sweating out the evening storm
beneath leaves covered with
rain
and an urge to bolt like
the lightning before
thunder. Under
here we run
free of
why.
 Wouldn’t Chu?
Duck
Pigeon
Meadow lark
Ring-neck pheasant
swallow, sparrow, hawk
Even owls in the night.
All may at some time take flight.
Some still have to walk, the penguin,
ostrich, and emu to name a few.
If they’d voted they’d all fly. So would I.
TRISYLLABLES
A line which
has three
syllables.
 EXAMPLE

•Ter-ri-ble
•Re-le-vance
•In-ter-val
 I hope you have a happy
birthday
With lots of friends and family
Tell lots of funny stories
And have a good time
Have lots of fun
Your birthday
Is here
Enjoy
TETRASYLLABIC
It has four syllablesEach line
ends with a trisyllable or
a tetrasyllable, with dissyllabic
rhyme running through the
quatrain. Tetrasyllable Verse:
A verse of four syllables must have
an accent on the third syllable.
 To get it right
pen four by four
then add four more;
that’s how you write.
PENTASYLLABIC
It has five
syllables
 Why should’nt I say
That the parrot’s mine
When not only of in flight
Can I not trap it?
HEXASYLLABIC
It has six
syllables
Down river, up river
Rows the boatman
singing
HEPTASYLLABIC
 It has
seven
syllables.
Casually boys contemplate,
Carefully they cogitate,
what will they appreciate
when they’re searching for
a mate?
OCTASYLLABIC
It has eight
syllables
And loneliness is
sharp and sweet
Unleavened bread
for some to eat
NONASYLLABIC
It has nine
syllables.
For loneliness is a
silver word
An acrid wine, or
a broken chord
DECASYLLABIC
It has ten
syllables
Good men, the last wave
by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might
have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying
of the light.
UNDECASYLLABIC
It has eleven
syllables.
Then you must follow
her teaching and obey
Only then can we
prove we respect
deeply
DODECASYLLABIC
 A line
which has
12 syllables
 EXAMPLE
The Climb
I started up the hills, intending on that day
to climb like deer to plateaus where the
rocks gave way
to grasses lush and green, above where wild
hawks play,
and ended up on top – above all human fray.
© March 3, 2014
MONOMETER
A line which has one foot…A line
consisting of one metrical foot.
Monometers are very rare. However
an example of monometer is Upon
His Departure Hence by Robert
Herrick.
DIMETER
A line which has
two feet
 The Charge of the Light
Brigade
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
TRIMETER
 A line which
has three feet.
 I love the jocund dance
The softly breathing song
Where innocent eyes do
glance
And where lisps the
maiden's tongue
TETRAMETER
A line which
has four feet
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and
hills
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
PENTAMETER
A line which
has five feet
 Shall I compare thee to a
summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling
buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too
short a date:
HEXAMETER
A line which
has six feet
 Prelude
This is the forest primeval.
The murmuring pines and
the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in
garments green, indistinct in
the twilight,
HEPTAMETER
 A line that
has seven feet
As springs in deserts found
seem sweet, all brackish
though they be
So midst the wither’d waste
of life those tears would flow
to me
OCTAMETER
A line that has
eight feet
Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered, weak and
weary,

Over many a quaint and

curious volume of forgotten
lore—