Understanding syllables is a necessary building block students must understand before building the standard meters of poetry.

Understanding syllables, stress, and unstressed syllables. These are the basic building blocks of poetry in the English speaking world.

Explanation of what an "iamb" is, and how iambs are used to create iambic poetry. Explanation of metrical foot.

Explanation of what an "anapest" is, and how anapests are used to create anapestic poetry like 'Twas the Night before Christmas.

Dactyl, trochee, spondee, amphibrach -- these are all other metrical feet that are used in poetry.

Iambic pentameter and anapestic tetrameter are two common meters for poetry. This page will help you recognize these and other meters.

Poetry often relies on repetitions of sounds -- either ending sounds or initial sounds. Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and slant rhyme are discussed

Meter, rhyme, assonance, alliteration, iambic, anapestic, tetrameter, pentameter -- they all go together to make great poetry.